My first trip up The Capitan
By John Doskicz
By John Doskicz
On September 20th Pete Walka and I topped on the south west face of El Cap after climbing the Salathe Wall, 48 years to the day Robbins, Frost and Pratt topped out their historic ascent. This first ascent marked a turning point in tactics for climbing the Capitan. The first ascent party shunned the siege practices that were used on the Nose, fixing lines over 2000 feet up the route. The trio left their fixed lines after pitch 11 and set off alpine style, taking 6 more days to climb 25 more pitches and finish the route. I cannot imagine the effort it must have took for those guys to do this 1961. Pete and I cooked in unseasonably warm temperatures, Pete worried he’d blown a kidney after taking an upside down 30 foot whipper, we spent an unplanned extra night bivied just 4 pitches from the top and I swore that if I made it down alive I’d devote myself to sport climbing.
We left Flag at 4am on Monday September 15 and arrive in Yosemite National Park to camp in Tuolumne Meadows campground that afternoon. We were excited to start packing for the wall and spent the evening packing the haul bag under a clear and cool sierra night. We took a smaller than full size haul bag with us. After a couple hours, several Budweisers and substituting our sleeping bags with my kids sleeping bags we were satisfied that everything fit. Water was the biggest part of the load. We had 10 two liter bottles of water, some short sleeping pads from Pete’s Flagstaff Field Institute W.F.R. supplies, jackets, ¾ sleeping bags, bivi sacks, a bunch of energy bars, 4 beers, two canned espresso drinks, some ibuprofen, climbing tape, tp, and duct tape. We woke up early the next morning and went to climb Cathedral Peak just down the road from camp. I have always marveled at this peak when in Tuolumne and was thrilled to finally climb it. The climb’s approach took about an hour and the climbing consisted of about a 1,000 ft of easy 5th class climbing, on perfect sierra granite to a spectacular tiny summit. We were back in camp before check out, broke camp and were done setting up our new camp in north pines campground in the valley by 1pm. We were heading to the meadow to scope the route when we discovered problems with the truck. Fortunately the shop in the valley was great and since the valley fleet was all GMC they had the starter I needed to get the rig running again. The two hour delay allowed us to get some gifts for the kids and check out the exhibits at the visitor center. We spent the late afternoon spying the route. There were two parties right on top of each other just below el cap spire. We did not see anyone else on the route. That night we racked for the Free Blast, the first third of the route.
I started up the first pitch of Free Blast around 6am. Fortunate for us we were not a few minutes later because as I was hanging at the first belay, belaying Pete, 3 more parties arrived at the base of the route. We were in ‘wall’ mode and did not fuss much with deciphering the 5.11 cruxes, easily willing to yard on gear to keep the pace fast. We had a light rack, swapping leads, linking pitches and we were not hauling. The climbing was fun and each pitch went by without much fuss. The half dollar was super tricky and once you finish the traverse and get up into the corner we were reminded of how physical steep/wide Yosemite 5.8s can feel. We made it to Mammoth Terraces at noon, our climbing done for the day. Another climber was at Mammoth and informed us that the fixed lines up to Heart Ledges were in perfect shape. That was good to hear. We had brought two ropes up with us in case we felt the need to leave one as a replacement as we rapped the fixed lines back to the ground. “Perfect” may not have been the best choice of words. The lines from mammoth to heart did not have any core shots but the sheath was pretty dry and small pieces of nylon stubble flew in our faces as we did two rappels down to heart. All of the next 5 fixed lines had some issues. At least all the big core shots were tied off on bights in the rope. Still we did not elect to replace any of the ropes. The two parties we saw earlier were working their way through the headwall near the top of the route. There was a party that was on the hollow flake when we started down from heart. We made it back to camp in the early afternoon and packed the bag for the 2 day push to finish the route.
We were making the 15 minute approach at dark thirty the next day. A party of two had gotten up even earlier and the second was jugging the second line when we got to the base. Pete took off first, jugging each fixed line ahead of me and doing the hauling at each belay. The Party above us was a couple from Vegas, Brian and Sandra. They were working on the Free Rider and only planned to climb three pitches off of heart ledges. Working the 5.12 traverse into the hollow flake before it came into the sun. I started the block for the day and led/hauled the next 5 pitches. I asked for the morning shift because I get wimpy at the end of the day and Pete is mentally tougher than I am. The climbing was great I really enjoyed the long 5.10 corner pitch above the 5.7 chimney. Take knee pads for that 5.7 chimney, I have the scars on my knees to show what happens if you don’t. This pitch sucked, big flared, featureless grovel that was no fun at all. Pete fired up the next 5.10 pitch and then took us up and through the ear. Pete says the ear was “not that scary”. Robbins says it was the scariest 5.7 he had ever climbed. Just one of the wide moderate scare fest pitches on the route. While cleaning the traversing squeeze chimney one of my climbing shoes ripped off my harness and disappeared. Fortunately Pete also climbs in Moccasysms and although they are a size smaller than mine, I would be wearing them the next morning. Pete took the first aid pitch of the route just below the alcove. Pete was climbing strong and back cleaning bravely when an alien hybrid pulled after stepping up on it. This resulted in an upside down 30 foot fall and a wonderful hip check into the granite wall. After shaking it off, he pulled back up to his last piece and finished the pitch. He used the same piece again as “it was the best piece to use and looked good”. Pete later told me he had to stop at the belay and monitor vitals, thinking that he was feeling real bad and that the fall may have cause some injury. After a few minutes he deemed himself just fine. We were worked arriving at El Cap Spire just as the sun was hitting the ridge line. It had been a long, hard and hot day on the wall. We had some energy bars for dinner and a beer, watched the traffic role through the valley, marveled at the stars and the looming 1,000 feet of granite still above us.
