Hard to describe a 26 pitch route. You'll obviously want a topo but here is some basic info to get you started. Amazing route - one of the major highlights of my climbing career and one of the best experiences of my life. I highly recommend this line for a big El-Cap route without undue difficulty. You need to pay some dues on easier and smaller routes but you don't need to be an aid master or put your head on the chopping block for this one. I put a free rating of 9+ because you will do much better freeing a couple of the awkward chimney pitches instead of trying to aid them. The chimney on pitch 19 was especially awkward to aid, I had much better luck with freeing it. Lots of amazing pitches. No stand out crux but alot of spicy A/C2-3 pitches. The bismark is pretty exiting at the top, be ready to belly flop! Make sure you plan a bivy for the Bismark ledge, unbeleavable views of Halfdome and the Valley. Be efficient on cleaning lower outs and traverses, no big pedulums but some devious pitches to clean - especially the seagull and the molar traverse. Get good at highstepping it really helped me with the rivot ladders and getting past some spicier terrain.
Location
EL CAPITAN. Right of the Nose, Left of POW
Protection
All belays are bomber! We placed a total of 4 pins but didn't have any cam hooks. I think you could do this clean with a few cam hooks and a little trickery. Lots of aluminum dowels. Several fixed head pitches as well. Be prepared to replace heads or blown dowels/rivots. Some dowels have allready been replaced with quarter inch bolts. We had a double set of HB offsets that were incredibly usefull. We had one hybrid alien (green/yellow) and used it on every pitch. A full set of hybrids up to yellow/orange may be nice. We had a #6 friend for the top of the bismark and it worked out pretty well. Several hooking sections - we had a basic selection of 3-4 hooks. 3-4 sets of the smaller cams up to #1 camelot and doubles in the bigger sizes to #3.5 camelot. Single #6 friend. For pins we used a few short LA's and some baby angles. Bring a few bigger angles and a few sawed off angles as well. Also bring a selection of heads and keyhole hangars.
We did it clean a few years ago. I attribute alot of this to having a double set of offset aliens. Even triples in the blue/green and green/yellow would not be excessive.
Overall a pretty sustained and fun route and one of the best its grade on the capitan. A fantastic route and fun experience for me.
We did this clean in 2000 in five days. We took a set of hybrids, cam hook, files tricams, hooks,HB offsets and small pcord to hitch the blown cables. This is a great route. Marcus
Just for perspective: I did this route in 1980 with Dirk Havorka, and I'll bet I pounded more than 300 knifeblades and lost arrows. I also remember one of the most extrem moments I've had on El Cap. After nailing my way up the Bismark, and pounding in a bong sideways deep in the crack, I pulled up 20 feet of slack (which was itself a chore given the massive rope drag), and then I offwidthed to the belay. It was a moment of inner convulsion when I somehow managed to pull my way onto the top of the Bismark.
El Capitan
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