Team Tiger Monkey- Yosemite 2008

2008-06-27T20:14:00.001+10:00

Photos posted....there are some Zodiac photos to be added soon

2008-06-25T09:48:00.001+10:00

2008-06-25T08:58:00.001+10:00

The final chapter in the Yosemite romance novel was filled by Lee and Jake and a date with the Nose.....they awoke at 4am...anticipating a day of 15 hours of climbing...we had packed as much as we could as we all left the next morning, and I was briefed to have dinner ready at 10.30pm...depending on where I saw their headtorches on the route in the evening....they strode down to the base of the route, racked up and before they knew what had happened they had topped out!!!........it felt that quick to them, Jake was still shaking his head when they met me at the El Cap picnic area after the decent around 2 that afternoon....but here is what actually happened...

......Lee took the first block lead (they were leading the route in 4 blocks of approx. 8 pitches each, with the second jugging. During the blocks of leading they would only meet up as little as once for the second to give some gear back to the leader). Jake spent the first 1/4 of the route killing himself laughing at how fast they were going....At pitch 6 they hit another "nose in a day" party so rather than swinging leads around their planned point, Lee put on his indicator and over took.....they swung leads at the end of pitch 11. Jake lead up from the end of the stove legs, to El Cap tower, texas flake and to the top of the boot (and the start of the king swing), having back cleaned the entire pitch as he went.. Lee could then swing...that is take the KING SWING....so he unclipped from his belay point, ran across the wall and jumped onto the ledge, Jake then rapped down to meet Lee...stating "when we get to El Cap Tower, I will drink some of that water that people have left"...to which Lee replied with a laugh.."dude, we've already passed ElCap tower "...it was all happening in such a blur for them that it was hard to even notice where they were up to...Lee grabbed the gear from Jake and lead off ...through the grey bands, great roof, pancake flake, glowering spot...all the way to camp 6....they were short fixing.....so basically at each belay the leader would pull up the extra slack, tie it off to the belay and start leading again on a PDL (Pakistani death loop) while the second jugged and cleaned the minimal gear...Jake did the final block to the top of the cliff, climbing through the changing corners and the steep ground to the summit, both of them topping out 6 hours and 44 minutes after they had left the ground....in time to meet me for a coke and lunch on the bridge....they were stoked and the monkeys on the bridge were a little stunned....and were well and truly ready for the Aussies to go back home!!!

It was really sad to leave the Valley but we are all very excited to be home and of course already planning our next adventure.....I will post some photos later today!

2008-06-20T10:14:00.001+10:00

Ohhhhhh we are all a little tired and sore. Jake, Lee, Ben and I hiked up to half dome on Tuesday (35degree heat for three hours), spent the night being eaten alive by mosquitos....it was really hot and we had to be completely covered by our sleeping bags, head and all, we were clam chowder...so clammy...we nearly started climbing at 10pm to escape them but we couldn't get a response from Ben even with Lee throwing iceballs at him...at least Jake , Lee and I had a laugh!

We started climbing at 5am...and were cruising up to the variation of the route that Lee and I didn't do last time...it was 70 metres of choss...so loose and the most careful climbing I have ever done with jake climbing up 10m below me, a 3 person aid team below us and another team of two lower down the route. It was all OK until I hit a traverse that had a tombstone size flake that tipped out on me as I pulled on it to get a cam above out...I pushed it back as hard and fast as I could and my heart didn't stop pounding for another 2 pitches...luckily the rest of the route is solid as and we had a ball trucking on to the top. Ben onsighted or flashed everything, Jake didn't have time to redpoit the slab pitch when he fell at the top of it and Lee had already done the route but onsighted the varient picth up high that he had never done...it was a sweat pitch of laybacking! I climbing all but 1 whole pitch (I pulled through the slab pitch at the top...my feet were screaming) and need to figure out 6 moves over a couple of the crux pitches but was very happy with my crack climbing!!

We got back to the base of the route at 8, with half an hour of daylight left to descend the "death slabs"...which we did two hours of in the dark...by the time we had walked back to camp four it was 12.30am and we had been going non stop for 20 hours...my feet hurt sooooo much and the legs are suffering still....but it was very satisfying!!

