Big walls like El Capitan take a lot of work, the right gear, the right partner and equally important, the right mind set.  After 30 years of climbing walls in destinations around the world I still love climbing El Cap.  With this in mind, Steve Schneider and I decided to celebrate climbing our first wall together 30 years ago with a trip up El Cap’s Tribal Rite.  Our first wall together was the South Face of Mt. Watkins in stormy weather over Easter 1979.  During the trip most of the other parties bailed from their wall projects, but, as youth that didn’t know better, we persevered.  For the last thirty years both Steve and I have continued to seek out adventure.

I was eager to try a new pair of big wall pants climbing pioneer Mike Graham set me up with and, of course, we had all of the latest big wall hardware.  Since I was tight on time we decided to use the Nose start to access Boot Flake, the start of Tribal Rite.  Steve has a house outside of Mariposa so we decided to base out of there.  This meant soaking in the hot tub in the morning before driving the hour down to El Cap meadows.  On our first day we fixed the first seven pitches of the Nose with five ropes in nice weather.  We were basically the only ones on El Cap since it was early season – mid-April. 

The next morning, after a hot tub session, we drove to El Cap meadows intent on leaving the ground and getting on the wall.  However, the weather looked a bit threatening so instead we decided to haul our gear to the top of our ropes.  By the time we got the bags to the top of the fourth rope it started snowing so we beat a hasty retreat down our fixed lines.  I told Mike before I left that I was concerned about the pant’s performance if they got wet, but so far so good.

On our third morning we decided to blast even though the weather still looked threatening.  Sure enough, it started to snow again as soon as we got the bags to our high point and I started leading the Stove Leg cracks.  I spent some time trying to free the cracks in the cold snowstorm and ended up with some nasty wounds on the back of my hands in the process.  After two pitches we arrived on Dolt Tower and decided to bivy.  We put the rainfly on the porta-ledge since the weather still looked bad.

Our first morning on the wall dawned clear.  After a leisurely breakfast we packed all of our gear to climb to El Cap towers.  Unfortunately, the previous two day storm had plastered the upper face with ice and we were soon dodging small chunks of ice.  Occasionally larger missiles rained down and at one point, after climbing to the top of Texas Flake, Steve was hit in the leg with a pretty big piece of ice.  We beat a hasty retreat to the base of Texas Flake, which is fairly protected.  After an hour or two of cowering under the flake I decided it was time to move. Steve belayed me from there to the top of Boot Flake.  We fixed with one seventy meter rope down to El Cap towers.

Day three on the wall dawned clear again and we quickly packed our bags and hauled to the top of the Boot.  Steve launched onto Tribal Rite proper and we both led two pitches, getting us to a nice flat two foot by twenty foot ledge.  This day had none of the ice fall drama from the previous day and we were soon cooking a can of soup and making sandwiches.  The ledge is too small to comfortably bivy on, but one of the benefits of a ledge is having a place to pack and unpack the haul bags and go to the bathroom.  Mike had used snaps for the fly on these new pants which I was eager to try out and, in the end, I really appreciated this feature as it was easier and “safer” than a zipper.

Day four on the wall we climbed another three pitches to another small ledge and then fixed the next pitch.  One of the main reasons that I suggested this route was because of its incredible location: just to the right of the Nose and near the very prow of El Cap.  The rock is golden and the location spectacular.  This is one of the tallest parts of El Cap and at this point we were way off the ground.  So far the climbing had been relatively straight forward with some interesting sections of hooking and fixed heads.  Most of it was done clean with only the occasional pin or beak.  We were having a great time and thoroughly enjoying the experience, even after 30 years, and multiple ascents of El Cap.  It never gets too old, routine, boring, or seems like too much work.

Day five is our last day on the route.  The next morning we pack the bags and I jumar while Steve cleans the pitch I led the night before.  Two more pitches find us at the intersection of the Wall of the Early Morning Light and Tribal Rite.  Two more pitches find me doing one last hook move to get to the final belay, which has to be one of the coolest top-outs on El Cap.  The final haul is easy, compared to most other top-outs, and only requires a short bit of dragging and shuttling loads to get to a safe spot above the void. 

While the last few days were a bit warm, the pants worked well – they weren’t too hot and they showed little, if any, wear.  But now comes the hardest part of any wall –getting all of our gear back down to the base.  Since we had climbed four pitches that day we decided to move our gear down to near the top of Zodiac, spend the night, and hike down early the next morning.  When we get there, we find that the usual bivy spot is flooded due to early season run-off, so we move down a bit further and flop down in the middle of the trail.

Our last morning finds us shuttling loads down East Ledges to the rappels and then down to the Manure Pile buttress.  The road is closed for paving, but as luck will have it one of the contractors is there and gives us a lift down to El Cap meadows for a celebratory beer. 

Editors note:

Thanks to Paul's feedback our Big Wall pant has moved into its second phase of product testing. This should make it available here online early next month. We really appreciate the hard work that goes behind testing our new products and we are looking forward to offering our customers this unique pant.