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Dreaming of Climbing El Cap 2024
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Oh man with all these inspiring movies out El Cap looms larger than ever in our hearts, no? The Spring vibe in the Valley is on.......as usual - So Powerful! So Epic! I'm getting soft these days so I'm writing this down for me and my partners too haha....as always Thank You so much to the Yose Climbing Community for all your support and encouragement......together we make this place shine! For first time El Cap climbers there is more info and instructional resources than ever. BUT the success rate is still under 50%.....so some thoughts on how to make those Nose - Salathé - Lurking Fear - Zodiac dreams come true. Zodiac is only a first EC route for folks who have a bit of bigwall aid climbing experience. 1. The Team Is Only As Strong As The Team, aka Practice Practice Practice - don't tell me when we meet at the meadow that one of you climbed the Nose five years ago but haven't been back since but you're sure Lurking Fear will be easy because it's shorter, and proceed to bail from pitch 3 because 'aid climbing is way harder than you remember, lol'. Just practice. Come to the Valley and do some warm up aid pitches (see below I'm gonna tell you where to practice). Practice hauling........If possible definitely climb a beginner bigwall climb before El Cap if you haven't been on a bigwall this year. In my peak bigwall climbing fitness I would still do a 'warm up' climb each year - bigwall muscles are unique and need reawakening/toning! 2. Give Yourself Extra Time In The Valley - we don't call it the Sacred Healing Valley for nothing, and most likely your ego will need some healing when almost nothing on your trip here goes according to plan lol. Give yourself extra days to arrive and practice. Give yourself extra days in case weather / smoke / unexpected closures, etc. cause you to delay your start time. Just think of this as the universe (or Jesus ;) giving you more time to practice! 3. Summit Incrementally - if you have to bail on several of your first bigwall attempts, join the crowd! Build up your experience and comfort on bigwall terrain by embracing each epic or bail with an attitude of 'well got that one checked off, gonna be so much stronger next time'. Too many teams talk to me about endless climbing the first few pitches of The Nose instead of climbing several smaller bigwalls and gaining much more valuable skills and experience. It will always be epic......just when it works it will be epically good, I promise ;) PRACTICE: Leading: 1. The King Tut Boulder (formerly Le Conte) - V18 or A0 - is good only for the most basic first aid lead. Sure it will blow your mind that you can climb V18 with the help of bolts, aid ladders, daisies, etc. but as for real world bigwall experience this might give you a false sense of understanding. Most aid leads are 120' to 140', not 15', so you need longer practice pitches to understand what it's like to organize your rack, move efficiently, etc. 2. Churchbowl Tree - 5.10b or C1 (60') - The best, close to the road first aid lead in the Valley. Takes a variety of gear, and the bonus is, if you're a 5.8 struggler like me ;), you can run some toprope free climbing laps on it after you practice your aid. Bonus here is you can toprope the nearby aid climb and practice hooking, camhooking, beaking, etc. 3. Aid Route at Swan Slab - 5.11c or 5.9 C2 (Two 110' pitches) - this is where you go to really get down to business practicing. The aiding opens your eyes right off the deck with a couple hook moves though the rest of the pitch is straightforward. This first pitch offers great opportunities to practice switching between aid climbing and free climbing - something that is difficult to do efficiently. Pitch 2 offers some challenging flared placements interspersed with bomber cams, exactly similar to the easiest El Cap routes. 4. La Escuela and Delectable Pinnacle at the base of El Cap (left of Nose) 5.11c or C2 and 5.7 - La Escuela offers a good intro to pin scar aid climbing. Delectable Pinnacle is super good for setting up a toprope and hooking / beaking / camhooking on the nearby route. I've been enjoying setting up topropes and letting first timers 'toprope' their first aid pitch, by just clipping up the pieces the first time. This way a new aider gets to experience the joy or tangledness of moving from piece to piece without having to worry about cleaning or anything at all. Then I reclip all the piece and demonstrate jugging and removing the gear, eventually lowering back down and re-placing the pieces i removed. Lastly I have the newbie clean the pitch jugging, cleaning the gear as they go. This works great at all of the places mentioned above - I even did it at the first pitch of Zodiac once in the winter which was super fun - though you need a 70m rope for that first pitch if you wanna toprope. Jugging / Cleaning: Aid Route Swan Slab - is great because you don't even have to lead it. You can hike around and set up a 70m 'toprope' jugging pitch, by bringing your rack to place pieces as you rappel down that you will clean when you jug back up. If not busy this is a decent area to just set up a fixed line and teach someone how to jug - if you hike around and rap down you could get your rope off to the side to be out of the way of people climbing the route - though this route is not generally busy, I'd say it sees one ascent per day. The summit of Aid Route is the second tier, where several new climbs have