We said goodbye to Ben today...it has gone sooo quick. Lee and Jake are doing the Nose in a day tomorrow and I will limp down to the bridge to record the time at different points on the route and to check their OK....short fixing...scary...it will take me a couple more days to get my climbing legs back after our most recent half dome adventure ( I am punished) so that my trip done!

We should have some more interesting blogging in a couple of days, I am still a bit tired to type the funny stories!

2008-06-17T03:34:00.000+10:00

6 days left and counting...this trip is going way too fast. This blog is coming to you from the queue in camp 4 for a campsite...got here at 6.45...its 8.45 now....ahhh life in Yosemite!

The last couple of days have seen jake and i fly up the mega classic Nutcracker (Jake hadn't climbed it before)....its an awesome route....and me having lots of hanging out time at the bridge. There are heaps of photos of Lee and Ben and even a couple of me sitting! on www.supertopo.com under FORUM...El Cap Report (last weeks reports) if anyone wants to see what the route looks like, or what Jake and I look like surrounded by "monkeys" (yosemite regulars, generally unwashed).

The guys are off Zodiac. And no they did not manage to free the nipple pitch (31). They spent two nights bivied at the start of the pitch and a bit of time working the 15 move crux section of crazy shallow underclings and smear feet....There were some whippers and after Lee's last attempt a scream of frustration that could be heard from the bridge a KM away. They finally pulled the pin at 11.30 with the suns arrival on the wall and flew up the remaining 11 pitches to top out at 8.30....

They said it is 15 moves of hard climbing and that was it...the temp was a bit hot so the rubber was fraying off the shoes a little and they need slightly bigger forearms...only slightly. They were very psyched with their attempt and only mildly bummed that they didn't free the pitch...and they learned a lesson with circumstances before the trip compromising their training a bit more than they would have liked...Tom (El Cap pics) took tons of photos and the guys took some footage...its hilarious watching Lee's last attempt on the Nipple pitch while Ben is both belaying and filming with one hand holding the climbing side of rope above the gri gri, the other holding the camera...Lee took a whipper...yelled at Ben a bit, you see ben checking his hand for rope burn...obviously they were both fine but the bickering is quite funny to listen to....

The plan for the rest of the week is for Lee, Ben, Jake and I to hike up to Half Dome this afternoon, sleep at the base with the bear, get up at 4 and climb half dome as fast as we can so Ben can make his flight home! Jake and ben are going to climb the Nose in a day on Thursday (if we had one more rest day I would love to do the same but my knees take a bit to recover from the hike up and down from half dome....OK its hard to step out of the bus for a few days, they hurt so much!...lots of stretching for me when I get home!!!). Then Lee and I will balst up the West Face on Friday and leave for San Fran on Saturday....will send more news after this week....hope its stopped raining at home or we will have to stay! Aside from the food and camping Yosemite is amazing climbing and a really great scene...we have met some awesome people and I have had a ball climbing.....update you soon!

2008-06-13T10:40:00.001+10:00

On a lighter note...the boys are going well. I watched them both climb the El Portel (28) pitch yesterday on the edge of my seat...you know that everytime they fall they will have to come all the way back to the belay and climb the pitch again, with 5-6 days of climbing and 20+ pitches to climb you can almost feel the skin wearing off their finger tips, the foot pain from that many hours scrunched in climbing shoes, the rbain fatigue from fucosing for so long, the nose pain from lee and ben combined foot and rear odour...By the end of yesterday they were a pitch ahead of schedule having climbing the El Portel picth.

The Nose was providing quite hilarious entertainment yesterday with the help of Tom's commentry. his telescope and camera/ telescope set up mean that he can almost make out the facial expressions of the climbers on El Cap. there was a team attempting the 30m King Swing on the nose (for anyone who doesn't know...there is a feature on El Cap that looks like a boot, so its called boot flake...the leader climbs to the top, clips a bolt, lowers down to a grey band feature in the rock then starts running across the wall to create a pendulumn swing so they can catch a flake way to the left of boot flake, where they can then satrt climbing up again). the leader didn't lower down enough and started running like mad back and forth...there were about 10 back seat drivers on the bridge all yelling advice that of course could not be heard from the nose..."go lower"..."oh man this guy is going to cheese grater"..."3,2,1,...there you go...." and the person would swing and bounce and bump wildly back across the wall. the poor climber took 4 trys before finally working out they needed to lower down a little, then they got it!

