ivan Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Trip: Yosylum - Da Kapitan - Poon-Tangerine Trip Date: 7/4/2011 Trip Report: strange, how the great gut-glow of a near-death experience fades so fast - there we were, a few hours after returning to sweet terra firma, our crap drying in the sizzling sun, and i could feel it slipping away - the crowds, noise, cars and whole general wal-mart feel to the valley, all those thigns that truly do not matter when your balls are a few inches from the band-saw, all those things were slowly creeping back into the fore of my mind - i felt i was losing something special, and had to have it back - "every minute charlie squats on the wall he gets stronger" no sense in going back to the salathe really - we wanted to see some part of the capitan we hadn't already - i for one had never walked further than the nose on the east side - ben's wishlist was down to just a few candidates - we didn't have time for mescalito, but the tangerine trip seemed the perfect salve to soothe our weathered souls, wickedly overhanging should any of the t-storms predicted practically everyday appear. our lessons learned, we brought in our synthetic bags and had nice phat rain-flys for our ledges as well the route - a mere 17 pitches compared to twice that for salathe we took 1 day off to dry out, and then it was friday and we were to the business, drinking iced-wine, chain-smoking, parsing the topo, sorting iron and water and gear in that sweet clearing just below the wall, across the river which worked well to keep the beer cold - every 20 minutes a jumbo touron-bus would pull into the shade and shit out its contents - we had good drunken fun Playing the Part for the tourists, and were sure to assure all the young girls "you can touch anythiiiing you want" we were up before dawn on our fixing day, a rare thing for me less i have to retch - a cool, breezy drive to our date w/ destiny - everything calm - memories of the cougar cub i'd seen the night of our bailure - was it, like the dead swallow, a sign from dog? were our hopes young and reborn, strong and bound to kill? spectacular walk along the wall to the base of the trip - our bags heavy w/ hammers and nails - i vowed to promote el capitan to el generalissimo should we win through (seriously, what gives? the hugest fucking stone on planet earth a mere O-3?!?) - saw a crew bivied a pitch or 2 up mescalito and Felt the Stoke to have fellow travelers crawling up the wall same time as us as we might watch their progress - sadly, they came down that morning for reasons unknown and beyond all expectation, we had the whole of the east side of the Leviathan to ourselves for the next week! the base of the beast a strange place, scree and talus suddenly giving way to a heavenly forest, 'till you stop and the mozzies, made in their millions by the accumulating seeps off the wall, appear for their feast! [video:youtube] pitch 1 and 2 were bens, i got 3 n' 4 - pitch 1 was a wierd one - go straight up to the bolt if you're a badass, otherwise its a big old wandering highball traverse in - alone in the drip, i felt at home, washed w/ memories of beacon's north side - its a great deal like the cave by siege tactics - stupifyingly big roofs, great sheets of brittle rock sagging everywhere - compact and brittle to the first short bolt/rivet ladder - did i mention, true to form, "false-start" ben had to lower down from here to take his first shit of the day? soon enough it was my turn to take off [video:youtube] our constant companions for the week made their first appearance - for days the peregrines pirouted and pierced the sky w/ their incessant shrieks - occasionally you'd catch them playing w/ their food, dropping their prey from their talons at the top of great climbs, then turning down and snatching them back mid-air - as we neared the summit, frequently they'd fly by, silent as ghosts, to give us the great Stink Eye from just a few feet away [video:youtube] ben off on p2 - el cap tree behind him tangerine drip! [video:youtube] p3 a rare one one for the route - free-climbing! holy shit, how do you do this again? the topo seemed crap for us for these lower pitches - it said 3 and 4 would combine but holy shit that didn't look to be the case - we pulled up at a midpt anchor so i could lead out again p4 ended up being maybe the wierdest aid-ptich i've done? a steeep bit of relatively easy aid leading to the mother of all mank-ladders - mystery bits of metal broken and hammered deep w/ bits of