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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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Jan 31, 2009 - 12:39am PT
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Never too late, SnakeBoy.....Ask Frost.
Is true. Walls are forever.
I was gonna Frosty Bump, too.
Frosty's!!
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Jan 31, 2009 - 12:45am PT
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I'll add these location captions (at my age, guesses):
P?, moving left from the top of the Slack
unknown
Slack Chimney, from the top of the Sacherer Cracker
Slack Chimney; the tree is about where the Heart Route goes right
unknown
unknown
The view across the El Cap wall, nobody to be seen
Haul bag, arriving at Frosty's Bivy
P24, the Jewel of the Cap
P22? just above the Round Table? Just below Frosty's?
EDIT: those photos of P24 should be enough. Excalibur has some great rock, and rarely seen.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 31, 2009 - 12:46am PT
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FROSTY'S!!
The picture of me rapping with the green water bottle...That bottle was the precious elixer that I found in Frosty's!!
Sammy 2, Go for it man, never give up. You can do it.
I'm feeling the jones myself....
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 31, 2009 - 01:01am PT
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Wow Tom, I just went back and looked at your captions.
Holy buckets, your recollector is a lot better'n mine.
I guess that means I burned more bush up there...or in life!
Thanks man.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Jan 31, 2009 - 01:02am PT
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Nice shots Survival. When did you guys do it? I did it in late September 1989, with an English friend, which kind of added to it.
Here's one of me on (in?) Frosty's Claustrophobic Bivy:
It was so tight that I had to lay down face up or face down; my hips were too wide to allow me to roll over. And the corner there was too funky to let us set up the ledge.
I'd "grown up" with the Meyers picture book of the Valley. So taking this shot of my partner was a natural:
Anyone who's got that book will recognize the shot. I think we took a lot fewer photos than you though, these are the only two I have scanned.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Jan 31, 2009 - 01:12am PT
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Storm Situation Damage Control: Excalibur
The huge roof at the top of P10 can save many lives, protected and with a roof crack for portaledges that is about green camalot.
Frosty's Bivy, inside the horizontal squeeze chimney, is totally dry, and if that fissure was, say, four feet instead of one, I would live there, rent-free. Frosty's bivy wins the great/weird bivy championship, with a good nod to the fact that it stays dry, all the time (the smell of the dust is so dry, you know it). There is a roomy (sic) spot inside, and you can actually turn over from your tummy to your back. There is no room for your haul bags inside the Frosty bivy, but in a weather emergency, I would rather be there, than any other place on El Cap.
A close second is in my portaledge, at the top of Excalibur's P10. This bombay chimney thing has the goods (great roof crack) to be a veritable tenant housing authority for the Parks Department Rescue Squad (SAR).
Excalibur, for me, was a great wall.
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SammyLee2
Trad climber
Memphis, TN
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Jan 31, 2009 - 01:17am PT
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Captain and Survival,
Thanks for the "Go for it!" I just may have to get Karl to take me up a wall. Last time I mentioned it he said, "You'll need a day or two of aid practice then we can go." He also told me that most folks he takes to El Cap, want to come down after the first night, due to exposure. I told him that I loved exposure. He said, "There is exposure and then there is EXPOSURE. Twenty pitches up on El Cap, you fling a booger off and it touches nothing till it hits the ground." Made me think.
Karl kinda has a way with words, you know. "You B!tch! You short-roped me! I'm gonna die now you bastard!" Just ask Crimpie. Funny how laughter came after such a comment.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Jan 31, 2009 - 02:05am PT
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Excalibur, and other El Capitan Walls, comes at you, and keeps coming at you. You paddle toward the swell, but, it rises so fast, you think you are going to die. As the Wall crests, ready to break, you're a few pitches from the summit, but it looks like you're going over the falls. At the last possible moment, you've paddled over the crest, and the wall of disaster has suddenly moved behind you, and you are safe.
You have ridden the El Cap wall. Not down it, but up and over its crest, and to safety.
There is no route called Maverick's, but the idea is the same.
You've ridden out the smaller Big Ones. You wait for the perfect moment, to decide to take off and experience the Big Wall.
You've just barely lived through the last one, so, why not paddle out, for another taste of La Dolce Vita?