So today ben and Lee both climbed the Flying Butress (29) pitch first shot...the sun hit them just as Lee reached the belay so they aided up, set up the ledge and chilled out for a few hours until the shade hit...at about 3pm they lowered down to the start of the Open Book (30) desperately slick, holdless, urine covered, hard, hard, hard picth and Ben was working it. He seemed to have it pretty sorted and as far as I know the plan is to try it tomorrow first thing then go for the crux Nipple pitch....I will be up at 6 again to get down and see how they are going...they are going great guns so far but tomorrow will be telling....

I am relaxing, writing and generally hanging out...eager to get climbing again when Lee is off the wall..in the mean time I am the blogger!

2008-06-13T10:28:00.001+10:00

It was a crazy day today. A climber named Alan was walking down from the base of El cap with his partner after fixing ropes on an aid line when they walked across a dead body. At this stage we don't know what the story is but he had no climbing gear...no base jumping stuff, as far as the rangers have said it is definitely not a climber or base jumper, most likely a hiker who either slipped (seems crazy that he would be that close to the edge) or jumped...everyone at the bridge was relieved that all the climbers and basejumpers that everyone knows here were OK but its strange, sad and awful...

2008-06-12T05:49:00.001+10:00

quick update...then back to bridge....boys starting up the black tower pitch #6 making good progress for theirs f'irs ts day. quite and effort ye;sterday, the three of us took the haul bags and ledge up to the basewhere they slept last night. Zac, Julian and Dvave stumbled into our camp site last night after pizza...they attempted astroman but zac couldn't fit into the harding slot so they bailed...juules and dave have done some great aid routes and french free'd reg route when lee and I were climbing it, they are walled out now though and ready to meet up with their girls....simon just got off a 10 day aid line called mescalito...solo aid, he leaves tomorrow and is psyched for his next trip already! back to the bridge with snacks for me....bill...they need to design a way to carry a porta ledge when its not in a haul bag...under your arm up to zodiac with 6 days of food and 8kg of water on your back is a killer!!! more news soon...

p.s.basejumpers were LH can't write name as rangers are looking for them...and his partner and a photographer...jumped off el cap sunday night after climbing free rider both free, then rode bikes to half dome, climbed free too then jumped off.....crazy to watch.....when we started up half dome last week we heard what sounded like rock fall...it was two base jumpers in wing suits...very cool

2008-06-11T03:39:00.001+10:00

I have found my new obseesion...The regular route on Half Dome has the most exceptional granite climbing I have ever done. Its a route that is going to keep me awake at night thinking about it and make me very sore trying to get strong enough for it...and keep me really motivated for a while to come I think..

Lee and I went up there last Thursday..the 3 hour approach was mildly epic. The snow slope at the base of half dome is still melting away making the rocky scree slope loose and very moveable. The spring that runs down the climbers track means you have to cross a 10m wide wet/ slippery/ steep slab covered in mini ballbearing like gravel. If you slip you will slide 50m down an ever steepening slab and over the edge , plummeting 25m onto talus...then there was the bear...the cutest looking yellow baby bear who was cheekier than me. He also without doubt climbs 5.9....We climbed one of the trees to hang our food up away from his reach...turns out the bear can climb trees exceptionally well, even branches and trunks with a diameter of 10cm...even with the tree bending all over the place...so we spent most of the night spotlighting him with our headtorches and throwing rocks to scare him away...sleeping up there was beautiful though aside from that and it was cool looking up at an aid party on the route who were running late and were climbing until about 1am..

