marckylove's Logbook (24 ascents)

Very tecky route. Tough crux. Haven't done the second pitch.. heard it ain't all that, but can't vouch for it.

If your party consists of solid 5.9 leaders, I suggest simul-ing as much as possible. We did this route in 5 pitches and could have done it in one fewer pitch had we not ran into a very nice Canadian couple near the top. If your confident in chimneys and don't mind running it out, you could theoretically have the first leader climb all the way through the crux and hit the belay shortly thereafter (as long as you have at least 20m of rope between the climbers). That way, the second doesn't have to worry about ripping the leader off if s/he pops out of the chimney. If you do it this way, it works quite well to take a single 60m half rope, have one climber tie into the middle of the rope and have the other climber tie into both ends. Apparently the record is approx 2 hours -- a bit outta my leauge, and quite a proud accomplishment to gun for!

Before a great aid climbin' English Chap convinced me to get on this route, I'd aided or cleaned no more than 12 pitches of aid in my whole life. I had no idea that I was getting into an 8 day epic ascent, my first of El Cap. I not only got my ass handed to me, but learned a heap about aid and wall climbing along the way. I told myself and my partner (as well as everyone in El Cap Meadow) during several rants that I'd never aid climb again. Of course after topping out, I changed my mind and was already thinking about what wall route I wanted to get on next. While there are several big fall potentials on this route, it's so freakin' steep that you are really looking at hitting anything other than big air. If you like aid climbing, have at it; a very worthwhile route.

Pretty famous route. You can get a route description from any valley rat kickin' in Camp 4. You really have to to 'Sons' afterwards. The crux .10d pitch ain't too bad if you have small fingers. Sausage fingers = .10d, lady fingers = .9+.

A wonderful route, abosultely must do. Sons of Yesterday was enjoyable as well.

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