Shooting Hoops On El Cap With Michael Jordan

I reached into my pocket to check my cell phone and read "One missed call and one new voicemail". Poor cell reception always causes missed calls. I stood on top of a tall rock in the middle of Camp 4, and attempt to listen to the message. My stomach drops.

Alex Honnold needed a partner to climb The Nose, and my friends Ben Ditto and Mikey Schaefer gave them my number. I couldn't believe that Alex wanted to climb with someone that was nowhere near his ability level. I called him back, and nervously rode my bike over to the Pines Campground.

There is no lying in climbing. There is no showing off. You either commit to the route or you bail. You send or you fall. Expressing my ability with complete honesty would surely deter Alex from ever wanting to climb with me.

"Well, you are super solid on 5.10 right?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, and I can also jug really fast.." I replied.

"Ok, we'll simul climb the whole thing, it should only take 4 or 5 hours," said Alex.
"What the hell..... What did I get myself into??" I thought to myself.

I came up with a plan on how to bail on Alex, I couldn't climb that fast, there is now possible way I could do it.

5:00AM, I met Alex in El Cap Meadow, and started a leisurely hike up to the base of The Nose. I committed.

I found myself relaxed, calm, and unusually confident in myself.  Alex and I simul climbed to the great roof, where I led 17 pitches, and simuled under alex for 3. From The great roof I jugged as fast as I could, while Alex climbed at a leasurly pace, stopping to chat with a few teams that were on there 4th day climbing the route.

Alex nearly free soloing the pancake flake, Tom Evans photo

Alex and I at the belay below the slot pitch just before Camp 5, Tom Evans photo 

I stood on top just before 11AM, 4 hours and 50 minutes after we started. I ran down the East Ledges in a little over 40 minutes, and caught the second half of a scheduled search and rescue training. The first half of the training included a mandatory 'pack test', where you walk for 40 minutes with a 40 pound pack. I opted to climb El Cap that morning instead.

I think I am the least skilled climber that has ever climbed El Cap with Honnold. With all the time that I have spent climbing in The Valley, and on El Cap, I have figured out tricks to climb efficiently. I'm not super star climber and I am not ridiculously strong.
If believe that I can do something, I try hard as hell to make them happen. Believing in myself is something that I consistently struggle with.

A few days later I got a call from Pete Mortimer with Sender Films, asking if I was interested in filming Honnold on his attempt to solo three grade 6 walls in a day.

I rope soloed up to the top of the boot flake, and waited for Honnold to come climbing by around midnight. I had packed my mini haul bag with camera gear, bivy gear to sleep on El Cap Tower, and a second rope to rappel down to the ground.

I saw a figure steadily moving towards me, and I armed myself with a DSLR and a lens that works well in low light. We chatted as he passed by and did the king swing. He said he was glad that I was there to talk to, as it is sad and lonely soloing at night.

Check out Pete's report of the mission to film Honnold: Behind The Camera

Half Dome Solo

My quadricep muscles burned, my lungs burned, it was just too damn hot. I hiked at a leisurely pace up the death slabs to the base of Half Dome. My intention of rope soloing the Regular Northwest Face fell in the shadows of my self doubt and insecurity. "BAIL! BAIL! BAIL!" My mind kept repeating..

I was ok with the fact that I wasn't going to climb the route. I was too tired, out of shape, and not psyched. I was still feeling the effects of a mental hangover from already climbing El Cap 5 times this season. I decided to stash my gear near the base of the route, and come back in a few days.. or next week.. or never..

"Maybe I'll just climb up part of the way up the first pitch.." I thought to myself. I knew I could easily bail from pitch 6 with a 70 meter rope.

My sweaty hands found relief with a fresh layer of gym chalk, and I turned up the volume on my iPod. I sunk my had into the first perfect hand jam of the route, and then decided to follow that with a thousand more.

Attempting to get psyched.

Sun creeping over the visor. The heat is on.

Seconding the first pitch of the chimneys. 

Justin and Trevor letting me pass them in the middle of the chimneys. Trevor was a bit nervous as I free soloed passed him.

Justin giving me his rope so I could fix their line at the end of the zig zags in exchange for beer when we got back to the valley

Justin coaching Trevor how to jug up through the zig zags

An alpine style luxury bed at 1am. I needed to hydrate and sleep after I got back down to the base. The muscles in my legs were cramping, and I felt too dizzy to immediately start hiking down the death slabs.

I found myself in the reoccurring situation towards the end of the route, dry with no water. My focus diminished and my energy level plummeted. I got to the last anchor at the very last pitch, and I was hammered.

