Morning, day 3: Pitch 25

On Friday morning, we awoke feeling refreshed, ready for our last day on El Cap. It was a little chilly since we were inside the huge left-facing dihedral that makes up most of the upper part of The Nose, so we donned our warm clothing and tried to get moving quickly. We had a quick breakfast of more canned fruit and Clif bars, and I broke down the portaledge while Aaron repacked the haulbag.

Once we were ready to go, I led pitch 25, which started with some easy free climbing up a ramp, to the very corner of the huge dihedral (visible in this photo). Once I reached the corner, I aid climbed up two very thin parallel cracks, starting in the left one, on tiny nuts and cam hooks, then moving to the right one when it widened enough to take medium sized cams. At the end of the left crack, I did three moves in a row on cam hooks. Just like I said the previous morning, there's nothing like standing on a hook at 6 AM to get your day started right! Actually, the cam hooks felt totally solid. I'm beginning to like those things. Once I was in the right crack, I quickly crack-jugged the rest of the pitch, bringing me to the Glowering Spot.