From October 27th to October 30th, Gavin and I climbed our first El Cap route and my first big wall. Lurking Fear is an approximately 2000' route on the left face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
I arrived in Reno, NV at around 1 am pacific time (4 am eastern time) and approximately 12 hours after I had left Raleigh. After retrieving my duffel I quickly found Gavin in his veteran Chevy S10 waiting by the baggage claim. We wasted no time in getting to his apartment in Reno and going to sleep.
6am came quick and we were on the road stopping only for coffee and "Monorito's", famous burritos out of the Mono Market in Lee Vining. We made Yosemite Valley around 11 am and went to work packing our haul bag. While attempting to shake our pre-climb jitters, that we both noted were more severe than usual, we talked to some tourists who eagerly wanted to know exactly how dangerous it was to climb El Capitan...
After that encounter, we both decided it was probably time to get going. We got on the approach around noon bearing pretty heavy loads. We had planned for food and water for 4 days which meant approximately 80 pounds in the haul bag. Shortly after starting the approach we encountered Tommy Caldwell and his family on the trail. Totally awesome, yet slightly embarrassing due to the fact that we were wearing arguably the smallest amount of clothing recommended in public.
Having met Tommy and having a boost in stoke, our pace quickened and we arrived at the base of the route close to 1:30 pm where we met 3 Italian climbers who told us that they were only two pitches shy of having freed the entire route. Stoked for those guys, we watched as they worked on freeing the first and second pitches which Gavin and I planned to aid since they go free at the blistering grades of 12c and 13c respectively.
At 2:30 we got our opportunity to really start climbing. I led the first two pitches, moving at a snails pace relative to free climbing standards, and got us a couple hundred feet off of the ground where Gavin took over and led a third mini-pitch to the base of the "Window Pane Flake" where we spend our first night on the wall. At this point, I was feeling crappy! Exhausted, dehydrated, and worked from kind of a long day. I was certainly worried that the next day would not be all that great.
Early in the morning we were passed by a party who had fixed the first two pitches the previous day and so struck up friendly conversation while we hung out with them at the first few belays until they picked up the pace (i.e. I took over the lead from Gavin). Gavin led the first two pitches in the morning. One out of the "Window Pane Flake" and a second that linked pitches 4 and 5 of the route in a single mondo-pitch (230 feet!). I took over and led pitch 6 and the incredibly aesthetic traversing pitch 7. We got into a bit of a groove on day 2 where we climbed a total of 6 pitches, including an incredible offwidth that Gavin led with up to 80 feet of runout. We fixed a 7th pitch up to the "Pillar of Despair" where our friends were bivying for the night.
Once again, I went to sleep on our hanging portaledge completely knackered. Gavin, being a Park Ranger, had I think accrued slightly more fitness than I had training at what amounts to sea level in Raleigh.
Early on day 3 after ascending our fixed line to the "Pillar of Despair", I led pitch 10 followed by Gavin leading a two pitch block through some tricky aid to take us to pitch 13 where I led with some of the only free climbing I did on the route. Soon after we were up to pitch 14 which is an incredible ledge for 1 person, meaning tight for two. Luckily Gavin is smaller in stature than I.
We bivyed on the ledge at pitch 14 after Gavin fixed pitch 15 and we decided to take an easy day. It was really nice to be done before dark that day. It gave us an opportunity to eat a bunch of food and talk to some climbers who were passing us doing Lurking Fear in a single day.
Day 4 was our last day on the wall. When we woke up, I felt like it was an ambitious goal to be down for pizza and beer at nightfall. By this point the physical and mental exertion was starting to take a toll on me. I backed off of leading pitch 16 and Gavin rope gunned us through two pitches to "Thanksgiving Ledge", which really is big enough for a family to have Thanksgiving dinner on. I then struggled through leading pitch 18 and Gavin blasted us up the final easy slab pitch to the end of the technical climbing.
After hauling our gear up to the trees that marked the end of the climbing and the start of the hiking, we had done it!
Next was the descent which, once we found it, proved mentally challenging for me with exposed third class and full exhaustion at that point. Thankfully, we did manage to make it down just after dark for pizza and beer!
Thinking back now, it still feels surreal that we climbed El Cap. Maybe because I was so worked the whole time. Or maybe because overall it went really smoothly.
Thanks to Gavin for going on this adventure with me and for reminding me to keep the stoke high!
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