been developed called Swan Lake - there is a walk around and anchors on top of all the routes with chains so this is another out of the way spot to set up jugging practice - the best would be on the old route Swanabe. Fixed Lines to Heart Ledge on El Cap - this is great beginner jugging practice, and will get you into the wild world of El Cap....but don't think just because you can jug to Heart Ledge you will feel comfortable cleaning on a bigwall - there are so many cleaning challenges like lowering out, getting out stuck pieces, jugging with a grigri backup (what I recommend on bigwall climbs), etc. Just some thoughts to hopefully get you stoked and focused on your next summit! I'll keep working on this to update it with 2024 specific beta - please post up any other ideas! Oldie but goodie lowering out video I made bitd: TEST YOUR FITNESS: Royal Arches - yes please, should be a casual half day jaunt or a solid day linked with North Dome (needs to melt a week or two first) Northeast Buttress of Higher Cathedral Rock - a great litmus for the Nose or Salathé - should be a solid day ascent East Butress of Middle linked with the Northeast Buttress of Higher: Niad team should take this down casual in daylight Southface of the Column - yes please, could a better warm up for the Big Stones exist. Niad parties should put this down in daylight easy. El Cap Gully - great fitness check day and an easy way to experience the East Ledges of El Cap with just a daypack. So good in the spring with tons of water flowing - just bring protein powder and go! .....I'm older and soft now but had to work some slow day shifts last year so was trying to squeeze in spring goodness after work and clocked 2:00 hrs even from the Zodiac pullout to the trail at the top of the gully...... I just quit smoking 6 mos before that so should be easy time to beat always ends up at least 3:30 car to car cuz I end up blissing out on the summit of EC lol The Prow - if you want to do Zodiac this will get you right in the zone - a 3-day ascent of the Prow gets you ready for 3.5 on Zodiac.....def do the walk off so you're ready for the East Ledges. Freeblast - low on my list because I'm a struggler free climber, but Freeblast is a great easy day climb for bigwallers and is good practice for Salathé or Triple D. Slabs approach to Half Dome - as the season comes on this can be an awesome fitness lap, you can link up to the cables or even wrap around the shoulder, skirt the awesome South Face and cruise down through the notch between Liberty Cap and Broderick and come out the Mist Trail.....can't have the HD approach too dialed for when it's send time! Woot Woot! Erik Sloan PS. Don't know if anyone else has done it this year yet but a couple locals did the Nose for their first time in 18 hrs in January.....in the Valley we say Huff House!
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I wish I had this resource on my initial El Cap journey. Really quality post, thank you Erik. |
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Great writeup, Eric - we followed almost exactly what you laid out back in 2019 and climbed the Captain as our first real wall route (of course with your help lending us a ledge!). I'll only add that La Escuela was a great 3-pitch obscurity at the base of El Cap that makes for great practice putting everything together if you don't have time to do Leaning Tower or the Prow. |
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w00t w00t |
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Who, and far more importantly, why was Le Conte Boulder renamed The King Tut Boulder? Did it need a pronoun change to appease the gym rats? |
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Big Red - thanks for that.....lol, in my own book I tell folks to go to La Escuela and Delectable Pinnacle but it's Spring right now and ice is falling off EC so I didn't think of it but yeah, super quality stuff there. Delectable Pinnacle is really special because it is an out of the way 5.7 where you can easily toprope practice Camhooks, Beaks, etc. Wet this weekend Leaning Tower is probably the only chance for a bigwall. Woot Woot! E |
Simon King wrote: "Joseph LeConte was a celebrated UC Berkeley geologist and conservationist who helped found the Sierra Club, but also owned slaves in Georgia and continued promoting white-supremacist ideas in writings and lectures long after he moved to Berkeley." |
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Partner and I are planning on the Nose mid-next week if weather holds up! Stoke is high! Anyone made it up during the good weather this week? Welcome any insight on conditions. Your advice resonates Erik - we "proudly" failed last year during the June 100 degree+ heat wave. Hoping for better luck this time around. |
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I can't believe how many people think it's an okay idea to climb the Nose as their first big wall. Or how many people climb Leaning Tower or SFWC as their first aid climb. |
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What would be wrong w/ doing south face of the column as a noob? Sorta expected, no? Arguably the Prow is a better choice, better hauling, still nice views… As far as the nose, if they’re not doing 2hr pitches on a weekend, I don’t see the issue. I would say 75% of the time it’s possible to pass. For one of the most well known climbs in the world, that’s a pretty acceptable number, to me. |
