El Cap Gully 5/12/24

El Cap Gully

I found myself with an extra day in the valley, with no partners and no plans. I thought about rope soloing something, but didn't feel up to all the faff that entails. I'd seen in Sloan's guide a half a page about the El Cap Gully and decided that with a day to kill, I might as well spend it on (well, adjacent to) the Capitan and get some nice views of the valley. I mean who doesn't love a vegetated gully! I also hadn't done the East Ledges before and I figured next time I find myself up there, potentially in the dark, I wouldn't have to onsight it.

Classic El Cap view from the meadow

I parked by the meadow, threw some water, food, a harness, and a grigri into my bag and headed down the road toward Ribbon Creek to begin my loop. It being spring, the short section of the valley loop trail east of Ribbon Creek was itself a small creek. I found a faint trail heading up the east side of Ribbon Creek, and while it quickly disappeared, Ribbon Creek is easy enough to follow and the gully is obvious from below. I was having a chill day so I wandered up the talus and through the forest, with a few breaks to keep cool and check out views of the cathedral rocks across the valley. Once I reached the base of the gully, the first challenge was to get around a little waterfall which I bypassed on the left, then it's up toward the Hourglass along talus and occasional steep dirt.

The start of the gully and the Hourglass, and the lower section of the gully

The main part of the gully is steep as you'd expect but is just a talus field with occasional wet slabs to avoid along one side or another. A few cairns point out these easier paths. There's a bivy spot under some larger boulders maybe halfway up or so- though why one would bivy here I'm not totally sure. From there, plenty more up until you reach a side gully rising up to the notch between KP Pinnacle and the main part of El Cap, and this is where the scrambling really begins.

The line of least resistance took me up a short lower-angle chimney to some stacked blocks up to the next tier. Following some cairns through the brushy ledges led me to another few moves of chimney to a little notch. There's a bolt here for some reason (maybe to keep a rope from dragging in the blocks in the notch, if you had lugged one all the way up there), then the ledge continues on the other side. Another section of low 5th class and tree tunneling brought me around a corner to more bushy ledges, and from here I could see the tall pines at the head of the gully! One last bit of slab lie between me and the trees; I found another bolt here too. A few easy friction moves (approach shoes were nice to have for this) and some wandering across ledges got me into the forest at the top.

Last view of the gully, and the final slabs. KP Pinnacle visible below as well.

I sat and ate my lunch on a nice log with a final view of the gully, then headed up to the trail (it's no more than a few hundred feet from the end of the final slab). A patch of snow on the trail showed some deer tracks, but no human ones, which was fun. From here, about a half mile of flat walking goes to the summit of El Cap, with nice views down the Merced River canyon, and of Ribbon Falls amphitheater. A few wide patches of snow plus the cloudless day made me almost wish I'd brought some glacier goggles. The first person I'd seen since the meadow was a backpacker enjoying a patch of shade and the view from the summit. From here I headed down towards the Nose and eventually the East Ledges.

From near the top of the Nose, looking 3k' down at El Cap meadow where my car was parked, and the slabs leading down to the Zodiac topout

It was early in the day for any parties to be topping out, and I didn't see anyone as I wandered eastward toward Horsetail Creek and the Zodiac topout. Many cairns mark the East Ledges descent, and between that and Sloan's topo, it's a very easy descent to follow in the daylight. 

East Ledges just before the raps

Navigating the slabs down to the fixed lines is also trivial in the light, but I can see why onsighting it at night would be rough. At the top of the first rap there was a guy maneuvering a haulbag over the edge for the way down and his partner already at the next station, so I hung out here a bit while they got the pigs down, and watched a party top out After Six over on Manure Pile. Then I zipped down the lines and from the bottom of those was back at the Manure Pile parking lot in no more than fifteen minutes. And from there just a short, flat stroll back to my car at the meadow to complete my lap around El Cap!

I didn't keep track of time all that closely but my car-to-car was probably 8-ish hours. I took it pretty casual and wasn't super familiar with the western El Cap base area or the East Ledges so one could certainly do it faster if you're into that sort of thing. For a brushy gully with little actual climbing, the El Cap gully made for a pretty fun solo day, basically a steep hike with a few technical bits to keep it interesting. Sloan's guide calls it Grade III and 5.5 which seemed about right. Though it could be scarier and more exposed if you get off route. If you didn't want to solo the few slightly exposed moves of 5th class, a rope, like 3 cams, and 1 draw would be plenty (if you have a partner to do it with). I have to wonder how often this gets done though- I can't imagine very frequently, but the tracks I saw were probably from this season. Then again in a valley full of some of the best climbing in the world, why would you. But if you're looking for an adventurous day where you're almost guaranteed to see nobody until the way down, maybe this is for you.

