I finally got around to climbing the East Buttress of El Cap this past Saturday after wanting to for like literally 20 years. My friend Mark and I drove up Friday planning to camp at Harden flat and rise before the sun. We skipped our favorite haunts including the Battered Beaver, Winkin Lantern (F4) and lastly the Iron Door Saloon. My point here is that we MEANT business. With alarms set for 5AM we fell right asleep.
On the approach before 7AM we made great time managing to make it to the base in about 40mins. Once there we noted that there was a party on the first pitch belay with the second midway up the second pitch and out of sight. While waiting for them to depart and racking up another party of 2 showed up, behind them another party of 2 (these being card carrying gym members) and lastly...a party of 3. Lord this was gonna be one busy day.
We decided that Mark would lead the odds and me the evens. That gave me the second crux pitch and also the 6th REAL crux pitch. Choosing the Fish topo over that within ST the route would clock in at 9 pitches.
Mark somewhere up in the maw of the 5.9 1st pitch:
I nabbed the crux pitch without much thought and overall though the pitch was enjoyable.
Mark up on the 3rd pitch....you can't take a bad picture of this one!
A bit higher with some "meh" gear but good face holds:
Typical views off the 3rd pitch ledge:
Big wall season in effect, at least 5 parties between us and the nose alone!
After finding my way up the pitch 4th face buttress, I managed to get some ok gear in without a long fall. Looking down to the ledge belay:
Mark made his way up the 4th pitch and was jazzed to lead on:
On pitch 6, it took me some real work to figure out that the 5.9 face crux was NOT to walk your hands up the crack. Three hangs later, I committed to the crack, stepped over and down and found the move easy. Sheesh!
Here I'm considering hanging:
Looking down from the belay on pitch 6th, I recounted on how 1.) long the pitch was but 2.) tough! Honestly this was a great pitch. I'd like to go back and climb the OW full combat style as opposed to the cool face climbing with ancient pins. LOADS of history on this route and more pins that any other single route I've done.
Here is Mark finishing the 6th pitch....toasted and YES it was hot.
Mark led pitch 7, a short pitch that continued up the corner to yet another nice ledge. By this time my feet were not happy and I had completed my 70oz of water. Thirsty I took off up pitch 8. The traverse was cake but the 5.8 face after the traverse proved another stretcher and a scary one at that. Numerous bad pins later, I stood for about 5 mins before committing to the upwards rise.
Starting the traverse:
Here I am fiddling some more "meh" gear in:
And here, upwards progress and the real work starts:
Another pitch of really cool face put us on the summit.
The aftermath for me was overall time car to car in under 12 hours.....not bad considering the East Ledges. On the rock we were never held up or holding other up. Perfect temps and clear skys.....didn't plan on such sun so I should have brought more water. I also wore too many clothes having been schooled before and left freezing. Gear wise we were about spot on. the 8mm static was nice to drag and I was glad to not be hauling another 10mm. A perfect route on a perfect day. This route now ranks as one of my favorites and we felt the history of the route in a number of places. We clipped over 10 pins and passed by perhaps half as much. The rock was also oddly stellar...I've never climbed ANY rock let alone granite with the flint hard runnels this one had.
Here is Mark on the top:
And lord, i need a tan! Did I mention I was warm?
Lastly, remember what I said about more water? Well 'nuff said:
