This is the Titan, the biggest of the Fisher Towers and one of the most impressive pieces of rock anywhere. Photo: Andrew Gram

This is the Maverick on the Hindu Spire in Onion Creek, Utah. Notice my partner in the lower righthand corner for scale. Photo by Andrew Gram

It was 1983, my first visit to the mythical and mystical Valley. I had been enjoying some free climbing, and had managed to get up a couple Grade V walls.

After a strenuous few days of climbing, Kevin suggested we do the El Cap layback.

Great, thought I. Probably some desperate 10d, hard to place gear, nowhere to rest.....

"No!", said Kevin. "We go down to the Meadows and lay back and look at El Cap!"

Fine by me.

From left to right, Gerry DeMaio, John Kaandorp and Kevin Lawlor

One of my favourite pictures ever, this photo is enlarged to poster-size, and hangs in my front hallway.

Aurora is a moderately hard line more or less straight up the centre of the Southeast Face of El Cap. You get a little bit of everything on Aurora, from a mellow warm-up on the first three-and-a-half pitches of the Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2001-11-04
Views: 1963 | Votes: 8 | Comment: 1

It's not that often you can get a picture of yourself soloing a big wall, so when the opportunity presents itself, you'd better grab it.

It's day 11 of a 16-day solo, my Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2001-10-27
Views: 1827 | Votes: 11 | Comment: 1

It's amazing what some people will do given the proper motivation. Take me, for instance.

I was hangin' out at the base of El Cap fixing pitches for my solo ascent of Native Son.

Suddenly up walks Chris Falkenstein, the well-known Yosemite photographer. He agrees that next weekend he will schlep six hundred feet of rope up to the summit, along with all his camera and movie gear, so he could rappel down to take this bitchin' photo!

What can I say about Chris except,

"He's just The Shit!

Tower of Babel in Arches National Park. Picture taken from the Thre Gossips by Andrew Gram. Zenyatta Entrada climbs the obvious thin steep face directly to the summit.

Andrew Gram aiding the first pitch of the West Face of the Three Gossips in Arches National Park near Moab. This pitch also goes free at 5.10 hands, and is better that way since the aid is very awkward.

This is a little bit higher on the notorious hooking pitch [P4] of Jolly Roger - click the link to see another photo.

See that little blob of aluminum I'm holding? That's a #2 head. When they get this big (yeah, that's "big" for Jolly Roger), you can at least get 'em started with the end of your hammer. But you'll need your dulled chisel to really paste those little buggers home!

I was actually feeling pretty good at this point - have a look at what's beneath me! Nothing but duct-taped talon hooks on screamers between me and my belayer.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh - #2 head - it's bomber, dude!

The hard climbing on Jolly Roger comes at you fairly quickly, and it doesn't let up much, either. Get out your talon hooks, duct tape and screamers for this pitch, mate!

The only thing that doesn't make it totally suicidal is that it's not quite vertical. This photo was taken by the renowned Heinz Zak as he zipped by on the fixed lines up to Heart Ledges.

You can click to see an even scarier photo from higher on this pitch!

"Pass the Pitons" Pete Zabrok leads the pristine splitter crack that thrusts up the clean orange rock of the headwall of Sunkist. Photo by Dave Benton, this is

I - "Pass the Pitons" Pete Zabrok - stand proudly on the summit after my second El Cap route - Salathe Wall. At the time I thought I looked pretty bitchin'
The amount of gear you need for a solo ascent of a hard nail-up is about triple this amount!

Half-way up P6 on Prodigal Son, my partner (Tim Ruegg on his first wall) calls for the camera on the tag line. It was August 1999, and it was over 100°F for most of the 3 weeks that I was there.