Zodiac, El Cap, June 2010, part 2

Jon and Lynn climb Zodiac (grade VI, 5.7 A2/C3F, 16 pitches) on the right side of El Cap in June 2010. We spent 5 nights on the wall. Lynn led pitches 1, 3, 5, first part of 7; Jon led the rest. Most teams do the climb over 3-5 days. Video taken mostly by Canon SD960 IS, with a few clips by GoPro HD and Canon 5DmkII. Additional photos by Canon Rebel xSi and Olympus 1030AW. Additional photos used with permission from Tom Evans (elcapreport.com) shot from down in the valley with an 800mm lens.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Zodiac
• aid climbing
• Yosemite
• El Cap
• El Capitan
• GoPro HD
• Canon SD960 IS
• A5 cliff cabana
• big wall
• elcapreport.com

[mthudon]

Porter didn't use heads on any of his routes, he didn't believe it was a legitimate way to aid. When i did the route in 1977, we didn't have cams, cam hooks or beaks, we nailed the whole thing!

These days, I'll be cam hooks and hand placed beaks are the ticket.

[natureboyjon]

@mthudon Wow! I can only imagine trying to do that route without cams! I used cam hooks many times on that pitch, but for those 3 moves there wasn't really any crack at all, just a shallow corner with enough irregularities to smear some aluminum into. Looking back,maybe hooking with a beak would have worked for one of the placements,but it certainly looked like heads had been placed there previously-including a couple broken cables with the heads still fixed

Anyway,I appreciate your perspective!

[mthudon]

Porter didn't use any heads on the first ascent, I don't know why you would need any now.

[natureboyjon]

@mthudon Thanks for the note. I didn't realize the first ascent didn't require heads. I know it frequently goes clean but that's with plenty of fixed pieces. I would have liked to use something else on that pitch, but didn't really see any other option. How did you make it through that section?

[MrRastaManDan]

Great Show!

[mthudon]

Jon, I don't mean to get down on you, I'm just real down on heads. I'd say that 85% of all the heads you see on El Cap are un-needed. Usually, after someone places a head, they don't have the tools to take it out, ruining the pitch for climbers who come later to test their own mettle. Check out my Zenyatta Mondatta TR on SuperTopo to see what I mean.

[rasperas]

Great video. Makes me remember how slow aid is (2 pitches a day! miserable).

[jasenjordan]

Great videos..Thanks for sharing