Dude TFPU I've always wanted to scramble this one. Good info. If you havent done it yet, the gunsight is a sweet little romp too, especially if used to gain the bitchin summit of Lower Cathedral.

Cheers,

Zay

 If you havent done it yet, the gunsight is a sweet little romp too, especially if used to gain the bitchin summit of Lower Cathedral.

Sick I'll have to check that out next!

You can make a loop out of the gunsight hike by continuing all the way to the notch between HCR and the rim, then following the Spires Gully trail down to the loop trail.  A little bit of bushwhacking is required, though.  

Thanks for writing this up! I’ve always been curious about El Cap gully, you got me psyched to check it out this season

bob steed wrote:

You can make a loop out of the gunsight hike by continuing all the way to the notch between HCR and the rim, then following the Spires Gully trail down to the loop trail.  A little bit of bushwhacking is required, though.  

that is a great freaking idea

El Cap Gully needs it's own route page lol, so good. I went up there last month but my buddy had a big blister explode all the way at the final cliff and we bailed, which is hard to believe once you done this but now I can say you can bail if you need to. I went back up today and it was pretty perfect - a little wet climbing over big blocks at the end but super cruiser fun fitness lap. Last fall I did 2 hrs from the Zodiac Pullout to the top of the Gully racing daylight but today just wanted to go out slow and finish strong - there are so many ways to go up the initial part it was fun to try and find the most direct easy route - 2:30 zodiac pullout to the top of the Gully was just steady cruising. There aren't really bushes or trees to sling or belay off of for the short climbing section at the end, so if you want a rope I'd bring 1 ea to #1 camalot and 100' piece of rope - well there are trees at the very top when the climbing ends but you weave a mostly 5.3 path through a few hundred feet of slabs broken up by grassy ledges to reach the trees.

Woot Woot! E

I just want to add a word of caution here. At least 2 people have died in the El Cap gully (one in 1905, one last year). The climbing at the top can be slick, less-than-juggy, gritty, grassy. The route-finding in the second half (after all the talus) is head-scratchy, less than obvious. On-sighting is probably going to be stressful. Bringing a thin line, a few finger-sized pieces and a buddy would help to take the sting out of it (Probably a good idea if you're a less-than-5.11 valley climber). 

All that said, it's a pretty quick way up el Cap (I got up from car to El Cap Trail in 2:10 last weekend), a lot of the hike follows a creek (nice for keeping your hat wet), and you're going to see some cool views for sure. 

A point of beta:

When you're in the upper half of the gully and you see this chimney/waterfall up ahead in the main gully, it's time to go left out of the bottom of the gully and onto the ledgy slopes. You should see a few cairns as you progress up/along the slope, but don't expect to see them everywhere. You need to bring a cool head for route finding beyond here. 

Someone died in the El Cap Gully last year? ....lol I"m a 5.8 Valley climber and I onsighted it in 3.5 hours to the top of the Salathé back in 2008 but I agree it is a heads up route for sure.

I climbed this yesterday and agree that it can be pretty gritty and grassy, and should be taken seriously. I was also very happy that I brought climbing shoes for the last section (though it’s a little excessive to say that you have to climb 5.11 to solo it). It was a lot of fun!

I've done the Gully maybe 10 ish times so far, and feel like the number one way to make it feel 5.4 is to ace the topout pitch - I attached a markedup photo with what I think is the easiest way to topout. I did it this way the first time, and then over the next several ascents tried all of the cracks to the left, many of which are gravelly nightmares, and those left cracks are where the fixed rope always was on the topout pitch.......if you follow the line in my topo you never have to climb harder than 5.4 - though you can see in the more opaque photo that the water was running pretty good on that pitch the last time I did it. The holds are big and incut so it's easy though.

Erik Sloan wrote:

There aren't really bushes or trees to sling or belay off of for the short climbing section at the end, so if you want a rope I'd bring 1 ea to #1 camalot and 100' piece of rope - well there are trees at the very top when the climbing ends but you weave a mostly 5.3 path through a few hundred feet of slabs broken up by grassy ledges to reach the trees.

Wondering about leading a friend up this who is not a climber but is generally athletic and can definitely handle scrambling. If I did it, I would want to be able to belay him through the fifth-class sections from above. Possible? Looks really fun. 

oh yeah just bring a 100 foot piece of rope, a nut tool to dig out a placement, and some small piece to build an anchor to belay your buddy up....let us now how it goes!