Zodiac A2 5.7

Currently 5.0/5

El Capitan

Yosemite Valley, California USA

Trip Report

Baba and Kevin's Three Legged Race up Zodiac

Thursday November 5, 2009 12:59am


	Credit: Karl Baba

http://www.yosemiteclimber.com/Zodiacthreelegs.html

Like a good nascar race...somebody gets hurt!

Peace

Karl

Trip Report Views: 4,072

Karl Baba

About the Author
Karl Baba is a trad climber from Yosemite, Ca.

Comments

Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:03pm PT

awesome photos! and way to get some air time! Man, sounds like you like sailing through the air on aid almost as much as Ammon... haha. just kidding. I actually took my first good aid fall down low on the first pitch of zodiac (a 30 feet below where you fell) and took another fall at that exact same spot on the zorro roof. And those are the only places i have fallen on the route. So either those places dont like either of us, or we just really are in sync with were to "get a little air" on el capitan

scottpedition

climber

Just south of one Valley or the other

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:12pm PT

Great write-up Karl. So sorry to hear about your tendon, but glad you're getting it fixed up right.

Was that the Oct storm that dumped 10" of rain and restarted all the falls? If so, good move getting off the wall before it let go.

Take care and get well soon,
Scott

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

sawatch choss

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:40pm PT

I BRAKE FOR RUPTURE

tee hee. that's definitely less than optimal, Karl, I'm sorry. Way to make it all happen, though-good use of the available resources. Chuck would be proud.

MH2

Boulder climber

Andy Cairns

Nov 5, 2009 - 01:11pm PT

Quite a story with plenty of human interest. I guess the race was with the storm? Glad you won.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Author's Reply

Nov 5, 2009 - 01:23pm PT

Chris Mac wrote

" So either those places dont like either of us, or we just really are in sync with were to "get a little air" on el capitan"

I think there are a couple cracks up there with some kind of semi-petrified bat sh#t lining it. You can stand on a piece for a few minutes and still have it pull out!

and yup, I'm SO grateful we got off when we did cause it rained and rained inches and inches the next day. It wasn't safe on my driveway much less El Cap

Thanks for the kind words and healing wishes too

PEace

Karl

Dirka

Trad climber

Hustle City

Nov 5, 2009 - 05:54pm PT

Nice pics Hombres!

Ottawa Doug

Social climber

Ottawa, Canada

Nov 5, 2009 - 08:24pm PT

Hey Karl,

You guys did an awesome job! That looked like an ugly ankle. I would have bailed for sure. I was at the bridge the afternoon when you guys were topping out and it was cold and windy down at the bridge. It looked like the skies might open up at any moment. I knew 'da boyz' were coming up to carry loads, but I didn't realize how bad your ankle/achilles was. Glad you made it over the top before the rain and snow.

I don't know if you remember me, but we shared a beer at the Sentinel campsite during Facelift. I was with Gene Malone and my buddy Mike Burke. Take care of that achilles. That trip report was first class.

Cheers,

Doug

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Author's Reply

Nov 5, 2009 - 09:55pm PT

Thanks Doug. Of course I remember you.

That was a sick sick storm that came in. I was SO SO glad to have my ass out of there in time!

Peace

Karl

Fat Dad

Trad climber

Los Angeles, CA

Nov 6, 2009 - 05:52pm PT

Nice report. It's interesting that you returned to climb it some 25 yrs. after first doing it in '82. I've been thinking about going back and doing it again after first climbing it in '83, which was also my first trip up the Captain.

rhyang

climber

SJC

Nov 6, 2009 - 07:55pm PT

Oh man, sorry to read about your foot. Good wishes for rapid healing !

Nappy

Trad climber

San Mateo, CA

Nov 7, 2009 - 09:33am PT

I loved the trip report Karl. And I have to say it was inspiring watching you climb on that jacked up ankle and without a single complaint... sans a grunt or two going down the East Ledges! It made me forget about the sketchy inverted cam hooks and horrid air time cleaning the Nipple. The climb itself was a lot of fun but the events of the summit were great too. From the four man final push to everyone who made calls for the monkeys who helped save our bacon from that storm. Can't wait to get back to the Valley and I wish you a speedy recovery. With the toughness you showed up there, maybe when you heal up you should consider cage fighting!