I started out the day immediately in my aiders working up the 5.11 thin hand crack off the spire. I was not excused entirely from free climbing as the pitch ended with more 5.9 squeeze. I climbed slow, feeling tired and a bit depleted. There was a good breeze and some high thin clouds that made it seem not as hot as the previous day. I ended my block a pitch earlier than planned just before a tricky aid pitch with possible weird route finding. I suggested Pete take over since he was a better aid climber. And after jugging for 5 hours he was ready to get on the sharp end. Pete worked his magic and two pitches later we were under the head wall roof. Pete aided the roof quickly making use of the fixed gear that marked the way. Cleaning the roof was when the exposure and fatigue started me thinking crazy thoughts. Like, maybe this climb could mark the conclusion of my climbing career. Started in 1990 stopped in 2009. Or, maybe I should sell my gear except my draws and just sport climb. Or not climb at all any more; focus on trail running, yoga and the businesses. The long hanging belays and the steep jugging on the headwall kept these thoughts running through my head. Pete had no problem leading the head wall and combined the last short pitch with the previous one to get the ropes to Long Ledge. I arrived at Long with about 30 minutes till sunset. We had wanted to top out that day. We had told our families we’d probably be off Saturday night and that was not going to happen. We had a few bars left, 3 liters of water and decided it best to spend another night and finish in the morning with only 400 feet to go. Long ledge was pretty wild. The ledge is only about 3 feet wide and over 20 feet long. You can barely keep your shoulder on the rock when lying down. We were done, cooked and ready to be done with this wall. And at the same time we could not dismiss our amazement of just where we were. 2,600 feet up the south west face of el cap on a tiny ledge that offered a view that looked straight down to the ground so far below.
Sunday morning we were up at the first sign of a dark sky beginning to lighten. The next pitch again called for some tricky aid off the right side of the ledger. So, Pete went after it. After shaking off the morning fog, and placing some bomber cams at knee level he pulled up on a small micro nut that promptly blew from the crack. Thankfully he had found the good gear below or he was looking at a 20 foot pendulum fall across the ledge. The aiding got easier and moved to 5.5 face climbing and another 5.9 squeeze took us up to a big ledge to the last pitch, a short 5.6. We topped out about 9:30am. More than 3 days of hard work. Days of stress about what was next? Were we going to make it? Can’t drop anything! The relief to be on top was amazing. It was my first time up The Captain, Pete’s 4th. 2 hours later we were back at the rig. Tossed the gear in and got caught up on football scores as we drove to the village store where we bought Gatorades and sandwiches. We sent a couple of customers walking in the other direction due to the wonderful aroma that surrounded us. Back at camp we got cleaned up and soon enough we were looking at the topos for other routes on the Capitan. Amazing how wonderful a short term memory problem can be. How we could go from “this is nuts” to “what’s next and when”. Surely this was class C fun. That is fun when it’s done. We strategized about how we could move faster, be braver, get more comfortable and dial in our systems. That night we gorged ourselves on pizza, French fries and beer while watching Sunday night football at Curry. We were feeling very worked the next morning after finally getting a chance to sleep in on this trip. Sore muscles, lots of scars, scabs, bruises, aches and pains. We figured we were done climbing with the time we had left on the trip. That day we drove up and over Tioga pass and camped at Twin Lakes in Mammoth. Left Mammoth early the last day and arrived home to flag in time for dinner.
I have new respect for all climbers that make it up that giant piece of stone. I’ve always thought that one day I need to climb El Cap if I want to call myself a climber and I am stoked I finally did. And yes, I do plan on climbing it again, maybe the Nose next time. I am glad we took as much water as we did; I had thought maybe a little less was necessary. It was hot and we would have loved more if we had it. We did not free as much as we thought we would. We realized that we were taking off on each lead with just about the entire rack, which was huge. This really handicapped our free climbing ability. We should have done a better job of racking up specifically for each pitch. I had just got some Metolius Master Cams and they worked great on the route. Chris let us borrow his Hybrid Aliens which were key in several spots. All in all the Supertopo rack suggestion is right on. The pictures in the magazines make big wall climbing look pretty glamorous. It will certainly take more time up there for me to feel glamorous. It’s just a lot of sweat, blood, work and great memories.
