East Buttress 5.10b

We woke up at the comparatively late hour of 6:30 and were the third party of three on the route. It was a slow-paced day, but lovely nonetheless. We were using the fish topo, but ended up doing a mix of it and the supertopo. We definitely agreed with Russ that the sixth pitch was the true crux of the route, especially with our single #3. Next time, we would break it in to two pitches as per the supertopo. Also, it seems that we mostly stayed around the OW (with lots of mixed face climbing and stemming). Does the sixth pitch face climbing variation go radically further left or were we on it?

We saw a few drops from the falls during the height of the afternoon thermals, but the route is absolutely good to go.

The descent was the easiest I've ever had from El Cap - maybe because I wasn't carrying a haul bag (duh) or maybe because all the fixed lines are new and in good condition. Additionally, there are two extra fixed lines continuing down after the usual raps end. These can either be batmanned or rapped, but either way they get you down past all of the difficulties and right to the path. Quite the luxury!

To the party ahead of us: hope you made it down before it got too dark. Also, I can send you the original of the photos I took of you if you would like.