El Cap report gone??

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clinker

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, California

Oct 13, 2015 - 11:41am PT

What did Lynn rename the Nose as, after freeing it.

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Oct 13, 2015 - 11:42am PT

The boot flake was called the boot flake because it looks like a flippin' boot. No debate necessary.

Are you talking about backwards L flake?

EdwardT

Trad climber

Retired

Oct 13, 2015 - 11:45am PT

It's unfortunate to see another top tier contributor run off.

Woe is us.

madbolter1

Big Wall climber

Denver, CO

Oct 13, 2015 - 11:50am PT

another top tier contributor run off

That's "went and runn-oft."

crunch

Social climber

Oct 13, 2015 - 12:03pm PT

Nice post, JEleazarian.

I think maybe there was huge public interest for a handful of earliest ascents but then this largely vanished.

Recently, it's gone full circle; technology has changed/improved so much (cell phones, cameras, internet), it's made it so easy for anyone to closely observe what's going on. In this thread I see at least one post from people actually up on El Cap.

There was a window for a decade or two where you could be up on a wall and virtually no one would know you were there, no one would see you. And in turn you were utterly out of touch with the outside world for a few days. That was a nice feeling. The old movie El Capitan captures something of this, the stillness, silence, surreal remoteness amid fear and truly majestic vertical architecture.

Perhaps I was just really lucky to have been climbing big walls at that time. It's a different experience now and I think I'd find the experience less appealing.

Again, no disrespect to Tom and his report. It's all a part of this change. We can't go back; if Tom tires of what he's doing, someone else will step up; he seems like a pretty good ambassador for explaining what's going on up on El Cap to the rest of the world in 2015.

Klaus is a great ambassador for how things used to be up there when being polite to others was not part of the job description.

madbolter1

Big Wall climber

Denver, CO

Oct 13, 2015 - 12:09pm PT

You totally misunderstood me. I was joking based upon one of my favorite lines from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou."

What makes it funny is that Tom did NOT went and runn-oft. He's still there. He just doesn't care to engage in the STUPID pissing, dik-measuring contests that constitute MOST of the threads like this one. So, he's not HERE, on this cesspool of a thread.

I thought to contribute a bit of levity, and felt a bit dirty to have ANYTHING to do with this sick-puppy thread. My mistake.

I'll now go runn-oft too.

EdwardT

Trad climber

Retired

Oct 13, 2015 - 12:26pm PT

Bullshnert to EdT and MB1 !

This is what everyone cries for; a climbing thread. Tom has contributed to this thread and is still doing the El Cap Report. It's easy to just book mark his web page and keep up on his photos and comments. Or not if that's how you feel.

He's no longer contributing to SuperTopo.

Hope that clears it up for you.

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Oct 13, 2015 - 12:36pm PT

There was a window for a decade or two where you could be up on a wall and virtually no one would know you were there, no one would see you. And in turn you were utterly out of touch with the outside world for a few days.
Perhaps I was just really lucky to have been climbing big walls at that time. It's a different experience now and I think I'd find the experience less appealing.

Gotta disagree, Crusher. That experience of being up there completely alone and completely out of touch with the world is still readily available. Just not on El Cap.

There are thousands upon thousands of big walls in the world. Yes, many are in places difficult to reach. But many are not.

In fact, one of the best climbing books in the whole history of the universe is about one group of such walls, not all that far from Yosemity. But you already know that, cuz you wrote the damn thing!

Seriously, anyone who wants that lost-in-space feeling of being alone on a big wall can find it pretty easily.

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Oct 13, 2015 - 12:36pm PT

Thanks, Crunch. Those were good comments, yourself.

I, too, was lucky to be climbing then. When I first started climbing in the Valley, we rarely saw or heard another party, even on short, relatively popular routes. Of course, that's probably because we were naively climbing in the Valley in the middle of summer, rather than in the Meadows or someplace similar. Starting up the Royal Arches, we felt like we were heading up the Salathe Wall in 1961 - totally alone and cowed by the size of the wall. (Incidentally, the first ascent party described the "Rotten Log" as merely "an old tree trunk," so renaming features has a history in the Valley).

I can still find that kind of adventure and solitude in the Valley, as can others who put forth the effort. I just need to work a little harder to get there, and ignore current fashion in climbing.

John

Burnin' Oil

Trad climber

Oct 13, 2015 - 12:37pm PT

What a weird world.

couchmaster

climber

Oct 13, 2015 - 01:35pm PT

Feel free to hit the Elcap reports paypal donate button on the left when perusing the 10-12 update. Or not, still a free country. I tossed him some and he was very happy.

http://www.elcapreport.com/

Elcap-reports said:

"I am now involved with shooting for Adidas so this may be the last report on a regular basis… I will see what I can put together at the end of each day. Stay tuned."

Hope they pay better than us, congrats on the new gig Tom!

Offset

climber

seattle

Oct 13, 2015 - 02:10pm PT

from here it looks like allllll el cap ascents are being documented by tom. but that's because it is impossible to report on those not being reported.

plenty of folks are scending with nobody being the wiser. i've talked to plenty people in the meadows or camp4 that just got off the wall and never even heard of tom.

you can have your wilderness experience up there if you want to.

...and +1 Ian!!