Climbing by myself takes an immense amount of motivation and willingness to be vulnerable. Soloing big routes is a way that I prove to myself that I don't rely on someone else to succeed. Half Dome was my fourth grade 6 wall in a push, I don't think I have much more to prove..
Now I'm going to go sport climbing.

The stats:
Climbed route valley to valley, with a little nap in between
10 ~70 meter pitches
6 pitches free solo
10:50 On route
23:30 Camp 4 to Camp 4
3-4 hours spent sleeping and hydrating at the base of the route after I had climbed the route

East Ledges Haircut

My love for climbing El Capitan has evoked a sense of personal responsibility to ensure that El Cap takes care of climbers, and climbers take care of El Cap. After climbing this monster piece of granite, every climber uses the East Ledges Descent. ~500 feet of technical terrain require 4 rappels featuring fixed lines. By the end of the spring season, the ropes were in bad shape. 

One of the many core shots seen on the old lines 

Though the fixed lines were still 'safe', constant use and abuse left the rap route in need of some new cord. I have personally ascended and descended the lines over 10 times in the last few months, and am used to navigating through the maze of unusable and dangerous ropes vs. usable ropes. 

Which one do I use? Only one rope didn't feature numerous core shots or knots to pass. When climbers leave a new rope to replace an old one, often times the old ones don't get taken down. 

Edelweiss hooked me up with a spool of 10mm static line to give the ol' descent a haircut.  

200 meters of Edelweiss static rope

Cord ready to be put into commission 

An old rope featuring a sheath that has slipped so far that it is unusable

Cutting old line


The new rope in action

The casualties. ~1200 feet of dead or nearly dead rope.

Everyone, climb the captain and and enjoy a nice ride down the East Ledges!

Fitz Roy, Round 2

This mission fell into the shadows of the other climbing that we had done during the season, but our attempt on the route was epic. This was the last route we climbed in the big mountains before we took a bus up to Frey in Bariloche, and then to Buenos Aires, where we flew back to the states. 

Scott Bennett and I attempted to repeat the route Mate, Poro y Todo Lo Demas (5.11b 900m) on the North Pillar of Cerro Fitz Roy. The route name translates to: Mate (tea), Weed and Everything Else. "Everything Else" predicted the shenanigans that got thrown our way. 

Without breaking stride, Scott and I successfully picked up a ride from town with the flick of a thumb. A 40 minute ride in the back of a pickup truck on a rough and windy road led to our 6 hour hike to base camp. We bivied below The North Pillar instead of at Piedras Negras to get a head start the next morning. 

I managed to sleep for 2-3 hours, before I poked my head out of the tent to see low visibility due to a thick fog. My lightweight aluminum crampons chomped their way through hard snow as our 30 minute approach turned into 3 hours. As we reached the base of the North Pillar, Scott's swear words followed an unfortunate situation; a broken crampon. 

Our plans of climbing Mate Poro in a single push were diminished to only summiting the North Pillar. Summiting Fitz Roy would require the use of crampons, and would be highly dangerous without them. Our nervousness cut through the thick fog, as we are aware of how dangerous the mountains are in bad weather. 

Not being able to see further than a single pitch below or above us, we decided to bail. We had climbed over 1500 feet of the route in 8 hours, and decided that it was a safe decision to retreat. 

Scott led the rappels, and we got back to the steep snow and ice that stood between us and the safety of our base camp. In order for Scott to descend safely, I chopped steps for him for over 3 hours. We were disappointed that we had failed to summit, but realized that we had an incredible season in the mountains. 

Published

I feel unbelievably lucky that Scott Bennett and I got to write an article for Alpinist. I also somehow managed to get to be on the cover of the magazine.  

It was cool to take a look at what happens in a magazine before it reaches your hands. Being a part of the process was a great learning experience. I was unable to put as much effort into the article as Scott Bennett did because I was getting started with the Yosemite Search and Rescue Team. Just as I began to help finish up the article, a call came out to go look for a kid in the High Sierras. I got flown out in a helicopter that afternoon, and the kid was found the next day.

In Climbing Magazine, Blake Herrington also wrote an article about the gear that Scott and I took on The North Pillar Sit Start.

The Nose, Solo

On June 27th, I became the youngest person to rope solo The Nose on El Capitan in a single day. It took every ounce of willpower and psyche to complete the route. I began limping down the East Ledges descent in my climbing shoes 19 hours after I sunk my first hand jam into the first pitch. 

This is just a quick post, hang in there. The psyche for documenting my experiences is in hiatus. I still love writing, shooting photos, and editing videos, but I just needed a break from it all. 

Here is a pic by Tom Evans of me climbing up the boot flake on The Nose.

