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!