Who is this guy? And why does he have my #16 cam?

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Here's a shot of Steve Gerberding, graciously posing in front of his nemesis, El Capitan, with my #16 Valley Giant cam. I was just about to head up to the base of Scorched Earth, when I ran into Steve standing on the bridge at El Cap Meadows.

He'd just come off his one-hundredth ascent of the Big Stone, climbing the Dihedral Wall for his first time, in record speed, with Hans Florine, who was also making his hundredth ascent of the Stone. Steve and Hans have many speed records on El Capitan, but I think that was the first time they'd teamed up to do one. You can click here to open another browser window and read about El Capitan speed ascents.

Steve doesn't need any such giant cam to go up anything. He is a Big Wall Master on at least three continents. He was just being a good sport for the camera.

I did my first big wall with Steve back in October of 1983. We swung leads on the Lost Arrow Direct. It took us two days after fixing two pitches.

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