Tomaz Humar Soloing the A5 Death Pitch on Reticent Wall

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This is page 16 of my presentation.

Anyway, it's the fall of 1998 and Sean, Chris and I are humping loads up to the base of El Cap, when all of a sudden up walks this dude.

"What route are you climbing?" he asks.

We tell him it's Reticent Wall.

"I don't suppose you have a topo I could look at...?"

I hand him a copy of my topo, and suddenly we find all of these TV cameras stuck in our faces!

Turns out this guy is Humar, and he is at his wits' end since nobody would give him beta for the route! The only "topo" he has is a photocopy from the big Clay Wadman El Cap poster - and you could never find your way up Reticent with that!

I can't believe it!

"Well listen," I tell him, "when we get down from the wall, I'll give you an annotated copy of my topo."

Humar is OVERJOYED - he's like a kid at Christmas - and the movie cameras roll as he pumps my hand in his trademark death grip handshake. [Ouch!]

Tomaz and I agree to meet back at Camp 4 later. See, Tomaz had never soloed a big wall before, and he needed a Wall Doctor to teach him a few big wall tips. Besides, I had this book I wanted him to buy....

Please click here to continue the story, and to read how the World's Greatest Climber ended up with Dr. Piton's Chongo book. [You know, the book my detractor on page 1 tried to tell you didn't exist?] Sheesh.

[Photo of Tomas Humar taken on Reticent Wall by MATEJ MEJOVSEK, which Tomaz emailed to me, along with permission to publish here at RC.com]