People watching us from the base told us about hearing half-hour fits of hysterical laughter floating down from the route. And why would this wall be any different? The best part about walling is its fundamental silliness.
In the middle of the fifth day when Beth clipped her adjustable daisies over the lip and pulled onto the summit of El Cap, there was no doubt that it was all worth it. She'd done several thousand pull-ups to get there. We threw the gear any which way, snapped photos, and gazed at Half Dome in the distance. It seemed crazy that we'd actually done it - or at least, most of it. We still had to get down.
How to get down had posed the most vexing logistical problem in our planning. Initially Beth had considered coming in from Tuolomne Meadows with her hand bike, stashing it on the top of El Cap on the eight-mile long trail, and being carried up to the bike from the top of the Zodiac in order to ride down the trail herself. More research revealed that the trail wasn't smooth enough for a handbike descent. Wellman had used a mule to descend the trail, but given Beth's level of injury, that sounded like a rough ride. The typical descent route, the East Ledges, would definitely be the fastest way, but the going is so steep and treacherous that many climbers have an epic on the way down. We couldn't afford to do anything sketchy with Beth. We needed the fastest, safest descent plan we could get. Clearly this was a case of finding the right team for the job.
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