By Greg Murphy
Last weekend, Chan Harrell and I became the least fit team ever to link two El Capitan routes in one day. Lack of any real climbing or aerobic fitness was a significant factor contributing to our success. Unbelievably we got a reasonable night's sleep prior to beginning the latest El Cap session. We would have gotten more sleep if we hadn't spent time socializing at Hans' house until 10 pm or so. The time spent at Hans' house turned out to be critical because we got West Face descent beta and he also lent us a lot of stuff we forgot.
We were up at 3 am and got the coffeee going. We really suffered because we had to slum it with some non-Peet's grimness from Park and Shop. Yuck.
We were hiking by 4, stashed some gear at the base of Lurking Fear and continued to the West Face. We climbed the West Face from 5:17 to 9:17 am (3h 59m on route) and successfully negotiated the descent. Chan cast off on the first block of leads on Lurking Fear at 12:05. It was hot, but we know from heat after recent near death experiences on Horse Chute, Mescalito, Mount Watkins, etc. Anything under about 120 degrees doesn't really phase us anymore. (Little known fact: the sun actually melted a hole in Chan's head on Mescalito but somehow he recovered). Lurking Fear went well but at a somewhat reduced pace due to heat and lack of fitness. Chan led strongly through pitch 7 and I took over to pitch 13. Beautiful enjoyable climbing that deserves some free climbing attempts later on. We topped out at around 12:10 am for a time of 12h 05m on our second El Cap route of the day. Total climbing time was 16h 05m and about 19 hours from start to finish. We did not find any food on either route but a little water found here and there helped us out.
Then came the hellish descent in crippled feet stuffed in climbing shoes. How many times have I said I will never descend in climbing shoes again?
We made it back to the car at 4:30 am and had a beer. Driving back to Chan's house in Yosemite West may well have been the crux of the day and certainly would have been more terrifying if I had been awake.
As always, a pleasure to be up on the Big Stone. We both agreed that it was a fine way to celebrate Father's Fay and promised to make it an annual event.
Gregory Murphy, R.G.