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

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!

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!

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!

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!