shoelaces to tie your soul up in - lots of big reaches to wing and a prayer bullshit, and then the big ball-buster - you emerge to a few bolts that take you to the bottom of the mammoth roof that cuts across the bottom of the wall, 4 pitches up, for hundreds of feet - here the wall has a general down angle of 25 degrees or so, so you must down aid towards an anchor taht's practically at the same height as where you started! almost all the rope is out by the time you hit the anchor, so how the hell does 3 link in? for me, the whole thign was made more desperate by the roaring waterfall emerging from the base of the roof, soaking everything through that touches the wall - half the fixed gear is covered in so much algea that you can't begin to understand what exactly it is the bit of faded tat is attached to a tried to pendulum on several occasions but foudn the steepness and slickness very limiting eventually we were there though and ben's epic began - not interested in hanging in space to wait for it to unfold, i threw down our 2 static lines and only then realized just how overhanging we'd gotten - though the topo assured us we could fix 2 ropes to the wall for launch, just 3 feet down from the hanging anchor i couldn't begin to touch the wall - not certain how you'd make this work? maybe take a stickclip to pull yourself back into the wall periodically? i ended up on the ground as the shadows gathered - i'd handed my day-pack over to ben before my lead adn so had no headlamp, so sat on talus and watched the night overcome him - he seemed to be having problems doing the many lowerouts required on the down-aiding part - a few days later we figured out his deficiencies and got them rectified, but this day he wans't down till late, late, late, and so we settled, oddly, on a rest day before launchign so, after a day of getting fat, packign up food and water, and laying in plans, we set out on the 4th of july - we wouldn't reach the summit for 5 days step 1 was jugging 100 meters of wildly overhanging rope in the middle of a slow-motion waterfall - to save 30 feet of jugging, i climbed up the wall and took a wonderful swing into the tree tops - wish i could remember to stop taking sideways videos [video:youtube] and we're off! don't know why they call this launching - space shuttles launch - our takeoff is more akin to fat albert trying to get off the shitter i got the joy of hauling our 2 bags, 90 lbs of water and 2 portaledges up to the top of 4, passing the knot along the way, and all the while hanging like hell - a good introduction to the upper route soon enough ben was up and setting out on p5, a c3+f thrillshow that follows a lazer-thin knife-blade crack just above and along the top of the big roof below us [video:youtube] after this pitch we finally escaped the drips it's a loooong way to the end of p5, and great fun for the follower uncage the pigs! no need to lower out, nothing but empty sky to rage through [video:youtube] our theme for the trip was torpidness - day 1 ended w/ us atop p5, nowhere near the 4 pitches we vainly thought we'd manage that day - no matter though, we were off, and w/ a wall so steep, a distinct feeling of commitment was upon me - i don't know how the hell you could rap out of this granite prison i lead p6 on the morning of our second day - a very ho-hum one as a recall, mostly on rivets and fixed gear - ben cleaned purty flowers on the wall - a whole ecosystem unglimpsed by flatlanders - spiders and bugs, bats and birds, flowers and grass your friend and humble narrator p7's a cool one, and a rare one for the trip too w/ no rivets or fixed gear p7 ended in 1 of the 2 promised "ledges" on the route - 12 inches wide, a half-dozen feet long, and a big old wall bending you over should you even try to stand on it - i was horrified - the topo makes it look like you have to tiptoe to the end of it to attain a rivet ladder for p8 - after a few deep breaths i engaged the beacon-rock deforestation machine, stripped out the grass, and found a pin and a funky alien placement that let me move along the ledge at nose-height sadly, all the action's out of the view of the belayer - a ladder takes you to a 5.7 friction traverse onto a rare bit of less than vertical rock which decides to betray you by becoming hard aid - 10a runout, c3+ camhooks, or a2 sawed angles, all w/ a screaming, bouncing fall reversing hte pendulum should you peel - bet you can bet what i did just into the crux, a roar of thunder alarmed me, but looking up i saw