By Jim Herson
Route selection as of late has not been all that mentally taxing. But this week was just too easy and fun. With no self-control when it comes to tweaking Greggie, Chan and I headed back to the Yosemite race track to smoke Greg and Hans' rather pokey time on the Salathe.
Blasted off at first light and 6hr 32min later deployed the landing chutes on top. Chopped an hour off the record(*) but left plenty of fat to still trim. With a full night's sleep, reasonable temperatures, and some remedial rope handling (we got our rope stuck!) we can tidy it up into a respectable time.
It was the most fun morning of climbing ever.
With only 24hrs left of my childhood until a purgatory of weed whacking and grouting (our house closing is today) this trip was to be my El Cap weaning. No more than one climb up the Captain per day. But because we're untrustworthy we tossed in an extra sandwich and headlamp just in case. Sure enough we hadn't coiled the rope before there was a gnawing in the pit of our stomachs from the unfinished business on the Nose linkup. (We had missed the 24hrs.) We psyched up for the linkup as we sprinted down the East Ledges until BOOM!!! Whacked once again by the sizzling heat of the Valley floor. With the memory of heat stroke all too fresh from our linkup three weeks ago we surprised ourselves and did the mature thing. A proper linkup would have to wait for a cooler day. Instead we relaxed and enjoyed the morning's memories. After all, we had already tweaked Greggie and climbing doesn't get any better than that!
Jim
(*) We actually climbed (aid, of course) the Free Salathe which varies at P24 and P33 from the original aid line.
From: Evan Cohn The most fun ever sounds pretty fun. When Kara makes you a grandpa and you need help to get out of the rocking chair - her children won't believe these stories. I was in a tennis tournment this wkd -- the guy who won the division below me was 76. Pretty fucking amazing. He beat a guy on my team to do it too. e
From: Greg Murphy Alas, not the REAL Salathe
From: Hans Very nice! Greg probably caught a good football game on Sunday, huh? Excellent job! H
From: Clint Cummins Cool trip report! You guys must be in amazing shape. And fun to smoke Greg + Hans on the Salathe' without that many speed routes in the past! There can't be that much weed wacking and grouting to do?? Surely a few El Cap mini-days could be slotted in here and there! Clint
From: Dave Mellinger > Blasted off at first light and 6hr 32min later deployed the >landing chutes on top. Better.... but I'll really be impressed when you can do THREE El Cap routes in a day. At 6.5 hrs for the Salathe and 3.5 for the Nose (since you ARE faster than Hans now), you have 14 hours left for another route plus the two walk-offs. Plenty of time! But you may need to work on that resting-up-beforehand thing. Seriously, that is a truly amazing time. Congrats on breaking the record. Now about that house.... Soon it will come to this: you'll be a master plumber and painter, and on the climbing front, you'll be proud of climbing Bill's Rock twice in a day. Dave P.S. Whatever happened with the $70k damage problem? Did they come down in price at all, or did you have to absorb it? Good luck with it in any case.
From: Bill Wright YOU ARE AWESOME!!!! Congratulations! I was at Hans house when you sent this note out. He was very excited for you two!