It's about 100 degrees here in the valley today. My girlfriend Jess and I are headed up to Tuolumne, where we'll wake up early to brew coffee for all the climbers in the morning. Living here has become routine, and it feels amazing to be in one of the most incredible places in the world.

Peace.

June 22

I am having one of the best times of my life here in Yosemite. I'm surrounded by incredible people along with having a great climbing season. YOSAR and my volunteer position with the climbing rangers has kept me too busy to update my blog, or edit any videos.

I just got off the El Cap yesterday, having climbed The Shortest Straw with Mark Hudon. It was very enjoyable, and it was awesome to climb with someone that is so technically dialed with big wall climbing. I'm getting ready for my big goal for the season, and I'll update more about that later. I have been able to be a part of some rediculoussly badass stuff this year, so.....
Stay tuned, and stay psyched!

5.17.12

I have again been sucked into the center of the climbing Universe for my third season. I was hired into a volunteer program working for the climbing rangers Ben Doyle and Jesse McGahey. It's basically a climbing stewardship program where two friends and I will be working towards being a positive influence on the climbing community. Trail building projects to preserve climbing approaches, route condition patrols (i.e. climbing NIAD to make sure all the anchors are bomber), and other various projects will be worked on.

It seems to be one of the best situations I get to be in as a climber in Yosemite. I got to train with the Yosemite Search And Rescue crew, and I'm now a volunteer SAR climber. Last week a guy fell and dislocated his shoulder and called YOSAR. I got to be on the litter cary out crew, and even got paid! Psyched!

I'm currently staying in a tent cabin until the end of the month in the SAR site next to Camp 4. I have met incredible friends, and finally feel settled in here in the valley. The volunteer program will last until the end of August. It feels good to be a part of something cool in one of most incredible places to climb in the world.

I have felt a bit burnt out on filming and editing since I finished my new Patagonia video, but the inspiration will resurface with time.

Last Season Colin Simon and I warmed up on a route called Lurking Fear on El Capitan in 10 hours 30 minutes. There were minimal amounts of suffering to be had, and it was a good route to get ourselves into shape.

After my one day solo of The Zodiac last spring, I have been inspired by the idea of soloing big wall routes. Though I wasn't in the best shape, I decided to get in gear by soloing Lurking Fear.

Two nice 'wall style' guys from the bay area let me start up just before them on the route, and I made quick progress. I used a new technique where I back looped up the first few bolt ladders where the intermittent hook moves appeared, and daisy soloed the rest of the bolt ladders. I also used a brand new 9.2mm Edelweiss 70 meter rope. I climbed nearly 70 meter pitches all the way up the route.

I got into a seriously good rhythm, felt very confident, and found myself off route. A traverse full of fixed gear out left seemed to have been wiped clean. I spent two hours pioneering a  horrifying pitch rated somewhere around C3+ to find out that I was off route, and wasted a lot of time. I somehow managed to get back to my anchor, and felt mentally fried. I drank some water, squezed a gu packet into my mouth, and turned up the volume on my ipod.

The second half of the route has a low angle characteristic with awkward free climbing. I felt very confident, and climbed up to 5.10 with my only partner being my gri gri.

I topped out the route in 19 hours and 25 minutes. I was so damn thirsty I couldn't even swallow. Good weather this early in the year dried me up, and sufficiently dehydrated me. Luckily while I was stumbling around the top of El Cap, I met a guy that had just soloed Never Never Land. He had some water to nourish my swollen throat.

My girlfriend Jess in my haul bag, not wanting me to leave Colorado. 

Climbing and bivy gear for Lurking Fear, having more value than my car.

High up on Lurking Fear

John and Oliver psyched a few pitches below me. Monkey calls kept the moral high. 

My friend Zach on an evening free solo on After 6. 

Claro De Luna

Here is a photoblog post showing illustrating my adventure to climb the route that I received a grant from the American Alpine Club to climb. After Scott and I climbed The North Pillar Sit Start, I was sufficiently in good climbing shape and completely in tune with the alpine climbing in Patagonia.  

10 days spent up at Niponino basecamp was enough time to bail off of Claro De Luna due to a route finding mistake, and then proceed to un-bail a few days later. Clayton Laramie and I climbed the 800 meters of immaculate granite on the peak Saint Exupery in t-shirts. 

I onsighted every pitch, and experienced one of the most incredible days in my life. Every detail fell perfectly into place, I was with a great partner, and I was completely in my element. 

Enjoy the photos: 

Viva Patagonia Chapter 4

Viva Patagonia Chapter 4 from Cheyne Lempe on Vimeo.


Here is a quick edit climbing in Northern Patagonia and then making my way back to the U.S.