only blue sky - looking across to middle cathedral though i caught hundreds of boulders bouncing down from teh summit, slamming into the apron above the forest - for 40 minutes a thick grey stone fog hung on the road below, and yet despite the daily wailing of ambulances and cop-sirens, the valley seemed no more perturbed than a cup of warm pudding p8 anchors were shitty for portaledges, so i went back down the haul line to spend our second night atop p7 ben in the morning - he was rocking a broken double-ledge dating to the clinton administration - i had a single fish braille-book, my favorite crag route, poked its head up at this height ben cleanign p8 on the morning of the 3rd day - this pitch is a motherfucker for rope drag, and the last bit to the anchor is stiff too w/ a loose block above a rivet goddamn we continued to be slow - despite waking w/ the morning light on the cathedrals at 7, we never left camp before 830, and on this 3rd day it was past 11 before ben was done cleaning the p8 from the day before and reracked to leave on 9 p9 is a bizarre one - a beautiful sidewalk, but the First Ones choose instead to cling to the choss just above it, so that virtually at any point you can biff and slam into the stone below? even better is the a3 line of heads that serves as a variation, also just a dozen feet above disaster at the end of 9, on the last so called ledge of the route it was early evening before it was my turn to do p10 -thunder storms to the east, no doubt sending showers off tourists down half-domes chains i really liked p10, all but the shitty squeeze that suddenly shows up after the first 3rd - slithering through it w/ my pack on my stereo got scraped adn Took the Ride, the 2nd speaker/player combo i'd lost in as many weeks :angry: again, the anchors i reached were less favorable for camping, so on day 3 we called it good after only 3 fucking pitches, returning to the ledge on 9 to sleep - this time ben cleaned the pitch above in the cool of the evening though, so we got a quicker start the next day the mornign of the 4th day - the day for the last breakfast and last dinner i'd brought and we're barely half the fucking way up the face?!? ben returning to the top of p10 in the morning indian paintbrush, el cap tower, the texas flake and the boot flake p11 a portion of c2 than rivets and hooking - never done so much hookng on a route as the Trip p12 had me peeing in me panties for a bit - thiiiin crack off the anchor - smallest aid-nuts you got and occasionally you can finangle a 00 metollius in - dead heads and a shattered knifeblade at the crux, and i was happy to have a nice long cheater-stick to avoid that - goddamn i want to sleep on solid ground sometime soon! my typical hauling setup - yeah i know i shouldn't haul off a single bolt but i found myself doing it occasionally to get the pigs as close to the powerpoint as i could - i like the 2nd pulley to haul myself back up for the gri-gri plunge time for ben's 2nd slice of the day, the aptly #'ed pitch 13, which summoned the epic again- awkwardness, choosiness, tiredness, whatever - time passed and the Great Orb grew low in the west, throwing slanted light through the sleepy valley he is going to be done eventually, right? maybe i'd be less annoyed if my 4x4 fat-ass hadn't moments before snapped the plywood of the belay chair in half? our 4th night on the wall had me in a rare auold foul mood - seriously, if i had a dollar for every fine fuck-word i uttered this trip, i'd have enough to feed n' geld the whole nation of somalia - this camp pissed me off as the wall wasn't quite flat, and my ledge just wouldn't tension right to avoid a sickening degree of lean - the fact that dinner was shitty dry tunafish w/ no hopes for anything better tomorrow, and still 4 pitches to go, when we'd yet to manage that many in a single day yet, were no doubt on my mind regardless, like all those nights, i slept like an angel - well, like an angel that dreams of doing deliciously unclean things to clean looking people i reckon - this morning it was a change of a pace and ben got to go up the fixed rope first to haul and prepare the way for my advance - i cleaned while he hauled [video:youtube] ben in space! p14 was fun, and i had a burr up my ass for sure to get it done quick - very awkward a2 - i left a fixed cam clipped but cleaned everything else in anticipation of the mother of all rivet ladders above the lip the p14 anchors a joy - the ptich goes 165 feet till they ran out of rope, than just