Making Connections with People, El Cap, and The Valley

I took eleven hours’ worth of flights to get here and then a four-hour bus ride from Fresno. I had the most awesome bus driver ever.  I was the only one on the bus so we got to talk at some of the stops where we had to wait 15 minutes or so.  He let me pick out a movie to watch about Yosemite Valley and then stopped and bought me supper because I hadn’t eaten since leaving Maine. I have run into him three times since and he remembered my name and is always happy to see me.  I hope when Sandy and the boys come out to visit they get to ride up here with him so I can introduce them.

My first few days were spent just seeing the beauty of this incredible American treasure.  I spent a lot of time at the El Cap Bridge where all the climbers AKA “Monkeys” hang out and watch and cheer on other climbers up on El Cap.  This is one of the main reasons I love climbing.  It is a huge community of awesome people who are willing to help each other achieve their dreams and goals.  I learned so much just by sitting there and listening to the other climber’s talk and through having conversations with them.  I talked to Libby Sauter for a long time about the route I am going to be climbing and she explained each pitch and pointed out interesting parts of the climb so I could recognize where I would be climbing.  Libby and Mayan Smith-Gobat are the current women’s speed record holders for the Nose route on El Cap in a time of 5 hours and 39 minutes which actually beat their old record by 37 minutes.  I have also been spending a lot of time with Mash Alexander who has many ascents of El Cap and actually lives in the park 2 months a year.  He is not only a very accomplished and skilled climber but an amazing artist as well.  I have had the help of another extremely accomplished and skilled climber, Skiy Detray.  Skiy has over 30 ascents on El Cap but has also been all over the world climbing the Trango Towers in Pakistan in 22 days and numerous other missions.

As I am sitting here writing this post I am doing some research on the people I’ve met and spent time with and it’s amazing the caliber of people that are so selfless and willing to help me complete my mission.

This past week I attended a Paradox Sports event here in the valley and was able to spend time with and get to know a bunch of veterans of various branches of the military.  Paradox does a September 11^th hike up Half Dome every year for the past 3 years and it is an event centered on veterans and their experiences and disabilities.  They also include civilians in the event and I and Vijay Viswanathan were the two civilian participants this year.  We had the opportunity to do some training and climbing together and learn from each other about what works best for our situations.  We did our training at Leconte Boulder and the base of the Nose on El Cap.  I didn’t necessarily make it as high on El Cap as I would have liked but I did learn that I needed to rework my systems and come up with something different for my ascent at the end of the month.  Vijay really rocked it and made it about 600 ft to the sickle ledge.  As I was waiting for him to complete his mission I rested at the bottom and met a lot of cool people who were just hiking the trail at the base.  It seems like this place either attracts very friendly people or brings out the best in people.  I took pictures with them and talked about my various adventure plans and gave them some of the basic knowledge I have of El Cap. One of them even recognized me from the Travel Channel which I never thought would happen.

 Vijay, Skiy, Adam, Ken and I at Leconte Boulder

 An example of a climbing tentacle that Sean O’ Neill developed.  I made this one.

  Making the tentacle

 Adam setting up the ropes with Skiy on belay

So as my week is coming to a close I am excited for what is to come.  I will be doing some different types of training this week for my ascent of El Cap.  I have some new gadgets to try out that you will all see the results of when I am finished my ascent.  I should have some amazing footage by the time I am done.  I also hope to keep making connections with everyone and everything in this amazing place.  This has truly been the trip of a lifetime and its barely even started.

 View of the Nose from the base

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Map

Skiy Detray

Libby Sauter