What was your first El Cap. route? Tell me about it.

I have done about six trade walls in Zion and a few other pure aid routes also on sandstone. I want to go to Yosemite this fall. I'm looking at Mescalito, Salathe, or Zodiac as my next objective. Any recommendations? I am psyched to get on some granite.
We will be there in late Sept. as a two person team.
What do you guys recommend? My partner is a big wall vet but I am still on my learning curve but feel confident to tackle really some big stone. We are not short on gear.
Thanks in advance for your personal insight!

I just got back from my first trip to the valley.

Did my first cap route which was zodiac.

it was stellar!!!

i have done most the trades in zion as well and the Zodiac felt a bit easier due to the bomber stone. we did it hammerless as well and it went smooth. I'd say if you are looking to aid an entire wall then zodiac is great. steep and sweet. The hauling was cruiser as well. Pig never really even touched rock until pulling it over the final lip. If you want more free pitches then the nose, salathe or 3D would be good calls. Just prepare to spend 2 days waiting for those. Zodiac can be hit or miss on the crowds but 2 days can be expected there too.

have fun. was a great experiance.

Congrats SAL! Very cool! Quick question: is it correct that now days in addition to waste tubes, parties are required (or the ethic is) to utilize pee bottles?

Herb: My two and a half trips up El Cap were too long ago to be useful to you now. But SAL raises a key choice: are you looking primarily to aid climb or would you like to free a lot? If the former, you can't go wrong with Zodiac or Mescalito (make sure your buddy leads the Bismark and has some wide cams...heh). If the latter, the the Nose or Salathe are worthy classics. Salathe--which I haven't done except for the bottom third for a different route--has a lot more wide cracks and chimneys.

The PO Wall. It kicked my ass, but it was a great route. It's 26.5 pitches of aid; one and a half pitches go free.

Shawn Mitchell wrote:Quick question: is it correct that now days in addition to waste tubes, parties are required (or the ethic is) to utilize pee bottles?

I don't think they're required by the park "service," but they're required if you don't want to piss all over your gear and partner(s), IM(limited)E.

--Marc

Sal congrats on Zodiac! Ive yet to pop my cherry, but im starting to look at moving into aid climbing. Hope to make it to the captian some day :)

In terms of pissing on the wall. zodiac is actually steep enough to piss off the wall and miss anyone below you, gear ropes ect.

judging from the stickyness on my shoes and smell at some belays i'd say the wall gets used still :)

once off zodiac 3 or 4 pitches your pee will land far away from the base.
Pretty wild :)

I'd use your better judgment based on parties below and that sort of thing. FOr me personally the smell of piss on ledges comes with the territory . so it doesnt bother me much.

SAL wrote:... Just prepare to spend 2 days waiting for [Salathe, 3D].

I'm headed for the Salathe in September. I'm under the impression that it doesn't get quite as much traffic. Was it crowded when you were there?
-gg

Gregger Man wrote: I'm headed for the Salathe in September. I'm under the impression that it doesn't get quite as much traffic. Was it crowded when you were there? -gg

no it wasn't. but the forecast was also 30% for showers and storms which kept a lot of folks on the floor. I'd say if the forecast shows 10% or less expect that wait. otherwise it is a crap shoot for those who want to charge some weather. Of couse SW routes are more hammered then those on the SE face.

keep in mind a lot of folks climb the "free blast" as just a day route so you'll be battling those folks. My plan for that section was to climb free blast and haul water and food. there are fixed lines on heart ledges raps. start the next day and bypass all the funk in fixed lines or climb the blast again with an early start.

Salathe and Nose are reasonable to do without a portaledge. I've never owned one, so those are the routes I've done! Just say NO to portaledges!

Yep, expect lots of "day climbers" on the freeblast. When we arrived at the base there were probably 5-6 parties already ahead of us. We had pre-hauled to heart the evening before. All the ledges are good on the Salathe except long ledge if you have to share it with another party. We did and it sucked.... It's just enough for two.

Depends on what you are looking for. Zodiac is a great AID route up the captain with clean hauling. Plan on waiting in line.

If you are looking to do some amazing FREE climbing (and lots of it) then get on the Salathe. We stood in aiders for about 5 or 6 pitches out of 36ish, only climbing up to 5.11. Again, there will be people on it.

To not wait in such lines get on something remote and you will not be disappointed.

Compared to Zion, I would say the rating are similar, just less intimidating as the rock is better. But, they climb very differently.

