I climbed El Capitan (1 pitch :-P )

I got my first taste of aid climbing in Yosemite over the last weekend. The weather was HOT and HUMID in the 90s. My partner and I arrived at Yosemite on Friday evening. Someone told us it rained in the valley six hours that afternoon. There was a thick layer of fog in the meadow near El Cap and the view was stunning.

Saturday morning, my partner had me practice jugging on the huge steep overhanging boulder just to the left of LeConte Memorial Lodge. I forgot to bring the camera, so there went shots of my virgin jugging. We saw a bear around 11am. It was about 50 feet from us.

Around 4pm, we headed up to the base of El Capitan, looking to aid climb Pitch 1 of the Pacific Ocean Wall route, so I can get some "real" jugging practice. Approaches are always hard for me, although the approach to El Cap is a lot easier than the approach to Leaning Tower. There I was, bitching on the way to the base. If I were more ENTHUSED about climbing, I would have realized how LUCKY I am to be getting free lessons, even without asking for them, haha.

When we finally got to the base of the POW, my partner started leading happily. Always ready for a wall, I looked at him and thought to myself. I remembered clearly what I had to do when it was my turn to jug and clean the gear. I was pretty smooth except when it came to cleaning nuts. Nuts drive me nuts.

For me, the jugging was way easier than the approach. I guess it's cos I wasn't leading and needn't think too much, and since we did only one pitch, there wasn't much complication or exposure I had to deal with. There wasn't any traverse or roof, which made jugging and cleaning much easier too.

Rain and thunder clouds came over the wall as I was heading up. At the top of Pitch 1, I looked up - 26 pitches more to the top. We felt some rain droplets but it was mostly dry when we rapped and descended in the twilight.