El Capitan beta question

So im heading up to the valley this month with a new partner. We are planning on doing either The Nose or Lurking fear. What I would like to do is climb the fist 4 or 5 pitches of The Nose as a "test" run for our rythm and technique. It seems ideal becuase of the easy approach. My plan would be to start the route around 11am in hopes of letting the days traffic go up first. So my question is, am I going to get peed on, or am I alright. Is there another route with little approach that would be simple and more out of the way? Im serious.

Should I bring an umbrella?

Rumor has it that R. Kelly is planning an ascent of the nose at about that same time, so...

Toby? Getting pissed on is part of the fun.

All humor aside, im serious. Will I be a nussance, or in the way?

Should I care? If R Kelley is climbing that weekend, I will stay away, but if the dude abides...

Bump, Im an inspiring big waller. Seriously.

No you should not learn how to aid climb on the Nose. You have not said anything about your experience so it's hard to give you more specific advice but there are many short accessible aid climbs in the Valley. Getting dialed on another route will cut down on traffic jams for both you and other parties, a common issue on the Nose.

Don't feed the troll.

Member Since: Apr 27, 2013
Three posts.

Troll.

Andy Laakmann wrote:Don't feed the troll.

Maybe I don't use the world wide web enough; but what is a troll?

A troll is an asshole lurking around and making dickish comments. And i agree that el cap is not a great place to learn aid. If you want a party behind you ready to bite your head off for ruining there life dream (climbing the nose) that they have trained for so you can do like 4 pitches.... Don't get me wrong, you should climb the nose but maybe learn on a less popular route so as not to cause i huge traffic jam.

Troll or not...I'm still curious about the original question - is the Rookie gonna get peed on?! How common is it to be pissed on while doing big, popular walls?

Andy Laakmann wrote:Don't feed the troll.

If you're a troll, is getting called out by one of the head honchos the high or low point of your career? I really can't figure that one out.

Mark Lewis wrote:How common is it to be pissed on while doing big, popular walls?

Most experienced wall climbers bring bottles to piss in and then just empty them at convenient times/locations. Back in the day before climbers started using wag bags, a few unlucky folks got hit with mud falcons (poop in a paper bag).

"How common is it to be pissed on while doing big, popular walls?"

Not that uncommon. One of my partners got pissed on once. And pissed on someone else too. Don't be germaphobic if you are planning to throw yourself on a big wall. It gets really fun when you have several uses for a single napkin- clean your face, blow your nose, wipe your ass...hopefully in that order.

I got peed on recently on the Column. My partner peeds down a large flake we were standing on for the belay and the pee came out the bottom of the flake 10' below us and the wind pushed it back up in the air and proceeded to rain said pee down upon us.

I couldn't do anything but laugh.