A crowd gathers

Meanwhile, back in the meadows, Aaron's mom and dad were busy taking photos, keeping track of our progress on their copy of the topo, and providing us with moral support through their radios. Throughout all three days of our climb, they kept their watch. And all three days, tourists and climbers alike came to the meadows, as they always do, to gaze up at the big stone in awe of its size, its ominousness, its majesty. A few of them talked to the Reites, wondering why this couple was sitting in the meadows with radios and cameras and a telescope pointed at El Cap. When they heard that they were watching their son and his friend climb the wall, they would search with binoculars and try to find us and point us out to their friends. One couple apparently came back every day for three days to get an update on our progress. There were at least four or five other parties on the wall at the same time as us, some climbing much more challenging routes than we were, but apparently with Aaron's parents watching us, we were like the celebrities of El Cap.

Of course, I shouldn't forget to mention that for at least one or two days while we were on the wall, there were a few actual celebrities up there as well. Two of the most famous climbers in the world, the great German brothers Alex and Thomas Huber, were climbing El Cap at the same time. When we arrived in Yosemite on Sunday, we had stopped at the Yosemite Mountain Shop and asked if they had heard from any parties who were planning on doing the Nose. We were concerned about crowds, of course. They told us that the Hubers were in town, supposedly to try and bag the second free ascent of The Nose. The thought of climbing The Nose at the same time that the Hubers were on the route sounded pretty cool, although the traffic issues did worry us a little.

While we were climbing the stoveleg cracks, Aaron's mom and dad told us via radio that the Hubers were indeed on the route, somewhere on the first few pitches, below Sickle Ledge. They had a camera crew with them, plus a ground support crew in the meadows with more cameras. The Reites talked to the guys in the meadows, and found out that the Hubers were there to work on a new speed record, not a free ascent, and that there was another German team with them who was going to try to free climb the route. Now this sounded incredibly cool, because if they were working on a speed ascent, they would likely come flying by us at any minute. We looked down from where we were climbing, and we could see several people somewhere on the second or third pitch.

“How cool is that?” I thought, “The Hubers are climbing The Nose at the same time that we are. We are on a climb with the Hubers.”

The Hubers and the other German team were being filmed, of course, and supposedly it was for an actual movie that would be released in theaters, not just another climbing video. Unfortunately, the Hubers never did pass us, nor did they break the already insane speed record for The Nose, nor did the other German team succeed in their free attempt. Thus the movie may have been abandoned; I haven't heard anything about it since.