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Hey Chris - I saw a couple teams go to Dolt this week but that's all - the top of the wall was really, really wet......we'll see after this storm passes but seems like Great Roof to the top might be pretty wet next week. Woot! E |
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Any good beta for where to practice lower outs? I've set up some lower out practice at the churchbowl tree zone but I feel like there's gotta be a better spot. Also for those trying to pass a slower team on the first pitch of the nose, check out the first pitch of the Direct/platinum wall. its a rad pitch, P2 is good too and super well protected |
Christian Hesch wrote: SF is great as a noob / first wall. But not a good place to learn to aid climb or haul for the first time. I've seen people who've never aid climbed or hauled try to learn it on the first pitch of a wall they think they're going to do, causing 2-4 hour traffic jams for everyone else and they've always bailed anyway. It's like someone who never trad climbed before and their first time is on an 8 pitch route. For the Nose as long as a slow party realizes they are slow and offers to let anyone pass I don't have a problem with it. I think the smart approach is learn to how to use aiders and make awkward reaches on King Tut boulder. Then climb a 1 to 4 pitch climb with gear, preferably with a hook move or two and/or some challenging placements. Practice hauling a pitch. Then do the column or tower. Then it's smart to do a run to Dolt tower to go get used to El Cap and get familiar with the first pitches w/o having to haul. Then make a run at the Nose. Of course if you are feeling good you could skip steps as it made sense. |
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Hello Erik, First, thank you for being such a great steward of the Valley and for so actively sharing your insights in places like this. I'm the "partner" Chris mentioned earlier today. As you said, it looks like it'll be a wet weekend. But how long do the upper pitches really stay wet? To the point, by the end of the week will they be too wet for Chris ;-) to aid? The forecast is looking pretty warm, sunny, and breezy, so I'd think things would dry out fairly quick up there. Though maybe not enough to free the roof or corners pitches. Again thanks for your insights. I'm sure conditions will be even nicer in a few weeks, but between work and family the second half of next week this is the window we have. Y'all know how it is. |
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Hey Erik, My partner and I followed your beta and a-lot of your pre requisite for Niad a year go and succeeded with a 15 hour ascent! Just wanted to say thank you for all the information you have put out it is appreciated. |
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Lance - I feel like the Aid Route on Swan Slab is a good one for lower outs - you can walk around and rap down a full rope length swinging around and putting pieces - maybe not completely horizontal but if you just say to the person 'go through the lower out process don't just unclip and swing over because you won't be able to in some situations' then should be good.......I do eventually want to have a practice aid circuit on the wall next to Aid Route, so you could have a bolt ladder, lower out and hook practice, hauling anchors, etc all at one shady place.......we'll get there! Everyone else - thanks for the stoke! Woot Woot! E |
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Tom - let's check in after this storm at the beginning of next week and I will tell you how it's looking.....generally a couple wet sections are doable, and common this time of year, but if whole pitches of the upper Nose are wet it could be pretty grueling / dangerous to try and topout in normal wall style - Niad teams are famous for suffering through those conditions but they are moving fast and light, and have to succeed! |
Glowering wrote: Agree that it’s shite hauling but it only makes their life easier when they do a clean route (say the Prow?). The first two pitches both have two options, so I’m not sure why you can’t just pass at will on the first couple pitches. |
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Idk I did South FAce of the Column for my first aid climb ever, climbed 5.9 at the time, and thought it was awesome to take that next step to waltzing up 5.11 lol.....folks are worried about crowds but most of the time there is no one here, so seems like a weird argument - maybe just better to say, 'hey if it's your first aid lead and going really slow on the second pitch of the South Face encourage folks to do the 10b version around you to the left'....just a thought - less and less people are climbing bigwalls so don't feel held back. Go for it! |
Erik Sloan wrote: Wild... isn't it??? Rock climbing has never been more popular, but big wall climbing is becoming more obscure. Is it the negative feelings about aid climbing? Or is it just the fact that many climbers today don't even camp? |
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Good question John.....no doubt the reservation systems and permitting processes implemented in recent years have kept some folks away......bigwall climbing is so unique to Yosemite and Zion compared to places like Red Rocks and the Eastside that have so many long free routes with no almost no regulation - no doubt the national parks seem like much more hassle to jump through......the Big Stones are worth it, but I understand how early in ones' career a climber might be less inclined to jump through hoops for Stone. |