We started climbing at 5ish and topped out after 12 1/2 hours of climbing. We got stuck behind a slow aid party in the chimneys so could have been a bit quicker ....but the climbing was so so great and I was so so tired at the top. The descent is the craziest thing we have ever seen. imagine going down the grey slabs at Shipley holding onto a thick cable in each hand with a bit of wood every 5 meters to put yur feet on...I was terrified!!! With so much litigation here it was a shock...we are planning to end the trip climbing it again with Jake and ben, I want to try the crux pitches at the end of the route and see just how much fitter I need to be and Jake and Ben are super psyched to climb it....and Lee wants to try a variation pitch he hasn't climbed before...

Jake and Ben got off Free rider on Sunday night after both climbing it free. They are both stoked...its a very happy camp at the moment! Ben laybacked the monster offwidth..jake was killing himslef laughting describing ben screaming and yelling as he kept slipping out of the offwidth like a cat on a black board....there was an aid team behind them yelling at Ben to support him "aussie aussie aussie" in between laughing at him....

Ben and Lee are packing as I type to go up Zodiac so I will update daily on their progress....the boys were up to thier usual antics yesterday being Aussie Blokes for the tourists...we were on the shuttle bus, Lee and I sitting a few seats behind Jake and Ben, suddenly a voice next to me yells..."Ay Bruce...wanna get off 'ere and get some tukka?"...that was Lee... to which Ben replies with a scratch of his crutch "yeahhhhh fella sounds great to me"....ahhh they are crazy....no internet time left so talk to you soon!

2008-06-10T04:44:00.001+10:00

woohoo...fouund my "climb"! He had walked up to half dome without me and was waitong there...oh my god...its the best route I have ever climbed...23 pitches in a day, a cheeky bear, epic approach...lots of news, but need to use library computer so will update soon...base jumpers, ben and jake successful on free rider and lee and I having a ball on the regular route...hope alls well foreveryone..will blog as soon as I can

2008-06-06T06:05:00.001+10:00

Well I learnt my lesson todat...again! 6 months of feeling more stressed than I have ever felt don't just melt away by being in a different country...even on a climbing trip!

Lee and I got up at 4.30 yesterday morning had breakfast, packed our lunch we had made the nighht beffore (bagels and snacks...today I am over bagels and cream cheese...bring on the vegemite and sourdough toast!) and then we hiked uup to the West Face of El Cap. Its about an hour approach from the meadow/ bridge under El Cap, so add on the 45 minutes to walk from camp 4, plus time wattching a coyote stroll past us, spying Ben and Jake rapping down from lung ledge to startclimbing free rider, and early morning fatigue and we were racked up ready to climb at 7.30. The WestFace is a cool lookinng line....not much crack climbing, really facey, suupper super technical moves...and then my brain switched off and I forgot how to climb.I nearly forgot how to grovel.....This is the route I have been day dreaming about...I even hiked up the base just to look at it for fun...(who walks up dangerously loose....ok a fairly well walked rock covered path, fixed ropes, tree scrambling and a litttle bit of chimneeying just for fun!!!)

I have to confess I cried...there I admitted it on blog....You know when someeone else leads and you are hopping from one foot to tthe other so eager to pull on and plug your own gear in...and in yyour head your saying...I should have llead this pitch instead of the next one...is he at the belay yet..." and then you do pull on and find you've lost your "climb"....a little like losing your smile....by the end of pitch 2 I was frantic with worry for my "climb", we are running out of time, lee and ben are on zodiac again next week for 6 days then we have a coupple of days left and the hot weather is coming...and I was so so so bummed that this route that is my zodiac, the route that I froth about to myself in my head when the guys are waffling on in camp...freerider this, salathe that...nipple pitch blah blah...was slipping under my suddenly slick feet and over chalked fingers..f###***kkk.....I got to the belay at the top of pitch 2 shaking with cold, my ability to problem solve gone and myy confidence and abilityback in camp 4 in my warm sleeping bag, frustrratted and pissed off and really just (as the americans say)" not feeling it dude". So we called a tearful retreat...(can you believe it, after getting up at 4.30 and packing more chocolate than you see in coles at easter), yep we rapped down, hiked back to the meadow where we slept in the sun for a coupple of hours and watch ElCap TV. I decided that my "climb" may have been hungry so we looked for him in the mt room restaurrant at the lodge . (He wasn't therebut the food was great, don't bother ordering entree or eeating heaps of snakcs before you go like lee did in case the serves were small, they are huge and they bring you free bread..yum!) So we decided to try and find my "climb" on half dome today and tomorrow. The approachp is thhree hours and we are sleeping at thebase tonight so I had betterr make it up more than 2 pitches or I am swimming back to australia.

