"Hey you guys - please try to imagine this for a minute. Imagine if *I* were to have left a thousand-pound pile of crap at the base of El Cap what the fallout would have been."
Is he gonna pay someone to pick up the stuff??????????????????
I was guilty of this type of thing, when I chucked my haul bag off the East Face of Washington C., after soloing the Prow back in 1970.
I sure wasn't going to haul all that crap down that infamous gully, and this was one hour after a real heavy thunderstorm came ripping thru the Valley.
In fact, I probably didn't even think about how I was going to carry that stuff down,(mostly iron back in those days).
I doubt anyone was lurking below, after that heavy rain came thru.
No, I wouldn't do it today, and besides, I don't do aid anymore either, unless you count hanging on a piece once in a while.
On a more serious note… it seems that Piton Pete can not be convinced to give up tossing huge bags off the top of ZM, instead of carrying them down. His, and Jon Fox’s latest shipment came down at 1am last night. Alice, of Zodiac, texted that she didn’t know what hit the ground, at high velocity, as she awoke at the base, but hoped it wasn’t a base jumper.
Shame on you Pete Zabrok and Jon Fox… you are not infallible …hopefully someone else will not have to pay for your arrogance. The climbing community had a big discussion about this last season and although you emailed me, about the situation Pete, you didn’t respond to any of the discussions. Therefore, I will not report on any of your future climbs on El Capitan, nor will I photograph you, or any partner you are climbing with. As far as I am concerned, you are not welcome here at the Bridge. I have no authority here, so that is all I can do…. I think the rest of the community here agrees with my actions. What you people are doing is no joke.
So that’s the way it is, for this Tuesday, the 2nd day of October, 2012.
Later Tom
I say next time he lauches his shet, ya'll get together, gather it up, put it on EBAY and donate the proceeds to Ken and the YCA fund. Then PTPP can become a sponsor of the YCA.
I've nearly gotten hit twice by falling bags and it was a very scary experience both times. I've always considered the route unfinished until I've carried all my gear to the parking lot.
Hopefully nobody gets hurt or killed by laziness in the future.
In the 70s having just finished Sacherer Cracker and milling around the base a dropped or pitched haul bag trailing two floppy butt bags cratered and exploded in the midst of us. Pins were blown through the sides and stuck in trees, tuna can shrapnel was everywhere. It was a mess and it was very nearly fatal!
I understand it was more of a "norm" then but it was as wrong then as it is now.
It is really startling that Zabrok and Fox would chuck their stuff, especially over such a popular spot on El Cap for people to be bivying or making earlier starts. Have they lost their minds? If and when one of those bags does hit someone or blasts them nearby at 120 mph with, as Philo says, shrapnel, it will be incredibly incredibly tragic, senseless and at the same time horrific. It likely will even cause criminal charges and certainly civil action against those who were that dumb---likely in the millions of dollars too. I have to assume too that the NPS will have to get involved and some kind of new policy or curtailment will take place and our tenuous relationship with the NPS will turn to crap again.
Tom Evans' reaction to Pete Zabrok and Jon Fox's dumb ass move is fully understandable and I support him. Tom is not being frumpy and authoritarian. Tom better than anyone sees the whole picture: all the people trudging around the base of the huge walls, the zillion climbers topping out, the horde of parties bivying everywhere part way up and consequently understands the terrific peril throwing stuff off routes presents. It is quite an intense situation these days and not at all what it was back in the seventies when bag chucking was being tested out on an empty El Capitan. It just cannot be done today, pure and simple. If you have to hike back up for a second or third load, that is simply your lot in life and hardly impossible to cope with. One would think that after braving a big wall one could keep it together sufficiently not to be this selfish.
Let us know!