Ascensioni in El Capitan

A lot of steep walking for an ok route, nice view from the top chill day, worth it if doing other routes in the area, can also watch the pros projecting Dawn Wall from the ledge

Just another route to add to the list of things that might make you a believer. I had the pleasure of jugging/climbing/shenaniganing behind Sam on his glorious 22 hour all free ascent of El Corazon (the El Coraziad).

Brittany, Victoria, and I jugged to Mammoth the night before to try and maximise our sleep then the next morning Adrian and Sam simuled to Mammoth and collected their pre-rigged belayers (Brittany and I (Victoria just came to hang out and talk shit bc she’s a legend)) and Sam and I started romping while Adrian and Brittany chilled on the ledge to give us some time to create a gap so Adrian could start his attempt without us being in the way. Pretty classic scenes on the big stone if you ask me.

Highlights included: - Listening to multiple Lorde albums in full - Jugging the Nietzsche chimney and being rewarded with a lie down on Babsi’s portaledge - Taking a whole bunch of fucked up pendulums cleaning Sam’s gear to save time (“should i lower out or just take the fall?” “nah you’ll be fine there’s nothing to hit just take the whip”) - Sam firing every pitch like an absolute machine with only one fall on the Beak Flake - Jugging with two back packs - Down aiding the end of the roof pitch because Sam forgot to back clean his gear and i couldn’t lower out and also did not want to take the 15mpendulum whipper into the Tower - Having a chorus of 10 or so people from different routes cheer Sam on as he sent the roof traverse as the sun finished setting - Arriving at the tower and being handed a cup of tea that had been made by Miska and her partner who sent Golden Gate - Honestly just the whole thing. Supporting your friends to achieve their dreams is the fucking coolest thing ever.

I won’t forget this day for a long while. Thanks Sam.

Ground up over seven days and then we camped on top and hiked down on the eighth day. We pre-hauled to Hollow Flake Ledge, took two rest days, and then went up the route. Some nice Germans fixed the lines off Heart to above the Hollow Flake for us so we didn’t climb those pitches on our pre-hauling day and preserved our ground up as much as we could. We also didn’t do the Free Blast before our ground up attempt which was cool and definitely added to the experience. I top roped the Monster because I got tired of whipping from the move into it all the way back into the Ear in the dark at 5am and then gave the reigns to Jesse who fired it and then I followed. I top roped the Enduros because we didn’t do them first go and I also took the stance at the no hands ledge on the move off heart. These are my asterisks, do with them what you will.

I will probably write something more when my brain and body decide to work again.

Best thing i’ve ever done!

For the descent take care, it might not be easy to locate it especially in the dark.

After topping out you follow a trail and a bunch of cairns down. Then you continue walking down on some slabs The rap station is as you walk down facing the valley to the right hand side (Skier's-right) A chain on a ledge with usually some fixed ropes, We did 6 raps (the last 2 were short)

Do NOT go left! Do NOT rap from the tat and old rings that are on a very dead looking tree.

After the raps follow a long but obvious trail through the trees and back on the road

Wanted to get on this since I was last in the Valley in 2018 and it delivered. What a great pitch of climbing.

Last route of the trip and got suitably smashed by the 6" offwidth at the top. Just couldn't keep it together. Fantastic climb and it feels like a bigger meaner brother to Moby Dick.

Bailed at the top of pitch 6. We had hiked in 2 loads and fixed the first pitch in the evening. The next day we jugged and I went to haul however sandbagged myself with the anchor set up and it took almost 2 hours to haul that first pitch! Lessons were learned. We managed to get to the top of the 4th pitch by the end of the first day through a mixture of aid and free climbing, all of which was spectacular. We set up the ledge. I had every intention of leading and fixing pitch 5 at night however after a brew and some food all motivation was lost haha. Pitches 5 & 6 went relatively quickly the next morning though we were still on the slow end of the scale. When I got to the anchor Andy said his back was quite sore. We had 3 options - push on and top out probably Saturday night; set up camp and climb as many pitches as we can before night then descend in the morning, or go down. When Andy mentioned the pain was such that he really had to concentrate not to make a mistake with the rope systems we decided to go down which definitely turned out to be the right call given how he felt the next day. When we descended we met a keen young Brit who was planning on soloing the route in a day. We brewed him a cup of tea and chatted while he waited for a party to descend who were climbing and fixing to pitch 3. We ran into him again the next day as he was hiking back to camp 4 and he had indeed soloed the route in under 18 hours, doing it in 7 monster pitches! And onsight to boot! An absolutely amazing effort. The climbing was definitely not the crux and we both learnt a lot in terms of systems and efficient hauling. Would love to come back and try and do this a bit lighter and quicker. Beta if you want to fix the evening before. Climb the first 3 pitches and haul straight to 3 via the rap route. That first pitch is the worse hauling on the route.

Finger section early on was crux for me. Had a fall then was clean to top. Bit awkard getting into offwidth but then it's ok. Has shade early morning.

Great day out, after attempting the day before and seeing multiple parties including a party of four we postponed till the next day and had the cliff to ourselves. Simuled a few a chunks. Fantastic. Fixed line are up so the descent was easy peasy

Three days on wall.

Really fun movement, but the crack below the roof is pretty dirty and chossy. Ran out of small gear, bring as much as you can

One of my favourite routes ever. Had to bail on the sat as got too dark to see, then came back and sent it

Mega fun route

4 days and 3 nights in the wall (el cap tower ->great, camp 4 ->crap, camp 6 -> super slippery) with prehauling to sickle ledge. Amazing and exhausting experience!

just followed what looked interesting. slightly crumbly but good. I can see myself coming here for slab mileage when solo as there's so many variants, and also trying to move quickly will be a challenge