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Author's Reply

Nov 13, 2009 - 12:56am PT

I posted this on the forum but wanted to link it here since it relates to this trip

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1010043/Trippy_JuJu_Foretelling_Danger

Peace

Karl

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Author's Reply

Nov 14, 2009 - 12:25am PT

I'm going to post some trippy details from the supertopo thread linked above because....well...just check it out.

I wrote

"Most of you know I ruptured my achilles tendon on Zodiac a bit over a month ago. The story is linked on the trip report tab and online at

http://www.yosemiteclimber.com/Zodiacthreelegs.html

Here's some trippy Ju Ju

First, an astrologer in India predicted an ankle or shoulder injury around this time of this year for me as far back as two years ago. Believe me, I didn't 'will' or 'expect' some Alien popping to fulfill his prediction. Still, it was trippy because this guy knew extremely detailed items from my life and the life of my girlfriend. One example (he didn't even have my girlfriend's legal name) he told her she had 8 nieces and nephews. She said, "sorry but there are only 7" He said. "one died" She got pale "Yup, you're right, forgot about the one that died" Stuff not available via the net or any source. Who knows how such a thing really works but there's a lot more out there than we hear about everyday.

Second, my girlfriend had been nervous about me going on this El Cap Climb. She had been having repeated dreams in which I died. The same or a similar dream, over and over. The weird thing was that in the dream, people were gathering for my memorial in a stone house surrounded by mountains and John Bachar was always in the dream, comforting her and telling her the real scoop about how our ideas about death were wrong and what things were really like.

When I was getting ready to be the preacher for Brutus of Wyde's memorial, I posted an image of the Stonehouse outside Lone Pine where his memorial would take place. I'd never been there myself.

She saw the picture and said "That's the place in my dreams! Remember I said it was a stonehouse without actual glass in the windows or doors in the doorways?"

Trippy stuff.

Then I paid tribute to Brutus at the stonehouse and continued on to Burning Man. When I was there, I remembered that it was a tradition to honor fallen friends by writing their names inside the "Temple" at Burning Man which would be burned at the end of the festival. I decided to make a point of writing the names of my friends Brutus and John inside the temple walls. The funny thing was, when I was writing their names on the wood, I wrote "Brutus" and was trying to write "Bachar" but next wrote "baba" by mistake, almost automatically. It gave me a chill!

There's been a couple strange coinkydinks since then as well.

So I'm not sure why I'm writing this stuff. Maybe ya'll have some spooky stories. Maybe I dodged a bullet and only jacked my ankle.

But just in case there's more to the story, if anything were to happen to me, I just want to say that I've had a fantastic life, I don't hold a hard feeling against anyone in this world, and I'm grateful for all the blessings for life from my friends, family and everybody.

But really, I feel like I'm going to be an old man someday, it's just been a trippy year

Peace

Karl"

then Jess posted

"Yo Karl,

So I don't usually read the details of everyone's El Cap route's, but something keeps bringing me back here. I'm still recovering from an ankle injury at that same spot, from the same blown blue alien and inverted cam hook. Took the same ride, with everyone watching, saying "right on that was some awesome airtime". I've taken lead falls on the Captain and nothing has shaken me like this fall. However, something tonight in reading your report and seeing pictures of you and Jacob, who was recovering from the same ankle injury as mine, kicked my ass back into gear...

Onward!

Jess

P.S. I'm in a rahu dasa cycle and had the same prediction by an astrologer..."

to which I answered

"Jess wrote

"... I'm still recovering from an ankle injury at that same spot, from the same blown blue alien and inverted cam hook. Took the same ride....P.S. I'm in a rahu dasa cycle and had the same prediction by an astrologer..."

Well if I wasn't trippin' before, I am now!! Thanks for that post!

I'm used to more than meets the eye but I can relate when you say.." I've taken lead falls on the Captain and nothing has shaken me like this fall." I can't say I felt shaken but it did have the intuitive feeling of destiny taking place, shaping my life and future.

Peace

karl

I gotta tack a synopsis of some of this this JuJu talk on the comments of my "trip" report"

so I did