Loving it to Death: El Capitan
Add to Del.icio.usTraffic jams on El Capitan
by Skip KnowlesSevere weather didn't halt free climber Brad Barlage's assault on El Cap last Fall, nor did dehydration, equipment failure or injury. The mountain didn't stop him at all. Too many climbers did.
Barlage, 31, a sales rep for Black Diamond, shot up 14 pitches in one on El Capitan, about halfway to the top of the 3,200-foot ascent. Starting on the pre-dawn light, he whooshed past eight people on the route only to rear-end a group that refused to let him pass. Not planning for a slow, gear-heavy climb, he was forced to retreat.
Brad Barlage (R) and common climbing partner Andrew McLean. (L)
On classic big wall climbs across the west, crowded routes and a community-wide increase in speed climbing prowess are causing traffic jams and pileups. Imagine you're on the autobahn, but it is only a single lane. You've trained your whole life to get here and go fast, but somebody in a beater Volkswagon pulls out in front of you.
They won't let you pass, and you don't have enough fuel to drive all day in first gear. "So you're going 20 mph," Barlage says, "and a ferrari whips up behind you. Most folks would let you pass."
But not everyone. The solutions? Be willing to explore, learn to climb in the dark and know how to keep a cool head when things don't go your way.
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park.
It was well within the capabilities of Barlage and partner Todd Bibler (of Bibler tent fame) to climb El Cap in 24 hours. Barlage has climbed most crags in the West, and has racked up global adventures, too, even kite-skiing Baffin Island with Andrew McLean. Besides re-defining the term wall-tent, Bibler was one of the first climbers to do a 5.13.
The weather was good, 70 degrees, and their strategy simple. Looking up from the ground, the team could see people clinging and camping above on the route. Bibler and Barlage decided to start super early, around 4 a.m., and get past everyone on the lower route while they're sleeping.
"Then, the next section of people were a thousand feet up, and we'd get to them while they're waking up and plead our case," Barlage said. A lot like trying to pick a fast line through traffic on the autobahn.
When you're moving so much faster than other people, (instead of five pitches in 12 hours they did 14 in five hours), most people will work with you, Barlage said, but the key is being unselfish; you offer to fix a pitch for them, take their ropes or haul a bag.
"It's not a small thing to offer to haul someone's 200 pound bag up a pitch," Barlage said. "Most people are willing to do that and if not I offer to meet them and buy them a beer, and say 'what can I do'?"
An unidentified climber negotiating Zodiac on El Capitan.
Photo: Andrew McLean*
A speed climber is utterly at the mercy of a slower climber, and there's literally no getting around it. It's one path, one person at one time, with bottleneck belets forming stopping points for possible passes.
At some point, the slower climber has to wait anywhere from five
minutes to an hour on the belay-delay if they are allowing someone to pass.
They have to wait to start the next pitch, "so you offer to take their
rope up," Barlage says.
Between 15 and 20 people were on the Nose route that day on El Cap, and Bibler and Brad had already passed at least 8. "You try to communicate upwards, and yell 'hey we're coming up'," Barlage said.
Finally, Barlage and Bibler were atop a tower communicating that they would like to pass and the four people above them said no, they were not going to pass, no matter what. And that is that. All that travel, gear, preparation and expense, and that's it.
Brad offered to haul their bag, put up a pitch, "whatever it takes, and they wanted nothing to do with it," he said. "So we had to rappel back down."
Alex Lowe on Mt. Watkins overlooking Yosemite Valley. Photo:
Andrew McLean*
Maybe 10 years ago he'd have raised his voice, but not now. "You can be a dick, and say we're going to pass you and that's the way it is," he said, "but that's their time is just as important as yours, just cause they're slower doesn't mean they have any less of a right to be there. That's just the way it goes."
People don't like to be passed because dropped gear could endanger them, and they invested time to get on the route. Sometimes, it's possible to find a place where the route splits and you can pass that way.
If not, well...
"They're doing their thing, you're doing yours, if you can't make it work go elsewhere, where there are less people," he said. The best routes are crowded for a reason; they are the best. It has always been a problem, but there is at least twice as much traffic as 10 years ago on most routes, and the advent of speed climbing has exacerbated the friction.
It is a clash of climbing styles more than anything. If you want to climb fast, you have to do things differently. If you're traveling light and fast without extra gear to spend the night, or extra retreat gear, you can't switch gears and slow down because you are corked by other people who are doing it in a different style, taking up to five days. They have a lot more bulky gear and weight.
Throw in the optimal climatic windows for a big wall attack, and weather and temperature concentrate people on any route of significance.
"Every place, it's just a fact of life. Yosemite is where it really matters, big walls, lots of people, and some of the best routes in the world," Barlage said, "Zion in the spring and fall is pretty crowded."
So should you not go fast? Go more with the flow? No.
"Ultimately going fast and light is a huge advantage, "Barlage said. “That day I climbed 14 pitches in five hours, and they did 3 pitches the rest of the day so I still got to climb a bunch more than others, and I think that is how most people are going, trying to get faster, all the gear is becoming lighter."
The average Joe is faster than 10 years ago, partly due to the advent of gear and partly because of changing attitudes and goals. Carabiners, protection, even ropes are lighter and easier to maneuver.
Utah climbing legend Ted Wilson pioneered many of that state's routes since starting out in 1957. He has hit the Grand every year since then, sometimes more, for a total of over 70 ascents on the Tetons, in addition to most of the other western classics. Now the crowding of routes reminds him of slow golfers not allowing others to play through.
"It's frustrating, now I want to take my kid this summer(to Grand Teton) and I realize I can't go and just go up the mountain," he said. "I have to find out if there's a space available and be there at 6 a.m. in a lineup to get a camping spot."
"It's discouraging and it's a hassle to get the climb set up...but that's the lament of the pioneer," Wilson said. "You have to get used to it, be social, enjoy other people because they're going to be there. Give them leeway."
Going early and working with people is still the best strategy, or do climbs when people are not climbing: start late, or consider climbing at 3 a.m. or 6 p.m., climbing through the night.
*Photos courtesy Andrew McLean. Visit his site at www.pawprince.com.
