Casual week at the crag

[willstrickland]

Springtime stoke from wiki:

 

"Regarding the repeat of the Nose, the team of Caldwell and Rodden free climbed it on Oct 14, 2005 by swapping leads. Then on Oct 16, 2005, Caldwell freed the Nose in less than 12 hours. A few days later, Caldwell returned, freeing the Nose in 11 hours, sprinting down the East Ledges descent, and jumping on Freerider, the three-pitch .12b variation to the Salathé wall, topping out 12 hours later. In total, Caldwell climbed El Cap twice in 23 hours, for a total of 66 pitches of hard free climbing. He fell four times."

 

[foraker]

I do believe that Caldwell's climbing exploits are a clever ruse to hide the fact that he's an advance scout from and alien race. While we're busying going 'oooooohlookitdat!', he's making topo maps for landing zones, scouting locations for cliff-top rotating restaurants, and impregnating our women!

[G-spotter]

when's beth due

[Johnny_Tuff]

I do believe that Caldwell's climbing exploits are a clever ruse to hide the fact that he's an advance scout from and alien race. While we're busying going 'oooooohlookitdat!', he's making topo maps for landing zones, scouting locations for cliff-top rotating restaurants, and impregnating our women!

 

Stealthy Martian anti-gravity technology would certainly go a long way toward explaining the lad's climbing exploits...perhaps you're onto something there.

[willstrickland]

Musta felt easy after the Dihedral Wall:

 

"It became obvious that this route would be a huge step above anything I had climbed. It was absurdly sustained. Most of the existing hard free routes on El Cap had only a few 5.13 pitches, but of the first fifteen pitches of the Dihedral, one was 5.14, one 5.13d, three 5.13c, three 5.13b, and four 5.12. On top of that, these pitches were sustained. I had to really concentrate from the start to the end of each pitch — none were one-move wonders. "

 

 

[Johnny_Tuff]

Reminds me of that quip (book title?), "conquistadors of the useless," except Caldwell is more of a pioneer of the inconceivably sick. Most of us will not climb that many pitches of those grades in our lifetime, let alone consecutively. Awe-inspiring and fantastic.

[RuMR]

i love his description of what it did to him physically...just the shear abuse of working those routes would kill most of us...

[underworld]

is he running in the st patdy's day dash?

[Jim]

is he running in the st patdy's day dash?

 

Given his climbing ability without the tip of an index finger he could pobably lose one leg below the knee and would still beat me.

[archenemy]

With the stump

[DirtyHarry]

Tommy and Beth are so nice, clean-cut, and happy. What perfect role models for the kids. So much better than the angry dirty stoner dirtbags of yesteryear.