El cap gully in late winter - may

[surferclimber]

So we're planning a trip to yosemite for the first time and I want to tick one of them of at least. Initially I looked at the chains up half dome but it looked to easy

 

So El Cap maybe it??? Now, I'm no expert rock climber so most of the routes are out of my league. I'm more of a mountaineer and I do know technical ice (comfortable solo on ice upto WI3).. SO I was looking at the El Cap Gully in winter and found this pic

 

http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=19792&context_id=156460

 

of it in very early winter ( think Jan).... I am assuming that will fill in with a lot more snow later in the season and I was wondering if anybody has any info and/or stories about climbing that in late winter, maybe even into mayish???

 

 

Thank you in advance

 

 

 

 

 

[Cosimon]

My first El Cap route was Zodiac, January 2010. My second was the Nose, late March 2010.

 

On Zodiac we battled a runoff waterfall that ran around the clock. On the Nose we were hammered by snowmelt runoff every afternoon and evening.

 

You'll find more answers at bigwalls.com than you will here. Here's the thread I started before I went up Zodiac:

 

http://www.bigwalls.com/forum2/index.php?PHPSESSID=c137c9ef89e28dc5d636561a2b9690c2&topic=794.0

 

Martin Fickweiler posted a video in it, I highly suggest you watch it. It's in Dutch, but you can tell they're getting rained on when they have their hoods up.

 

Also, Mike's advice was spot on:

"Winter" is a pretty open issue on EC. It's condition dependent; anything from t-shirt weather to someplace you do not want to be. Even in good weather there may be falling ice and runoff.

 

Meltwater also can be a factor. Be ready to climb in precip even if the weather is sunny (you can't wait out runoff like you can a squall).

 

Dealing with that runoff was miserable, and really tested me.

 

Ice up high can shut you down by clogging gear placements or making free climbing impossible.

 

I didn't have to deal with that, or falling ice frisbees. But I was up there in relatively warm conditions.

 

Coming down from the Zodiac was easy. Coming down from the Nose sucked as there was way more snow. I brought a waterproof OR bivy sack, but the condensation slowly got through over the course of the two wet bivies. My down sleeping bag was saturated and useless so bivying would have been miserable. We had to descend in the dark. We would have had problems if I didn't already know the descent. If you need to, leave your stuff on top and get the fuck down.

 

Zodiac trip report:

http://mountainproject.com/v/trip_reports/tr_gumby_winter_ascent_of_zodiac_el_capitan/106669167

 

Nose trip report, written by my partner:

http://cheynelempe.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-first-big-wall-and-my-first-trip-to.html

 

 

Top of Zodiac. There's almost no snow up there. If you look at the end of Martin's video, you can see 2-3 feet of powder.

 

I went back in summer and crushed "Nose in a Day." Really, really fun, and way easier than my first two times up.

 

I hope this helps! Let me know if you want me to expand on anything.