leaves you dangling in space, with a great joy in your heart as you realize you're just a few feet away from where the roof rolls back and shows you the top - looked to be ajoy to clean as well! the slow steady creak of the haul - like fucking a polar bear - get your 6 inches, don't think, get your 6 inches, don't think... [video:youtube] ben off on the last of the steepness - p15 - summit or death! don't mind me, i'll just dangle here FAHQ the leaning tower last of the rivet ladders the glooming of the evening was approaching, but at the top of 15 i felt like we just might get it done - 5.7 R C2 hooking - sounds great! ben poses for yet another attempt to get into the trailblazer fan hall o' fame p16 was my personal jesus pitch - very heady and refreshing after all that steep aid - rivet, head, hook, traversing hooks, pancake flakes flexing under fingertips, hook, hook, holyshit, a true fucking ledge, tree and all! i was mega-stoked, in the fading light, to be just below the top but at a place we could still stop and spend the night w/ harness off! it was a fine evenign, though swedish fish and the last of the camels were the extent of my fare - ben hungered to sleep on his 'ledge one last night, so i bunked down w/ the ringtail who was no doubt disgusted w/ our complete lack of shit to steal I FEEL HAPPY (even if this is the 5th day of a 3-4 day route ) my own little piece of paradise as ben scrambled up to the top the views from the top are sorta okay... el cap's top itself of course is kinda ho-hum - man, you can just see the glacial slabs punished the land up here - and no fat bivies to see! i was very happy to have stayed wehre we did that last night fucking blazers a most providentially placed tree, well bent for hauling - i was anticipating a mideast crisis like hauling hell, but we did it easily down the east ledge descent in wicked heat - way too much weight! something worth returning to the valley for! sentinel, sentinel dome, sentinel falls. for the unencumbered an easy 3rd-4th class downscramble - not so for us i *heart* halfdome? the last of 3 double-rope raps to the shattered steepness of the final trail - my toe-tops rubbed raw - ancient long-dong angle foudn in the wash, so long submerged the gravel rusted into the metal - skitters - sweat - savage hunger - fuuuuck, i want this done already! the final kick in the balls, we reach the picnic area but there's no ride, food nor water, the pit-toilets reek, and from the smells and flies around the beer boxes, i'm fairly certain someone's tried to hide a chopped-up hooker in them eventually base-camp ma was around though, and w/ a campground for the night - we went to the curry buffet and i ranged deep into my towering 'roid rage, snarling at my fellow suppers in the queue, eating 4 courses before even emerging from line with 3 plates of chicken, beef, lasagna, stir-fry, tatters, gravy, corn, soup, salad, corndogs, etc 20 minutes later i suddenly grew aware i was moments from hurling up the entire contents of my overstretched stomach and fought my way to my feet to wander, barefooted, out into the darkness to Gather My Strength we spent our last night in the valley w/ the most unfriendly and unhairy german lesbians i've yet met - played the endless game of "this is my fuckign carabiner and this one is yours" - woke to tourons howling at black bears like republicans howl at black people ben wasn't ready for his tangerine trip to end just yet breakfasted on nutella and rolling rock, then it was off for one last bit of activity - we clambered back up to the base of the trip, recovered our 3rd rope from launch day, looked around for the shitcan i'd accidentally precipated the 2nd day as well as for my stereo, then headed down, doing some quality rock-hounding along the way honestly, at this point my narrative breaks down - i remember devoting meself to a true and honest drunkenness - a dip in the merced - hanging out w/ el cap bridge hardmen - dogs - then that big boat home, the 3 liters of burgundy holding its own quiet well having completed our cycle and after the what have you, we were owed this! its rare indeed for a man to feel a Great Golden Glow like this one - soemthing that a 2X2, animal-style, compliments quite well we had lived like kings, and now it was time to return to slaving like beggars for our barest essentials Quote
