underworld

40% of the time they work every time...

that's quite a generalization... it going clean is certainly dependent on fixed gear... fixed gear is evidence of it not going clean. at any rate... the clean vs hammer argument can go on and on like bolting arguments.. i don't think zodiac has reached the 'clean' level like other routes.

thanks all... answers: far off shots - tom evans aka elcap pics sits on the bridge next to the meadows all day every day during the climbing season. every evening he posts pictures on supertaco and gives and 'el cap report'. the guy know what is going on w/ every team on the wall and takes bitching pictures w/ a bitchin lense. it's a great read and the gives a reason to make it thru the day as a cubical puke. clean- for us, we probably hammered more than others... the black tower took me a few beaks. two equlized off the tip of the tower - if you fall there you get hurt. probably 2 or 3 more beaks on the rest of the route. 1 small head near the top of p9 and then a couple angles here and there on the rest of the route. we are style-less cowards, but whatever. from what i hear, there is nearly the same amount of fixed gear as pre-cleanup. fall in the valley: very few leaves were turning when we were there, just up high in some gulleys. i think i prefer spring. the waterfalls are big and the belays don't smell so bad...but it's hard to complain about being in the valley.

Trip: Yosemite - El Capitan - Zodiac Date: 10/15/2008 Trip Report: ...so there i was, pooping on the top of el-cap and it was snowing. it was 95 degrees shuttling loads 4 days ago.... "i gotta come back and do this again" i thought to myself. This was in May of this year after climbing tangerine trip. In the next few months el cap is still on my mind. Do i push my luck and try this thing again? Was it a fluke? What makes Zodiac so classic? Should i spend my vacation back in the same place? So many questions just go away when you start up the wall. We have this running joke that everything on the valley floor in yosemite takes 4 hours. It's not really that much of a joke, and certainly motivates you to get moving and get on the wall and out of the mess of the tourons and traffic. The valley is very much like bellevue square. just substitute the 'cougars' with bears. Anyway, all this just leads up to finally being packed and shuttling loads to the base of Zodiac. We were going full wall style with redundant ghettoblasters, a box of wine, an arsenal or iron and more chef-boy-r-d than i care to admit. It takes a day for the two of us, myself: bob and my partner: ryan, to organize and shuttle the 2 loads to the base. The next day we go back with our food and climb/haul two pitches. A trip report we read earlier said "if you can climb P1 of zodiac, you can climb zodiac". Not sure i totally buy that, but it did provide the closes thing to a fall in our 5 days of climbing. To keep the pitch clean was 3 inverted camhooks in a row to reach the anchor. well, as i was placing the 3rd camhook - the one i was standing on popped but i was caught by the one i had just placed. so, does it count if you fall up to a camhook?? whatever. racking up at the base Cleaning pitch 1 Hauling P1photo credit for all distance pics: tom evans Leading P2 so we had the 1st two pitches fixed and hauled...off to the buffet!! The next morning was an early one as we had a long day ahead. the plan was to jug the 2 pitches and lead another 4. luckily these were the easiest pitches of the route with many bolts and some easy free climbing. hooking on p5 to a reachy rivet to the first bivy cleanliness is next to godliness we were now getting to the meat and potatoes of the route and some very classic terrain. from the black tower, through the gray circle, the nipple pitch and the mark of zorro. ok, so now we are understanding why this is considered such a classic line. the black tower has some thin nailing cleaning above the black tower same pic as above...from another perspective going into the gray circle pitch 9...whatta beauty! mid pitch 10 lowering out while cleaing the nipple (p10) So now we are thru the harder stuff and the top is within reach. we bivy at pitch 13 (3rd and final wall bivy) aptly named 'peanut ledge'. it is as flat as a park bench and shaped like a peanut. the pitch coming off peanut is the only reason to bring big gear. at one time there was a line of bolts next to the 4.5" crack the goes for about 80 feet. those bolts have been chopped, as they were not part of the original route. so there's a bit of a runout. running it out on p14 while i lounge at the belay w00t! sharp edge on P14 leading p15 looking back at the fragile hook travers (p15) the (alleged) best top-out on el cap the payoff!!!!!!!!! ...what a bitchin climb!!! big thanks to climbing partner ryan for no clusters and good spirits thru the climb. big thanks to tom evans for the great pictures and a bitchin day of drinkin on the bridge. big thanks to the weather, although it was actually snowing when we drove into the valley - it was sunny and 70 every day w/ no wind. does it quench the thirst... nope...already have the next topo hanging in the cube. can't wait for spring! Gear Notes: 2 sets micro nuts 2 sets nuts 3 offset aliens (not 3 sets, but 3 total) mastercams - blue to red aliens - black to gray zeros - gray to red (teh suck!...barely used) double camalots to 5 and 1 #6 several beaks (teh rule!) several angles (baby to sawed 1") few LA's several heads (placed 1) double hooks (small to big) several cinch rivet hangers starbucks double shots 1/2 5L box of wine (cab-sav) 'yellow belly' the bigwall rubber chichen Approach Notes: crowded with japanese press shooting the hans and yuji speed ascent of the nose.

once i find a card reader i'll put up a TR... but that pic posted (along with others) is from supertopo el-cap reports...

pitch 11 (the mark of zorro) of the zodiac on el cap. (shoulda put photo credits on it... so... photo credit: tom "elcappics" evans.)

bump! [img:left]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/10MarkofZorropitch.jpg[/img]

gay it forward!

the fixed gear can be a detriment as well. if it is fixed in key holds...

no way to know if there will be fixed gear or not based on old videos. those routes change quickly. but that isn't the point it would be rad if it goes! IMO, of course

that's pitch 10 on the zodiac!!! goes free at 5.13d... and takes big gear!!!

was over at rattletale and heard the sirens at about 12:30... drove over there after we got down, to get on the lower wall and there was a line of emergency vehicles and they flagged us on as tho we couldn't go in. we parked on the road and watch the helicopter. freaking awesome heli pilots!! dude got lifted out at about 2:30. word on the ground, fwiw, was that he took a 30 ft ledge fall and ribs/lung injury. who knows. long and short - the helicopter to the rescue. hope everyone is as ok as you can be in a helicopter. sucks to be underneath it all and not knowing if it is someone you know. good luck to all!!!

Is there any more recent beta for the aid lines in this area? topos is the sky valley book any more recent? i use to have it, but ..welll.. not anymore. how often do some of these lines see traffic? rack? standard wall/iron? thx!

they exist due to temporary funs

blackberry pie.... mmmmmmm..... does that make me racist?

DT... yes, even repubs are moving left.. btw... ANY comment on the obama wanting to expand military and continue w/ bush's tax cuts?

I'LL tell you what is childish... ball in a cup ... you see it's a ball and a cup. cleanup is simple because the ball is connected by a string. it's ball in a cup!

repost! CHANGE!!!!!111!!!11!!!!@#!!!

more arctic sea ice. according to USA Today PROOF!!!!11` right, you can say that two years in a row don't make a significant trend in a 30 year study. well, how significant is 30 years in a world that is, for argument's sake, more than 6000 years old? at any rate - the alarmists should do a better job of slanting their data.

it's not crickets, it's snoring... and ...who cares

one of my mastercams was dropped on (err, off) the top of the chief

don't forget the IAM strike. big crisis there too.

but what does that have to do with housing prices?

so there's a religious left?