A television story can talk about a man who is a junkie craving a needle, but this time, it's different. Our man is a dirtbag craving a rack of pitons, a dark night score in Camp 4, and he's obsessed and addicted, and there's no turning him back:
Reticent Wall
(a mother's whimper, real, but we'll use it for effect as part of the television show we'll proffer to the craven masses, a toxic glare that infects the National Livingroom . . . .)
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jan 31, 2009 - 03:53am PT
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Sammy wrote
"Karl kinda has a way with words, you know. "You B!tch! You short-roped me! I'm gonna die now you bastard!" Just ask Crimpie. Funny how laughter came after such a comment."
Sammy has a way of spicing up a story! (although I can snappy about short roping on occasion) (if we climb something, we'll have to take lots of pictures so we can remember which parts of our stories are lies or facts)
Pete, why bother with coffee if you sleep until noon?!
Nice to see all the ins and outs of all these el cap routes. Between these and Tom's pics, it's like window shopping for timeshares in hell.
Peace
karl
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 31, 2009 - 07:03am PT
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"It's like window shopping for timeshares in hell."
Damn Karl, you do have a way with words!!
Excalibur was a great experience for us. I feel lucky to have learned young that it was more about who I was with than what I climbed.
I started climbing with Keith when I was 15 yrs old. Excalibur was our 3rd El Cap route together and our sixth grade VI.
It took us a week, including a day of rest early on. There's a long, thin sloping ledge where we hung out for a day. My hands were pretty swollen as I acclimated to the wall, and I felt like I had some kind of stomach issue, so it was great to just sit. I have a couple photos of that ledge I'll put in here tomorrow.
Sammy, I really do wish all the best to you. The pull of that stone is something that normal people just can't understand. And for those of us that feel the pull...well, there really is no other way to fix it.
I am really feeling the pull again myself. The great magnet, my old friend, the damn giant mighty mecca stone standing there quietly waiting for us until our fragile muscles and bones wear out....and then it goes on standing there waiting for the next group.
I think El Cap loves all the little ants crawling on him. He doesn't even mind the trash, the ropes, and the piss too much.
It will all wash away in a few thousand years anyway. He's got time.........
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 31, 2009 - 10:43am PT
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Karl - you can see in this photo that I'm still in the shade, therefore it's still morning.
Tom made his own portaledge for this wall, and enjoys his coffee and cams in the "cantilevered" style.
He, um, needed a bit of work on his portaledge fly design, however.
So it's the middle of the night, and it's raining. Tom is sitting on his ledge - upright - holding the collapsed rainfly above him.
"Tom - are you OK, dude?! Do you need to come under my fly?"
"No!" he replied back excitedly, apparently enjoying himself immensely. "I'm just gonna hold the fly over me for a few more hours until the cold front arrives. That way I can keep all my clothes and sleeping bag dry. Once it gets cold, the rain will stop, and I'll get set up then. That's what Royal Robbins says to do."
It worked for Tom, too.
P.S. Tom - I still don't have a confirmed partner for the spring wall season, and Pacemaker needs a fourth ascent, along with a few new bolts. You should see these swell new tuning forks that Theron made for me. [HINT]
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kevsteele
climber
Santa Barbara, CA
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Jan 31, 2009 - 12:29pm PT
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A few Excalibur shots:
Pitch 6, Kevin Brown on the great thinness before the great wideness.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 31, 2009 - 01:45pm PT
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Nice pix you guys!!!
I love that fish-eye thing!
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Jan 31, 2009 - 02:02pm PT
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Eyeing Half Dome...
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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Jan 31, 2009 - 11:41pm PT
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He is, isn't he?
Plotting for the future.........
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 1, 2009 - 05:51am PT
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A little artwork,
Forgive me...I couldn't stop myself.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 1, 2009 - 02:15pm PT
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Thanks Mike.
Have a Super Sunday everyone!
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Pitch 6, the ' A-5 pitch'. When we did it that was Dru's lead (his first wall)
"This is so scary."
"Any of this stuff could blow"
"I could die at any time."
"This is so, Coool!"
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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I'm indifferent.
I like rocks. Knott very "DayGlo", I guess.
Hey, as long as YOU enjoy it, cool.
But I like Rocks. Hopefully Rocky looking rocks.
Good on ya.
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