During the spring of 2007, my then regular climbing partner Mike Lechlinski and I had been doing a few El Cap routes and for our next project, the routes of CCC seemed to hold our interest.  One of his routes we had been eyeing was “Space”.  A rather direct, long and steep line, up the longest part of the Captain.  We had done a number of walls since we had reacquainted our climbing partnership from years past and were looking for something a bit spicier.  I had done the last 10 pitches or so in 1996 combined with the South Seas route so we agreed to go for the Mescalito topout.

Preparations and racking up took us about a week . We carefully selected our food for preparing almost gourmet meals on the hanging stove, lots of the high protein stuff we’d be needing to refuel our bodies everyday. We also purchased the big bottle of Patron Tequila and transferred it into a waterbottle for safekeeping. We flung it all into Lechlinski’s van and headed up on about May 1st.   Our plan was to fix several pitches and return a week later to blast. Unstable weather on this weekend hampered our progress. We got all our racks to the base and organized.

We climbed into the amphitheatre and traversed across to the base of the first pitch which has no bolted belay anchor. Just a few manky pieces in expando cracks which we cleaned out. We hauled our racks up and I tied in for the first pitch. For the 1st 40 feet or so the climbing was scary hooks and heads-steep and balancy. Mari got some killer pictures of me and Mike here. After the initial section the crack opened up and I cruised to the belay, tied it off, and we both rapped out and bailed to the car in a big rainstorm, it snowed 4 inches in Yosemite West that night. The next day I jugged back up to try and link pitch 2 which is 35 feet long and wildly steep and traversing. It was so cold and windy that climbing was really uncomfortable so we bailed and drove back to southern California calling it good.                                                                                                                                                                                  

The next weekend we headed back to Yos-to get going on our route. The weather had stabilized by this time and we carried our stuff to the   start.  I extended my pitch out to the 2nd pitch anchor and we left two ropes tied together here to reach the ground. We were at the lip of the amphitheater-  the rope hung 60 feet from the wall ! We went down for one last load and slept at the base. I remember this one pesky ground squirrel that kept messing with my food bags, so I put them about 40 feet up the wall. The next morning I found my bagels half eaten-bite marks in all 8 of them. I looked up to see fat! Squirrel hanging half way out of my food bag just staring at me.

We got the bags set and jugged up -Mike took off on lead and as I hauled off the ground the squirrel was still jumping all over the haul bags. Traversing almost straight right on fixed mank and then up he climbed toward a small stance that we thought marked the end of pitch 3.  He unloaded an 80 pound blade of rock before the traverse across this ledge which defies gravity! This was the end of pitch 3 and the next pitch was A2-NOT! I made the anchors at about dark-almost took the whole rope-165 feet. I rapped down and we set up-cooking and having tea and other hot drinks-Nice! This route was still traversing right on Mike’s next lead pretty radically and your feet hung way out from the wall with every move, it was difficult to clean too-sometimes you would have to lower off just to move right one piece! Mike’s lead finished at the base of the next A4 pitch –a 70 foot corner taking 1 and 2 copperheads only-not too bad –mostly fixed. I cranked this lead off clipping all fixed stuff. We hauled and set up for the night. The next days climbing would bring us to sort of an unknown portion of the route-not on any topos as one and a half pitches had fallen off around 2000. The top section of Lechlinski’s next lead marked the beginning of the mystery section.

Mike’s next pitch began with a rivet ladder which lead to a flake/crack which took cams for awhile, there was a slow down as Mike worked into the station. This was where the big flake had detached and slid down the wall. All the older belay bolts were raked flat at the belay. As I cleaned the pitch I noticed that the rock was much fresher here-obviously because it had been covered before by the giant flake!

We had no new info for the next pitch and I was somewhat confused on which way to go. I almost swung into the corner where the flake had been socketed into, full of hanging loose stuff. Then we spotted a bathook hole –straight up. Hooks, then more squashed bolts led to a horizontal crack which formed a thin ledge on which set a one foot wide by 80 foot wide. completely detached flake-just sittin there. To get across-guess what! You had to nail it. I hit in three thin blades to get across -the whole thing wobbled with every hit! Finally more hooks and bat hook holes led to the anchor. More flattened bolts here too-this area of the wall is still a little unstable. Mike led off left on hooks into the corner and immediately encountered another loose flake which he negotiated with small stoppers-pins would of took it off for sure. Mike finished his lead and rapped back as it was just about dark.

We had settled into a rhythm of two and a half pitches a day. We also had gotten used to making drinks using and energy drink for the mixer-pretty tasty they were too after a day of hard work on a basically empty stomach-sweet!  The next morning Lechlinski jugged back up and hauled and we continued up the corner system that was to become the South seas.

The rock quality in the corner was still unstable at times with loose stuff hanging in the corner that had to be negotiated. My next A4 pitch was probably overrated and Mike’s next pitch took us up an overlap onto the same feature and about level with the Molar Traverse. We set up at the base of a beautiful A1 crack. I remember that I was haired out here in 96 because the majority of the belay bolts were placed into this gigantic detached flake which formed the right side of the crack you had to nail. I went clean for a long time the next morning before the pins stated going in! This pitch wasn’t really A1 –the rock was really good here and the crack turned to rivets which took us to the base of the Pillar of the community pitch . The pillar itself hasn’t been here since 96 when we booted it. According to the topo this was Mike’s hardest lead and he racked up and set out. I led this pitch and I knew that a lot of those heads were bad and Lechlinski’s first whipper was a hard factor fall only a few pieces out –deploying a charlet arrester and ripping me out of the belay. It all happened pretty fast-body whipping by in my peripheral vision ,the device locking up and then getting jerked upward onto my tether. “ Are you O.K?” He was and right back up he went ignoring my suggestion to back up those heads once in a while-made good time he did too until the next –ahem-40 footer . That’s another arrester gone-bbrrraaaapp!-Here comes Mike sliding straight down the slab. BOING! Jugs on the rope again up he goes and this time he made it. It was dark by the time I got it cleaned and we bivied and made groovy tequila booze drinks to celebrate the hard stuff done.

The next morning had me cranking off the rivet traverse into Mescalito-more rusted wire and a hard pendo near the end made for a good pitch –A1 again. Another short pitch had us bivied one day from the Bismarck ledge

The traffic on the nose was pretty decent –at least one party a day visible at El cap towers. Two pitches into it the next day there was a big helicopter rescue there, I saw a guy get winched right off the wall. This had to be real scary –the pilot’s eyes were fixed to the wall – rotor blades ten feet away! By the end of the day we were at the ledge-things were picking up – four pitches this day!

Much easier terrain now. the next few days went by in a blur, remember watching Dave Turner and bros pull off a nice sub 24 hour push on Tangerine Trip. We were now in radio contact with Mike’s gal Mari and friend Gary who had come to help us carry off. The last pitch had been all rebolted and a belay at the lip makes for about the easiest topout ever. Excited shouts from the top and much exuberant yelling from Mike saw us on top – hugs all around packed up quickly and began our decent down the east ledges hoping to make it by nightfall. In a cursory check of my cellphone messages the was one from Bill saying that he had taken two weeks off to do the “Rodger” not too long from now. I guess that I had sort of forgot about that and…………………..to be continued…