1 week till me and Neil head off to the US and Yosemite. Over the last few months i have been tracking down emailing people about getting gear we need or possible sponsorship/free stuff.
It has been a bit of a nightmare to say the least....but finally we have everything we need, even if we dont know how to use it all. The only thing to worry about now is what the airport is going to say when we turn up with 50 kilos of stuff each..ummmm.
Its kind of hard to prepare for big wall climbing in the lakes, especially as neither of us have done any "real" aid climbing before.
The Nose on El Cap really wont have prepared us that much for what we are about to try and do.
Big walling.............well it really aint much fun, that is until your at the top or just before you go to sleep.
Ropes get knoted, haul bags get stuck, knees get cut, hands get swollen, the sun beats down on you, minds wander normally towards water . Sitting in your harness for hours on end, or sweating and bricking it if you are leading.
All this said, when we stood at the bottom of the Nose and looked up at 3200 feet of golden granite it seemed an impossible goal to climb this route, there was so much uncertainty..so much unknown, so many what if's.
Yet we made it..........and the feeling of getting to the top after so much hardship was amazing like nothing i have ever felt before...............And thats why we go back....so maybe..... just maybe we can be allowed to climb El Cap again......and again
Trying to set up the portaledge no easy task.
Me and keith enjoyed a San Miguel on the ledge. Should be many a night spent on this bad boy in the weeks to come.
Thanks Si for coming through and getting this for us. Leg-end.
