Mescalito, El Capitan A3 5.8

Yosemite Valley, California USA

Currently 5.0/5

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	Credit: Michael Nicholson Credit: Michael Nicholson

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hubcap

climber

loveland co

Aug 13, 2016 - 05:38pm PT

This was one of my pitches. Charlie & Hugh had made it to this belay the day day before. The "ramp" bearing left to the very bottom of the dihedral I aided with homemade aluminum dowels, funky. Then I started putting in a 1/4" bolt. Charlie yelled up "What are you doing?", I said "Putting in a bolt" but I didn't tell him it was a 1 1/2" long bolt. Heading up the dihedral was kind of thin, when I got up to just left and down a little from the climber in this photo I got a half KB with hero loop in. Looking up I could see a placement - maybe an LA - but there was a tiny bush growing out of it. I thought about the bush for a moment then thought "It's the bush or me, so f**k that cute little bush". Reaching up I grabbed the bush and ripped it right off and what I saw was a spot for a LA but it still had a green root in it with some green goo drooling out of it. I grabbed a small chubby LA and put a hero on it and started beating it in, it went in about 5/8" and as it went in the green goo just kept drooling out - not very confidence inspiring. The critical crowd was right below me so I figured I'd better give it a shot. I just started to get some real weight on it when it started twisting down, not like grinding in rock down but like slimeing down, like the pin was driven into someones nose. Holy Crap! I stepped back down on the KB and told myself "Hit that slime ridden, bastard pin for Christ's sake!" I did 3 times and I was airborne! About a 30-35 footer. I had come down with my back to the wall, upside down about a foot away from the wall. My hammer, being on a sling, followed along above me and when I hit the end of the rope it flew between me and the wall and made a nice wound, squirting blood, from the back of my head. I was about level with Hugh and Charlie, the first thing I noticed was Hugh had caught me with his arm pits, in his left hand he had a huge jar of peanut butter - in the other a piece of bread and a butter knife. Charlie asked if I was OK and I said "Yes, how are you guys doing?" He said "We're good over here" See what you miss by taking the bolts straight up!

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