El Capitan Report 9-12-18

Oh man the fall weather really kicked in today. Breezy, autumn colored perfection here in Yosemite Valley! Y'all need to get down here, and get your big routes in, before we're watching those amazing movies(rumored both Honnold and Dawn Wall premieres) at the Facelift......but I know how it goes, work is epic, the kids are sick, your partner just informed you that 'personal vacations' are out this year, whatever the reason you're turning to the web for El Cap news - buckle up, 'do not disturb,' and check this:

Good news is there is some news, haha. The beginning of the month had me wondering if the bigwall thing was over. It looked like there were 6 - 10 teams on the mountain today. A mellow amount for this time of year, but at least it's something. Threw in some pics from the summit, and in the Stovelegs, to get you stoked. The preorder sales for my new guidebook, Rock Climbing Yosemite Valley: 750 Best Free Routes the revised edition starts tonight!

​http://www.rockclimbyosemite.com/​​​

Lurking Fear: Looked quiet out there.

Winds of Change: Some badass guys were racking up for the first pitch. Should be fun to watch!

Salathe: Saw one team leading out of the Heart, but otherwise this Tom Frost legacy route is wide open. Get Sum!

Muir: A couple ladies looked to be working their way up the upper dihedrals......that route is so splitter!

Nose: At least there were a handful of teams on this great route. Five parties pretty nicely spaced, with some more in que. This is an awesome time to climb the Nose - there are so few teams it has been easy for folks make sure they don't start(after fixing) up the route at the same time.

Zodiac: A local team was french freeing their way up this fine route, looked like a nice 8 hour pace. Wowza these young guys are strong now. Zodiac is so accessible, if you like aid climbing, being only fifteen pitches(with some super easy ones!). Get Up There!

Look forward to seeing you in the Valley!
Erik Sloan

Looking west from the top of the Nose

Looking east from the Porch

Stovelegs Glory!

Nearby Buckeye hotsprings, awesome camping too

The new book, coming Oct. 20 - 25th. Please help me pay for the printing by preordering!

The Valley Love of Mash Alexander

Lol, a week of people saying it was a little warm, and now everyone is in their puffies. Fall's On!

There was one party with kit on Lurking Fear, pitch four or five.

Any new routes in the revised edition or purely corrections?

A handful of new routes - a bunch of routes went up on the north face of Fifi, so got those in there. Not so much corrections but tons more beta - long written descriptions of approaches / descents, descriptions of the climbing style on the popular routes, and strategy, bunch of new photos, etc. Thanks for preordering guys!

Pass The Pitons Pete and friends are on winds of change. 

thanks for the new report

can the revised guide please be ordered in the way all other guides have been?? please i ask!!

Valley Fall Bliss to the whole tribe! So good here right now, so many stoked people, and good times happening. Sorry I'm lagging on more reports - Tom Evans will be in tomorrow or the next day, so he can get after it.

Rockclimbyosemite.com to preorder the new guidebook - it's $21k for the printing, so please help me cover this cost by preordering. Businesses can even preorder at the wholesale price. I"m putting together a large, fine art print of El Cap with all the routes drawn on, and anyone who preorders my book will be allowed to order the print at wholesale!

Lurking Fear: Still just one party, but don't get out west much so not sure

Never Never Land: Dude Ollie is going solo on this rig. He was bivied at the top of three last night. Looked psyched!

Winds of Change: Neil was just putting down the second pitch around midday. Boss!

Salathe: A couple parties now, looking strong, and a couple more on freeblast. Word around the campfire is the fixed lines to Mammoth Terrace need to be replaced. We would like 2000' of 10.2 or 10.5 static rope. Email me at erik@yosemitebigwall.com and I'll give ya the address to send it to.

Muir: The ladies team kept crushing, and is now headed for the top. Ironically another team of two ladies is set to start tomorrow......Johanna Muir maybe?

Nose: Some good action on this fantastic route. Still moderate enough crowds for good staggering, but plenty of lights to check out at night. So perfect right now!

Zodiac: I had missed a party low on this route, one of my favorites. A used to be local lady and partner are leading to Peanut right now, look strong!

Can't describe the awesome vibes here right now. Go For It! Woot Woot!
Erik Sloan - Yosemitebigwall.com / Rockclimbyosemite.com

Hey Erik the website doesn't really seem like it's working right

thanks for the stoke, sloan

There have been some snafus with the website, but I think it's working. Thanks for preordering my book! OMG it's nice in Yosemite right now - get out here!

Thanks for dropping the 'woots'

Seriously

These posts are getting me psyched to head out to the valley in a couple weeks! Thanks for the report Erik!

nice to meet you yesterday erik!  

Looks like Sloan websites are down.

mmmm, websites are working for me.

The websites are broken with https:// but work with http://, mountain project seems to automatically hyperlink to an https:// address

Hi Erik,

We were planning on Climbing triple direct in a few weeks (Oct 1 or so), Climbing freeblast then hauling to mammoth ledges via the fixed lines. It seems like the current fixed lines to mammoth are pretty shot right now (and shouldn’t be used?), so we will probably need to haul bags on freeblast? What are your thoughts?

Any input would be really appreciated!

Teddy Kisch wrote: Hi Erik,

We were planning on Climbing triple direct in a few weeks (Oct 1 or so), Climbing freeblast then hauling to mammoth ledges via the fixed lines. It seems like the current fixed lines to mammoth are pretty shot right now (and shouldn’t be used?), so we will probably need to haul bags on freeblast? What are your thoughts?

Any input would be really appreciated!

I suggest hauling it.

We did. It seemed unwise to trust or assume there would be ropes we could use . We were also slow and bivied above the half dollar.

Watch for loose rock in the grey bands. Seems like pitch 25 had a balanced microwave sized boulder that is where you'd want to pull about 20 feet above the belay ( a few years back ).
Try and time it to avoid conga line jam on The Nose finish.
Watch out for the crystal chimney pitch on The Muir as you can ledge fall. Cam hooks make the changing corners pitch easy. I think The Great Roof was the finest most spectacular pitch and had nut placements from heaven. I recommend the second bag the lead line as he cleans as we got it stuck badly.

Good luck! Never go down!

Hauling Freeblast is definitely an option, and the crowds are low right now so not that big of a deal. That said, most folks find it way easier to haul the fixed lines from Heart - I've hauled Freeblast a couple times and the bag tends to get stuck on a couple pitches, but I guess that's not that big of a deal. I hope we can get some rope together and get the Heart lines replaced. We just need 2000' of 10.5 static rope, not that big of a deal. Folks can email me with contributions or to coordinate replacement, erik@yosemitebigwall.com

I climbed Triple Direct this year - awesome route!

Woot! Erik