ivan Posted July 13, 2011 Author Posted July 13, 2011 from base-camp becky ben and i setting out on our fixing day is my ass really this big? hauling the 4 pitches on launch day ben to the top of 4 ben on the wicked crack of p5 cleaning p5 ben just below the "ledge" atop p7 me humping the haulbags atop p8 cleanign p9 ben belaying p9 Quote
fgw Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 that's some great stuff right there, esp the writing "don't know why they call this launching - space shuttles launch - our takeoff is more akin to fat albert trying to get off the shitter" Quote
billcoe Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Way to smoke the Cap again lads! Woot! Enduro part deux. Quote
beaconben Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Thanks for the great trip reports Ivan. I'm psyched we got up the captain, and especially psyched you got up the captain, an ascent well deserved after your previous years attempts. I think Tangerine Trip was the hardest El Cap experience I have been thru because there are no ledges on the route. I think the aid climbing is easier than Zodiac, but not being able to stand on any sort of ledge for that many days, I found that to be kind of brutal. Just standing and sitting on that ledge one pitch from the top felt like such a luxury. Great trip Ivan!! Quote
kevbone Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Not bad guys. Awesome pictures...... Ivan you might want to think about putting a NSFC (not safe for children) notation on your video's. I was watching them with my almost 5 year old and had to stop it because every other word out of you mouth was fuckin. Just something to think about. K Quote
JosephH Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Not bad guys. Awesome pictures...... Ivan you might want to think about putting a NSFC (not safe for children) notation on your video's. I was watching them with my almost 5 year old and had to stop it because every other word out of you mouth was fuckin. Just something to think about. HeadBanger-to-InternetCensor at the speed of sound... Quote
ivan Posted July 14, 2011 Author Posted July 14, 2011 Not bad guys. Awesome pictures...... Ivan you might want to think about putting a NSFC (not safe for children) notation on your video's. I was watching them with my almost 5 year old and had to stop it because every other word out of you mouth was fuckin. Just something to think about. K you don't curse about your kids? my kids have it dialed - they can curse when they have hair on their junk and/or when they're on tv Quote
ivan Posted July 14, 2011 Author Posted July 14, 2011 should sorta apologize though a bit there, bone - if you can sympathesize, i spend 10 months a year w/ my mouth in check - if'n you'd read my text though, you can't exactly now be suprised though, eh? and hey, it was like 1 f-bomb and just for the first 2 videos i think! Quote
kevbone Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 should sorta apologize though a bit there, bone - if you can sympathesize, i spend 10 months a year w/ my mouth in check - if'n you'd read my text though, you can't exactly now be suprised though, eh? and hey, it was like 1 f-bomb and just for the first 2 videos i think! Dont apologize. I was just wanting a warning....thats all. Great job! Quote
kevbone Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Not bad guys. Awesome pictures...... Ivan you might want to think about putting a NSFC (not safe for children) notation on your video's. I was watching them with my almost 5 year old and had to stop it because every other word out of you mouth was fuckin. Just something to think about. HeadBanger-to-InternetCensor at the speed of sound... Nobody is censoring anybody. I do think a warning would have been in order. My son really wanted to watch all the vids.... Quote
JosephH Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Does that mean no metal for him...? What kind of father are you disenfranchising him of his heritage and legacy...? Quote
denalidave Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 i vowed to promote el capitan to el generalissimo should we win through (seriously, what gives? the hugest fucking stone on planet earth a mere O-3?!?) Get some! Shouldn't it be El Presedente then? Quote
stevetimetravlr Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 I still want to hear about the German lesbians. Ya! Quote
ivan Posted July 14, 2011 Author Posted July 14, 2011 I still want to hear about the German lesbians. Ya! who'd think they could be so dry? Quote