For more serious climbing news...ben and jake are making great progress on free rider covering the first 12 or so pitches of the 32 yesterday and were sleeping on hollow flake ledge last night...more updates as news comes to hand!

As for me and the west face, we have a date when the boys get off zodiac...I can't leave without getting to the top...its the most amazing looking line I have ever seen (tthat I am perhaps capableof climbing..cause zodaic looks amazing too but I will never have the guns for that one!)

P.s. the first 2 pitches of wf were superb...

2008-06-03T08:52:00.001+10:00

Cough, cough, cough....sniff, sniff....they are the sounds of CAMP 4...yes most of camp 4. Turns out we got in just fine to camp 4 and even got a lift over there as Jeff Shrimpton has a car, PHEW that made it easier....and so we had our first night in the world famous camp four...the sounds of the night, last night however were filled with coughing and nose blowing...Jake, Ben and I are all sufferring...unbelievable run of health for Ben and I...and then there was the psycho ranger fining a guy ($175) for dossing on our site illegally....at 2.30am....CRAZY STUFF....Lee and Jake are the ones registered for our site so Jake and I were quietly shaking in our sleeping bags in case we were the next to be discovered by the power rangers...(I mean seriously, do they sit around in their huts and say..come on Jo (read in American accent), its 2am...let go searching for some pesky climbers....grab your gun and your pad for writing fines!!!) Its safe to say the guys was not a happy camper at all, I think all of Camp 4 heard him yelp..."$175 buck...geez...are you guys serious...."

Anyway, onto a more climbing note...here is the re revised plan based on all of our health and our limited time and our ridiculous 7 day camping rule...Ben and Jake are heading up Free Rider tomorrow for a five day push...shopping is done, there are days of pop tarts in the bear box and much darn good chilli ready to be hauled tomorrow. Lee and I are heading up the West Face in two days starting at 5am for a one day push....hope I can make my way down the East ledges in the dark! Then Lee and Ben will go for Zodiac next week...Rumour has is Zach should be off Salathe tonight, from what we and Tom saw he fell on a few pitches attempting the orginial Salathe line and I would think his Pringles poo tube was probably quite full by now...If I can get any info from him on what he thought I will let you know! Not much else to report...the bagels are better toasted than not...cream cheese is becoming a reasonable replacement for vegemite....

2008-05-31T04:17:00.001+10:00

YAY the sun is funally out! Yesterday Lee and I, Ben and Jake climbed the East Buttress of El Cap. We had a great day shuffling up chimneys, stemming and being sandbagged (by Lee) onto a super exposed face pitch near the top of the route...Its a great route & one we would all recommend, just take an umbrella for the middle few pitches if it has been raining recently!! The run off from around Zodiac gets blown onto these pitches! Made the climbing quite exciting and a little like swimming! If anyone is short a 0.75 black diamond camelot yosemite is the place to get them!!! bring a hand made cam removing device and maybe some butter its amazing how many of these cams, all shinyy and brand new we climb past that people have shoved too deep into the cracks..

So for a booty update...so far Lee and I have found...1 petzl spirit quickdraw, 1 offset alien, 1 blackdiamond firewire, hotwire, quicksilver biners and a 30cm nylon sling, 1 metolius nut and andd old wild country rock.....also we found and left on the ground a large yellow Dmm cam...still 20 days to go so who knnows what else we will find.

