Editor's Note: This article ran in the May-June 1987 issue of Summit. 

 

 By Dana R. Eubanks

The alarm clock sounds at 3:30 a.m. on September 27, 1986. The gear is packed so all I have to do is pour a cup of coffee for the road and drive from Southern California to Yosemite Valley. Just a short jaunt compared to my climbing partner's drive from Georgia. I arrived in the Valley at 10:00 a.m. and immediately found Charlie Kable. Charlie is an excellent wall climber. We both have climbed El Cap many times with other partners, but he is the one person I have done all my hard El Cap routes with. We decided to have breakfast at Cathedral Beach, rack up and discuss the plan of attack for Sea of Dreams.

We had the same thought in mind: to get ropes on the route before someone else does. By 3 p.m. we had a rack together and were on the wall. While fixing pitches, two Spaniards who were starting the Pacific Ocean Wall, shouted to us, "Hey, we know you!" Sure enough, they were the climbers that shared the summit of El Cap with us in 1982 when Charlie and I completed the South Seas and they completed the Nose. At the end of the day we had a pitch and a half fixed and our hardware on the wall. 

The next morning we had breakfast at the Awahnee. We both felt good about having our gear on the wall. Our plan that day was to carry loads and fix pitches. At the base of the wall we met a second group of foreign climbers getting ready to climb the P.O. Wall. They were two young Yugoslavians with whom we later shared the summit. That day we finished the second pitch and fixed the third, fourth and part of the fifth pitch. At dinner that night we heard rumors of a storm. We were not too concerned because we had plenty of rain gear. 

Dana belaying from the top of the 19th pitch. / Photo: Charlie Kable

The following day, pulling up ropes behind us, we were ready to go for it. I finished the fifth pitch and Charlie led the sixth pitch. This is the "Laura Scudders" pitch. It was not difficult, but spectacular. I recall Charlie having difficulty getting in and out of his aid slings because of the wind blowing. It was becoming more and more difficult to ignore the fact that a storm was blowing in. After I led the seventh pitch I rappelled back to Charlie and we bivouacked at the top of the sixth. After completing the first A5 pitch we felt good and began to enjoy the bivouac. But these feelings were short lived for the storm had moved in. 

With morning's light I peered through the fly over my port-a-ledge and observed that it was snowing on the rim and raining at the base of El Cap. It became apparent to Charlie and me that we were about to experience the first winter storm of the season. The wind was blowing into the valley and striking the walls of El Cap causing violent vertical winds to throw my port-a-ledge in 180° arcs back and forth across the wall. This continued throughout the day.

That night the winds died down but the rains continued. 

When morning came, there was a lull in the storm. I had intentions of sitting out another day but Charlie, having had previous experiences sitting out long storms on El Cap, was in no mood to do it again. Our decision was to tie three ropes together and rappel down. We left most of the gear on the wall. That night we patched our storm damaged equipment and dried out our sleeping gear. 

While having dinner, we were informed that another storm was on its way. Unfortunately, success in the business world quite often means less time in the climbing world, and storm or no storm, I had only two weeks of vacation. Therefore we committed ourselves to go back up the wall in unstable weather. 

The morning found us jumaring back up the wall. We climbed that day in the rain. The next day we found ourselves on the "Hook or Book" pitch. This pitch is rated A4 in the guidebook. Nevertheless, it stands out in both my mind and Charlie's as being serious. Charlie was able to find the hook placements and move across the pitch smoothly and rapidly. 

Over the next few days we worked our way up through thin A5s. While leading we found that many fixed pieces would come out as we clipped into them due to the fact that the route had not been done in a few years. From Big Sur we worked our way through the diorite sections. We looked up at the last big roof and anticipated the end of climb. This pitch is known as the "Price is Light" variation. Although it was one of the easier pitches on the route (A2), I found it to be exciting with an airy hanging belay. 

Because success was so close our excitement was soaring. Charlie led the next pitch as if it was A1. Although A4 is not as difficult as A5, it is still serious and Charlie and I were reminded of this with a 100-foot fall. Suddenly I realized that Charlie was falling, coming down headfirst, screaming in terror, ripping pieces out as he fell, including the bad bolt that was reported on this pitch. The impact of his fall on the belay was tremendous, slamming me against the wall. Charlie escaped injury. My right hand was in great pain. The next thing I realized Charlie was shouting commands to me. 

"Tie off the haul line." This I did with great difficulty due to the enormous pain in my hand. It was becoming apparent that my hand was broken. Charlie jumared up the rope and wasted no time in getting back on the lead. In the bivouac that night I spent most of my time in quiet contemplation as to whether I would be able to lead the next day with my broken hand. Charlie assured me, whether I led the next day or not, that this climb was ours, as a team. 

Then he added, “Falls like this change the whole perspective of the climb.”

The next day I was glad to find that I was able to lead and one more day of climbing found us on the rim. We were greeted by the Yugoslavian climbers who had just completed their route. They had extra food to share with us as we had spent our last day with no food. After experiencing the isolation of an El Cap wall, the joy of sharing food with other climbers was special.

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The cover of the May-June 1987 issue of Summit features Charlie Kable leading on the 14th pitch of Sea of Dreams (5.9 A4) on El Capitan, in Yosemite. Photo by Dana Eubanks.

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