So my name is Ant Hall from Cape Town in South Africa and what brought me to Yosemite particularly
well North America just has so much great climbing that we all hear about everywhere else in the
world so and it's so far from home so in some senses I left it to one big road trip so I'm
doing the sixth month road trip having bought a truck and seeing all the wild places that
they are here in the States and of course Yosemite is the big one you know it's the biggest fair
where the wall in the world with some amazing climbing at the same time and such an energy
around here so here I am. I've made one trip previously to Yosemite and on that trip I supported
a friend who wanted to free the free rider and he did that successfully I was the whole bunny
you know supporting him in that effort and we really pleased he did that so I'd had a tame
introduction to Yosemite and my ambition for this trip was to come back and to do a route any route
which would be the nose as by far the easiest one much more under my own steam and to to try and
do some free climbing on it we had a fantastic time up there maybe I was a little ambitious we
did a lot of free climbing until about halfway and then you know I think a little bit too far
perhaps we shot out of the starting blocks a bit too too fast and had to resort to some
heavy aid on the top so didn't quite realize that but hey we got to the top and had an amazing time
and we took four full days to get up there yeah one day one day to just above Dalter a hanging
port ledge it was my buddy's first time in a port ledge that was pretty wild a night on El Cap Spire
and then South African friends of ours had told us that the best port ledge in the entire world
is the hanging one at the end of the great roof and before the pancake flake which is not a logical
place to stop right but apparently that's the spot and that's just the way it worked out so we
slept at the end of the great roof with the pancake for breakfast in contrast to all the other
big wild places in the world like El Cap where you're just you're out of mobile phone reception
no one knows you there here you've got this grand auditorium where you know everyone can watch
everyone can comment they're blogging for you practically and I knew that there was this retired
person called Tom Evans who was kind of the center node of everything that went on that he was the
keeper of all the beta and who was who and and so on I didn't know about the El Cap report I learned
about that here but it's certainly fun you can't pass the bridge and there's always the who's who
here passing through taking a rest day after just having done a big route you know it's kind of
where it's all happening and people go and sleep in camp four but there's you know there's a nice
energy around here it can also be quite intimidating to be honest as someone who's not a big bad
leader of the big wall you know you come here and there's so much beta going around and so much
energy and you just think wow you know all these big names all this information I need to know I'm
not ready for this and I think at some point you also just need to put your own rack on and say
right I'm gonna go and climb this thing which you don't get in a big wild place like Patagonia or
any of the big expeditions because you're guessing it for yourself so you don't get that psych out
but it's also a good energy and it's something that's unique to to Yosemite the really big names
are the most open and warm and welcoming and they're the guys that are so psyched for you to do your
first LCAP route I find the guys who are still kind of trying to prove themselves and still trying
to make their mark in the Yosemite scene which is a hard scene they tend to be sort of a little bit
socially justling but the guys atop of their game most of the people and particularly the guys at
top of their game are you know really warm really welcoming and really psyched for you to be you
know starting at the bottom of the ladder the bridge culture is interesting because everyone's got
an opinion on the best way to do particular routes whether it's the best way to do the king swing
or the best way to do more free climbing or you know use a thin tagline on this pitch or that pitch
and I find I think you have to take the best of each one because you don't realize that the guy
giving out the bait is a 513 climber and he doesn't realize you're a 510 climber so the
bait may be different so you've got to pick and choose um but but definitely it's nice to come
and get some tips and tricks and in some sense it's just some encouragement I I was sitting in
the meadow with Libby Sorter who holds the woman's speed record and just you know telling her my
ambitions and she knows how I climb and she just said hey just go and do a sickle run go and do
adult run best way to go and get the better um I think that was the best single bit of advice
that I got just that encouragement that you know you're not you're not playing it down if you just
go and check it out up to adult that's that's the way to do it so that's what I did definitely I
think there's some sense of of history in Yosemite um where I come from my history is very young um
it's very rich too but it's very it's very isolated in our own whereas Yosemite culture
and Chamonix cultures worldwide you know you grow up with it um so A route on LCAP you know clearly
there's so much history there certainly the big names um you know Warren Harding Tom Frost Royal
Robbins and some of what went on there in that time period is known certainly we know what about
the transition from by any means through to clean climbing and free climbing we kind of know that
story and also you've heard so much about these pictures like the bolt ladder at the top and the
controversy or the the changing corners and Lynn Hill and that picture now it's having actually
been there yourself it feels very real and you feel like you filled that story in for yourself right
I think there's definitely a certain rite of passage and a certain badge that you get having
climbed LCAP and and I think that badge carries down to the bridge you're someone who's done LCAP
or you you're someone who hasn't I don't think it's right and I don't think it's necessarily a good
thing but there is that badge and it's the wrong reason to climb LCAP but now having done that and
come down to the bridge it's as if Thomas sort of giving you your your badge and you know it's
it's definitely a big name LCAP and having visited the bridge in that culture there that you that
that you you cross from the line at the bridge is the point at which you cross the line from
one day I'd like to climb LCAP to I'd been up LCAP I think I'll definitely be back to the valley
I think as much as the roots your own personality and your own stage in life and your your ambitions
of climbing are different every time you visit I think me as a climber was very different four
years when I came for my first trip is very different to my ambitions and what I'm wanting
out of it now and I will be back for a third visit and it'll be interesting to see where I'm at
and what I'm wanting to do on that trip