Good luck and ENJOY

If you are with a veteran I think Mescalito would be a killer first El Cap route. I have not done the route, but judging by the twinkle in the eyes of the guys who have done it I would guess it is full value.

Salathe was my first climb on El Cap....I have been up it several times and love the route, LOTS of free climbing and awesome belay ledges. If you are mostly a free climber this is the route for you. Pre-hauling to Heart, then climbing Freeblast and continuing on the route is the best way IMHO. Be at the base before daylight and plan on being the second party on the route. You can link a lot of pitches with 60M ropes.

Have fun out there!

The Nose, in 1988.

I was married at the time to a woman completely unsympathetic to my passions of caving, climbing and fishing. Accordingly, I was allowed only one trip to Yosemite every five years, and had only two and a half weeks. My partner and I failed on one route, and then he bailed on me from six pitches up Half Dome. I was devestated, and couldn't face going home empty-handed, as my climbing time was so valuable.

So I put up a sign in Camp 4, and immediaetely found a partner for the Nose. We climbed to Sickle the first day, and bivi'd there, to beat the crew jugging. We still got passed, but slowed down, and ended up benighted in the Stovelegs. No ledge, our headlamps buried in our pigs at the bottom - duh. We spent the night in the dark, dangling in our aiders. But no talk of bailing.

We reached El Cap Towers the next day, to find that the Star Trek V film crew had left behind food and water. We carried on up, and summited after five and a half days, expecting only three and a half. We had no food nor water left. We didn't know the East Ledges, and descended the Falls trail. My legs hurt for the next four days.

My wife thought that since I had finally achieved my dream of climbing El Cap, I could then retire from climbing, satisfied. [stupid bitch]

In twelve years of marriage, I climbed one El Cap route. My post-divorce renaissance began in 1995, and since then I have climbed another 37 El Cap routes. You do the math.

Pete,
Ouch (about your wife I mean). While my wife (who used to be my climbing partner) is sympathetic to my still lingering El Cap amibitions, now that we have two kids, she hasn't made it exactly convenient to do so. Part of that is due to my old partners just not having the time or cajones to bag another route.

My first was Zodiac back in '83, when it was still a pretty serious nailing route. Strings of rurp placements, serious hooking, loose blocks you had to free climb on. Good value. I was 19 and dragged my 17 year old buddy up. Behind my back, our friends were betting him camming devices we'd have to bail. Everything I've done since then (Shield, PO Wall) has felt pretty easy in comparison. I can't imagine what the route must be like now.

I think the advice on this thread has been pretty good. I've done Freeblast and got a good look at the Salathe from the Shield, and it looks nice. Way less traffic than the Nose. If you want to do an aid line, Mescalito looks real clean and out there. I did the first five pitches, hauled the bags and then had to bail when an early season winter storm hit. Thin, exposed aiding, no big dihedrals to hide the exposure. Shawn could tell you alot about that route.

Salathe Wall... Myself and two other Brit friends 1973. Nobody else on the whole of El Cap

Half Dome Regular Route. My brother was a big climber dreaming of El Cap for years. He had been to Yosemite 3 times and got shut down 3 times. Once he got rained off of Zodiac a few pitches up...once his partners bailed at El Cap Towers...and once after lugging gear up to Half Dome to do some A4 aid route - his partners and the A4 leader bailed before one pitch was done and refusing to just do the Regular Route. Now it was my job to bail him out and get up a big wall....sort of...

I only climbed a handful of times a year, had never jugged, knew almost nothing about rope work, hauling, anchors, etc...and had only lead maybe 4 or 5 bolted 5.9 sport climbs and never TR'ed anything harder then a 5.10. I owned a harness and some Boreal Ace's and that's it...oh and a chalk bag.

My training consisted of laps underneath a local kindergarten jungle gym structure, bouldering on a stone wall next to a canal in DC, and 2 trips to a local climbing gym. I was a triathlete at the time so I did have some fitness at least.

I flew into Phoenix and my brother picked me up (he was living in Tucson at the time). The way up was full of energy and intensity. He told me how to jug in the car and explained aiders and what we would do with the haul bag. We drove through the night and going over the last pass into the Valley in the first light of morning listening to Linkin Park Reanimation (why I remember the music I don't know) was one of my favorite memories. We slept at the Camp IV reservation booth for a few hours and got our spot. I felt really out of place and intimidated amongst all the climbers there. We rested one day, sorted gear, and stocked up on food. The next morning we set off.

