Logan Talbott and I met up in Yosemite on Wednesday morning to climb the Nose route on El Capitan. I drove from SF a 5:45 am and made it to the valley in respectable time. We racked up and got on the wall around 12 noon or so taking our sweet time. On the wall we moved slow. Watching other parties in front of us move even slower. We defined our style as heavy aid. Much associated with a large haul bag and the leader, come to find out, wearing knee pads, full rack, tennis shoes and the like. SLOW.
I hadn’t climbed a wall in over two years. When I think of wall, I think of pain. For a long time all I did when faced with ascending an enormous face was think in terms of getting to the top in the fastest amount of time. That thinking has gotten me up many faces. The thinking on this climb was decidedly different. “Take enough stuff to ensures, however slow we go we make the top.” There is no risk in that for me and therefore speed and efficiency lost all meaning. I felt like we were on a walk in the park. We had a chance to shine and decided that it was to hard, conditions and schedule where not right, and worst of all too tired. These are all excuses that lost us the summit even though we where in striking distance.
The Nose is a beautiful route and is meant to be free climbed. I will go back and free what I can. No heavy aid rack, no tennis shoes, just me and the captain.
We did get some excellent pictures and video footage out of the climb. We were blessed to have Kevin Steele right above us on the climb and Big Wall Tom at the bridge in El Cap meadow taking shots of us. We also had the video camera on the first part of the climb. Thanks Guys.
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