The boys have rapped into the top few pitches of Salathe today for Lee to get the pitches sorted and for ben to see howhis piton scarred hand is healing. He and I are planning to go up Salathe for a 3 day push next week some time...lee climbing, me cleaning...I mean working my butt off and being scared!!! Ben and Jake willtry free rider together after Jakes thwarted attempt earlier...I don't know if i reported that one...but when Lee and I went up el cap earlier, I had just taken my helmet off and suddenly a rocket came screaming 2 m away fro, past our ledge...it was the crucial hold that people jjump to high on free rider. apparently it was super glued up and was waiiting to come off, bummer for jake it was him that pulled it ooff. He was trucking along great guns for a suuuccessful ascent of free rider when he jumped to the jug and suddddenly he was flying through the air holding two bricks...he let them go (they were heavy), pulled himslef together and spent the next two hours working the move too the now existing sloper!!! He decided it wouldn't go that way for him so he worked/ cleaned teflon corner instead and this is the way he will try it instead. Leo holding and dean potter are a bit bummed as their attempt to climb three routes in a day has now been complicted and made significantly harder and they now need to go and work the pitch...

I just had some bad and good news, Lizzy Scully who I was climbing with for a Rock and Ice article has pulled the pin. The photographerfrom R&I has cancelled for now....the up side is that we are running out of time to get everything done...with the west face, zodiac, salathe and half dome still on Lee and I's lists! So we need all the time we can get! The west face looks amazing I am soooo excited about this route, el cap has some amazing knobby face climbing on it which is a relief for my sore crack eaten feet!!The Evolve Pontas' are great however...even in a slightly bigger sizethey are great on tiny edges and still awesome for crackss and smearing...I am converted!!

Zodiac update:Lee and Ben said the El Portel pitch has crux that is protected with a series of 4 copperheads and a rurp!!! TThey say it is a "rad corner climbing, smeary and insecure with a pounce onto the face", they spent 4hours working out the urine soaked/ stained/ encrusted open book pitch (their trousers were also encrusted when they got down from kneeling against the wall..climbing is soooo glamourous!!! The open book is a featureless slick corner....super tricky, super technical....the nipple pitch is a finger tip undercling along a diagonal flake...super bouldery and NAILS hard....but it should go next attempt....or there willlbe some sad faces getting off the plane in Sydney!!!!!!

Well that all for now...freeblast tomorrow for me then another stressful move of campsite on suunday ...if we can get into camp four otherwise we are a bit stuffed.....its sooooooooo busy here. Will update soon, hope theres lots of good weather back home..ahhhh to sleep in a bed again!

2008-05-28T04:41:00.001+10:00

Well the boys are down..Lee managed to climb every pitch up to the nipple pitch...Ben was a little shut down on the Open book pitch with sore fingers and fatigue so moved on to belay duties so lee could try and climb the last crux pitch and then they could blast for the top....We watched Lee from the bridge flying around on the slick...OK NO foot holds with his finger tips in the roof of the nipple picth...he would do the craziest moves I have ever seen...then his feet would slide out and he would slide down and flop on the rope....the scariest thing I have seen was Lee pull a piton. He was climbing past the second bit of gear in the roof...ben was belaying on the porta ledge then suddenly Lee was falling soooo far down the cliff that I actually screamed.. from the bridge it looked like he grabbed onto the bottom haulbag to stop his fall...turns out ben caught him but the porta ledge tipped sideways and Lee took a screamer (with me doing all the screaming)...it took about 5 minutes for me to stop shaking and from what Ben said for him too..He was calling "lee...leee.."and thinking Oh my god I've killed my brother...he had caught the full brunt of the piton on his hand and has a mighty lump and gash from it and he has the most perfect carabiner bruise you have ever seen on his thigh from the quick draw smacking into him...Lee climbed up the haul bags...did a quick video interview, recovered a bit then went up to try the picth a few more times....alll was OK.

So basically Lee and Ben think it will go next shot. Tom on the bridge was telling me the Hubers worked it for ages so its a huge effort from the guys and people here are shocked when they find out they haven't rapped in to work the crux pitches...go figure! we are going to have a couple of weeks climbing other stuff and then Lee and Ben will go for it again! It sounds like crazy hard technical climbing...Lee said that the grading is stout compared with the other El Cap routes he has done...the Flying Butress pitch had 3 bolts in 30 metres and no other gear potential!!!