We decided to make it an epic, backcountry style assault and my brother thought the "death slabs" would scare me off, because I abhor anything unroped with fall potential (even if that reputation is unfounded). Soooo we drove all the way up to Glacier point and hiked it in from there. We hiked one longggg ass day in and slept at the base. That is a long way to lug a lot of shit. The next day we fixed the first 3 pitches and rested. I was just blown away by the size of the wall and the view from up there. Totally spectacular looking up at your first big wall...especially as I had hardly any long, exposed free climbs under my belt and the 2,000 seemed immense, forbidding, and impossible. Also it was the first time to the Valley since I was a kid so it all was new.

At 4am the next morning he dragged me up and we jugged up to begin climbing. Surprisingly I took to jugging pretty well and while I wasn't fast - I made my way up without feeling like I had just done 1,000 pullups. Though the first time he left me there alone I was pretty freaked setting up the aiders. We made decent time through the first pitches and I was stoked to see him climbing Valley 5.10+. I didn't have perspective on how hard that was really, but it looked it. Now having climbed it myself I know it is pretty damn hard. I led my only "pitch" 1/3 of the way up...a super short 5.5 section he told me to just keep going and plug in a few pieces along the way. There wasn't much of a discussion about it. He just flew up to me up to my "anchor" who even knows what it was. He had a way at commanding me to do stuff that defied my best sense of judgement at times...especially high up there basically at his mercy.

The traversing lower off pitch really scared me, but once I let go and took the swing it was awesome...like an amusement ride. I wasn't the most attentive with the haul bag and it got completely stuck on a chockstone in the chimney section. He had to rap down after I jugged the pitch to free that pig. That put us wayyyy behind schedule and we did the last few pitches in the dark. However, it was kind of sadistically nice listening to the last party doing the wall in a day (who seemed so badass and too good to talk to us) asking for directions at where to go at midnight from the party above them. The last pitch before the huge belay ledge is a short easy down climb and then up 5.8 double cracks. I was pissing in my pants descending that damn class 4 slope in the darkness with my brother nowhere in sight. Fu*king scary. Then I just got utterly psyched up, gave it everything, and fired those damn cracks. One of my best pitches hands down ever. We made a quick dinner and watched the stars pass overhead with the fragrant scent of piss lulling us to sleep.

The morning brought clouds and soon rain and then snow. Remembering the only other time I had done a 3+ pitch route (Iron Monkey) flashed through my brain. We got to the base late, for some godforsaken reason hauled a bag, and I climbed slower then a three toed tree sloth. We also kept going higher when we knew we didn't have enough time to get back to meet my "non-climbing, brother had died in a tragic train accident recently, had friends from England with her, had driven up from Phoenix, and almost broke up with me because I was historically late to everything girlfriend (somehow now wife)." So of course when we descend to the base at 8pm (already 2 hours late) there is a ranger there asking "Are you Paul and Chris Hunnicutt?" "Yep, let me guess you've met my girlfriend?" I said. "Yeah she's sobbing asking me if you are alive at the ranger station, better hurry on over." "FU*****KKKKKK!" Luckily she was SO relieved I wasn't dead that she completely forgot about the whole being late thing. Our friends from England were a bit ticked though as they spent the past 3 hours assuring her I was alive. We rewarded them with the hike to Angles Landing the next day though. Anyways I digress...

With the knowledge that once again I had a deadline to be back for a phone call with her 2 days later and the fact that I was 100% positive at the first rain drop we were going to freeze to death on that ledge I freaked out. There seems to be a special freak out that pertains to big wallin...and I had it. I laid into my brother for not bringing bivy sacks, a tarp, rain pants, long johns, gloves, extra wool socks, extra fuel, extra food and any other heavy item yet comforting item I could think of. I went on for about 30 minutes as we ascended up to a little alcove and stopped as the rain got intense. Essentially at that point I was right next to him and he had had enough. "Will you just shut the fu*k up! We aren't going to die here! You aren't going to be late! Just shut up and belay me." He launched into the zigzags in the rain and french freed/aided those things at warp speed. The rain let up and somehow I made it across Thank God Ledge and up that damn squeeze chimney, which is damn cool pitch. He freed the 5.12 slab pitch somehow thinking he couldn't aid it and looked majestic waiting for me at the end of the 5.8 pitch after the roof. I really took my time on that one and savored every last move. One of the best pitches I've ever climbed...not really hard, but really cool under that huge roof, at the top of Half Dome, with 5,000 feet of air below you. We arrived on the summit without a soul up there as the early morning rain had closed the cables. We had about an hour up there. When the hikers eventually showed up they somehow think you are pro climbers and are totally amazed, which if you know much an amateur you are is pretty funny.