billcoe Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 My son learned to say very early "Dad, you're swearing"...to get me to stop it. Sometimes it would just annoy the shit out of him when I was on my 3rd Fuck word in a sentence. I was always proud that he never picked up the filthy habit and I generally kept it under control. 2nd year of college I'm chatting on the phone to him, he was a resident assistant at the dorm. He says: "Hang on a moment" puts his hand over the mouthpiece but I still hear him yell to the room full of folks "Hey, Shut the Fuck up back there I'm trying to talk to my dad" LOL Ben and Ivan both have great kids, you should be getting them out together. I like what Stan did, he got them in a climbing club at the local gym. The kids have a ball and dad boulders while the team trains. His kids are not just real sweet kids but are also now real good climbers. Sometimes the gym is asshole to elbows in lil kids to the point where about all you can do is stand there and scratch your head, but it can't help but bring a smile to your face anyway as they have so much fun and joy in it that it's contagious. Man...some of these lil Sharmas out there:-0 It's amazing. (Rudys boy, Stans kids, they're about everywhere etc etc), there is some kick assed hard core strong lil kids coming along for sure. Quote
Plaidman Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Dudes all I can say is GREAT JOB!!! and ENVY!! I will be patient I will get mine soon. El Cap will be destined to be climbed. Someone just gave me a RURP. I told them you ought not give me things like that. I will just have to find a place to use it. I think El Cap is jumping up and down and screaming .... Here right here. Use that RURP right here 2000 feet off the deck. You guys are bad asses and I am proud to call you my friends. Thanks Ivan. This trip report was almost readable. Quote
The Ospray Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Nice job guys, way to take all that mileage at Beacon and put it to use on the Big Stone! The Trip was my first solo on the Capitan, many a fond memories from up there, a couple not so fond Quote
ivan Posted July 14, 2011 Author Posted July 14, 2011 goddamn soloing the capitan sounds like a lot of work watchu use as your haul line, 'spray? we were using an 11 mm static, which was nice for fixing, but goddamn its heavy as hell halfway up the pitch - kept fighting a mental image of falling upside down and right out of the harness a 3rd tag line though would just be an extra pain in the ass to keep strait. been wanting to meet you dude, you gonna be out for the beacon opener tomorrow? come share a drink up on the ledge w/ the Brethern! Quote
The Ospray Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 I carry a 6 or 7mm tag line, as well as an 11mm static haul line, that way you can tag past the middle in a long pitch, you have less weight, you have an extra rap line. Also I've got a Kong Block Roll for hauling, so its heavy as all hell, so if I'm with a partner I can tag that, and some water up (or anything else I might need) and then begin the haul. Can't quite do it like that when soloing, unless you want to get into solo tagging. But you can still just tie both ropes together so your not bogged down by the heavy ass haul line as well as the whole rack. On all the harder pitches I've done on the Capitan I never start with the whole rack and probably tag 4 to 5 times through out the pitch. I am in Colorado for the month, but hopefully will have some free time when I'm back in Washougal. Have a drink for me though! Quote
pink Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Nice job guys, way to take all that mileage at Beacon and put it to use on the Big Stone! The Trip was my first solo on the Capitan, many a fond memories from up there, a couple not so fond Quote
OlympicMtnBoy Posted July 15, 2011 Posted July 15, 2011 What, you followin me around now? And climbing slower than our team of 3. :-p Nice job though, way to get up again after the storm! How did you like the revised version of P10 before the giant rivet ladder? Oh and we used a skinny tag line too, then hauled up the haul line, block roll, etc with a mini-traxion. Kind of complicated but it beat the weight and we were not in a hurry. And definitely a good route to flag a ledge on so you can still stand or sit at belays. I'll be in Tuolumne for a month soon if you want to do some slab climbing in the rest of your break. :-) Quote
wayne Posted July 17, 2011 Posted July 17, 2011 Determined effort lads! Cheers to your success. Quote
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