Rest day today and painfully moving camp sites again tomorrow so Lee and I are waling around to the base of the West Face so I can check out the route and try it on Thursday (Weather permitting!!)

2008-05-27T03:26:00.001+10:00

Well we have another hour of no rain before it strats again...jake simon and i are going nuts!!!!!! I am even going to walk round to the start of the west face route to just look up at what i am dreaming about climbing....

i got it wrong the other day and yesterday saw lee and ben trying the open book pitch...it looked steely through the bino's...lee was repeatedly coming off the first few moves...maybe due to cold??? maybe because it is really blank and really hard!!!! when i went back to the bridge in the arvo were in the porta ledge, fly on, probably hanging out with tiger monkey and doing some video diary for their nat geo show...

i am heading to the bridge now with down jacket, synthetic jacket, umbrella and gortex....will update later this arvo....

they are still the only two on the wall...

2008-05-25T10:28:00.000+10:00

Well the weather is freezing!!! We are in thermals and down jackets and are still cold, there is noone on El Cap except Lee and Ben as the wall is overhanging enough that the rain is not a problem at the moment for them and they are crazy australians...they are climbing in all the clothing they took with them though!!!!. Some of the roads have been closed due to snow! ...day three action has seen Lee redpoint the grade 30 open book pitch...there was swearing to be heard from the bridge where we were watching in the rain when each of the guys came off at the end of the pitch, the climbing looks amazing!!! we could make out wall kicking and the fxxc####### through the bino's...I couldn't stand the cold and rain anymore so I am not sure how Ben is going redpointing the 30 but I think he should get it sorted next go.....next up is the crux the grade 31 "nipple" pitch which looks nails...if they can get this pitch then the route should be in the bag (with a lot more climbing still to do but all grade 28 and under) as long as tthe weather doesn't spit them off. Jake and I were going up Free Rider today but it is way too wet so it looks like some wet bridge days watching zodiac and some bagel eating time inthe lodge caf!! HMMMMM...will update again tomorrow...

2008-05-23T10:29:00.001+10:00

Lee and Ben are on Zodiac...55 litres of water, 15kg of food plus climbing gear, porta ledge etc etc...Jake, Simon and I helped carry the load up to the base then left them for a chilly night under the route with the bear that has been lurking around haul bags up there....th temp has finally dropped aftera scorching few days last week and the gys were clibing in jackets today...they have the first hard pith behind them abd were on schedule to sleep at the top of the 5th pitch tonight...tomorrow should have themtrying the next two hard pitches...Jake and I will prob go up free blast on saturday....simon is resting!! No more internet time...update soon...

2008-05-21T04:01:00.001+10:00

Well Yosemite is the most amazing climbing in the world in the most strange place...Yosemite Valley is controlled by one company and you can't help but feel like you are being manipulated into eating, drinking and behaving in the way they tell you too..with the limited food in the stores and the shuttle buses and the CROWDS of Americans!!! WHY DID I FORGET THE VEGEMITE!!!

We have done some great climbing so far...it turns out 5.9 means that the route was probably graded in the 60's and is now about 5 grades harder than the actual grade suggests but my feet are hurting from shoving them into tiny cracks, and I am adapting pretty well. Waiting for routes is a pain but I guess its America and everything is busy and crowded....at least on El Cap there are way less people and some peace!

Lee and I went up on El Cap two days ago, so I could belay him on the hard pitch in Salathe....500 metres up is a long way off the ground!!! I did some penduluming which was not as scary as I thought it would be...but I have to confess that I was happy to be on the ground again when we got down! Lee and Ben will head up and try Zodiac on El Cap tomorrow for the following 6 days and Jake will get down off Free Rider today some time...we think with a successful 6 day ascent!

I am looking forward to trying the West Face of El cap next week when the boys are down, logistics are a little hard with the heat (the unexpected heat wave this week) and with trying to start at 5am when the shuttles don't run until 7am...we will work it out though!

We are all doing well and the camping is going OK. we Just have to mobve camp sites every 7 days which is annoying but considering you are only allowed to be here for 7 days of camping its OK. We will move into camp four next week I think and then have two weeks there....