When we finished the Nose I was pretty drained and a bit scared of El Cap. We had joked on the way up that when we topped out we could sell our racks and quit climbing. . . Well that's just ridiculous. Climbing El Cap once kinda feels like you got away with something. If we could climb it again we would prove to ourselves that we were justified in our ascent. Also, once you have climbed it, it's all you can think about. So the day before yesterday we decided to climb another route up this spectacular wall. We chose Lurking Fear and planned for one night on the wall; climbing and hauling faster than before.
 |
| Jerome on lead.. |
Your nerves are always on end before a big or difficult route, but you get better at managing it. Learning to separate imminent danger from irrational fear is a huge part of success on big walls, and climbing in general. Also, learning to compartmentalize fear and simply focus on the individual movement in front of you is necessary. Highlights of the route were on pitch 11 when I had to make delicate cam hook moves through a roof traverse with all that space below.. or watching Jerome bump #4 and 4.5 Camalots into an 80 foot runout on pitch 8. A huge moon greeted us on the ledge that night and we woke up feeling hungry for what lay ahead. Feeling stronger and more confident than before we cruised along for two days and one spectacular night and reached the rim right before nightfall. Blahhhhhhhh!!!! El Cap, Again.... I'm reeling with excitement.
 |
| Racking Up |
 |
| Just Getting Started |
 |
| Mountain Physics on top |
No comments:
Post a Comment