Unfortunately doing it this way meant we had to walk down that beast of a slope to the base, retrive our bags and hike the hell out of there...along with two huge bags full of trash, full piss bottles!!! (which we emptied), and empty water bottles I insisted we carry out. Clean up your trash people! We had a great moonlight hike down Half Dome and whistled, sung, and yelled into the night to ward off bears desperate to eat us of course. We camped just past the bridge above Nevada falls and made the journey back to the car, with him beating up the final slope damnit. We were worked to say the least, but he went back to Tucson with his head high. I felt like I had kind of cheated my way into a big wall, but that goes to show how awesome a leader he was.

Definitely moments not to be forgotten. Sadly they would be my last with him on a big wall and our last time in Yosemite together. Financial problems, depression, damn women, and his death 4 years later ice climbing ended the dream....and just as I had actually seriously gotten into climbing. I did however ascend El Cap on the Nose route, which was his true dream, 9 months after his death in his honor and memory. I'll write about that later just because I feel like it and I have been meaning to record that story also before I forget - whether anyone wants to read it or not.

If you get little traffic on the Nose it is spectacular. A bit of a bitch to haul - more so down low, but stellar especially if you can free 5.10. Aiding is pretty straightforward, all clean, but rewarding on several pitches - Great Roof, Changing Corners (lots of RP's) come to mind. The King Swing is also incredible. We had a limited weather window (3 days so-so, then a storm) in later October so a lot of parties bailed. Also we climbed right to Sickle the first day instead of fixing so that helped miss a lot of parties who fix - they were either above or below us. When we finished there was only one other party on it though. Took us 3.5 days. On that and Salathe you will get more free climbers ballin you up to pass also. Anything that gets you up the Big Stone has to be quality though.

Sorry realized you asked for El Cap routes originally....

Also: wear bright colors, because if Tom the photographer is there he will shoot some awesome photos of you and sell you a CD of them for not much $. Black, grey, brown suck. Go for something bright.

Herb,
If your partner's been up the big stone and it's your first cruise, I'd go for whichever route inspires you the most. Sounds like you guys will have the know-how to get up the thing, and it's challenging and exhilarating any way you choose (I've only done 2 routes). Think about what sort of difficulties you want to deal with (aid/free, steep/steeper, different parts of the wall, etc.) and pick one. You won't be disappointed!

After 2 failed attempts (1 nose and 1 salathe), I fortuitously met a solid and compatible partner who was a friend of a friend of a friend up at the El Cap base cragging. We climbed a pitch together and decided to go for the NIAD. We checked our eagerness with a quick short-fixing afternoon on Commitment and whatever the one on top of it is. After a few rest days of "clean-livin" in the Meadows, we blasted. Neither of us had been above Sickle, we had climbed about 8 pitches together, and we got caught in the first thunderstorm that started the strange end of May - early June cycle this spring. Hailed on for a good 40 minutes just past the Great Roof (why isn't the belay 20 feet left!) with our windshirts on. Kept climbing. Topped out after about 20 hours! Did the Salathe the next week in comfortable walls-style. Going back for Zodiac in a month. Hooked.

Good luck with the (not so) big decision, and have fun up there. Maybe we'll see you up there...

Triple Direct over three nights (full moon) in August (hot, but not bad after we got some elevation). Not a single party on the wall for the duration - had the Great Roof and all those laser-cut upper dihedrals of the Nose to ourselves. Only party we saw was topping out on the Albatross the day we started the Free Blast.

3D is an "easy" wall because you build a full head of steam on day 1, putting 12-13 pitches behind you in free climb mode. Only hard part about it is what's hard on every EC wall: the toil, the grind, the mental games. Gotta love it.

Lurking Fear

We fixed and hauled the first 3 pitches. Since we were both DNC employees, we didn't have much time to be up on the wall. We started climbing around midnight and climbed to P11, then rapped down 100'ish and slept on a small ledge below. Our plan was to blast to the top the next day so we quickly drank our whiskey and tried to sleep. While chillin on the ledge we witnessed a wing suit BASEjumper fly off the top of the Ribbon Fall Amphitheater; I thought it was a bird until the shoot popped open and he landed in a talus field that actually looked really sketchy.

We awoke to very cloudy skies and I feared it was going to rain all day, it did sprinkle a few different times, and of course, we didn't have a ledge or tarp. We topped out in the dark and even managed to make it to work on time in the afternoon.