Re: Any information on Alcove Swing?

Want to try out this crazy swing on El Cap this weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf5t9j96sNE. I haven't come across any recent blogs on this as of yet. Any info?

More info here (or at least there is Wickett's sweet video):
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,31463

Link to the youtube vid for those who use flat mode:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,31463,31576#msg-31576

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My climbing experience is limited, having gone with a girl I used to date a few times and her club, but I do know that ropes don't last forever. I am pretty sure they say once you have a fall on one, that you need to retire it, or there are a certain number of falls per rope before you have to retire it. Certainly, this is not as much stress as a fall, but I don't think I would trust my life to a rope that has been hanging there since last year, in the elements, with countless number of people swinging from it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2011 05:35PM by hotrod4x5.

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hotrod4x5
My climbing experience is limited, having gone with a girl I used to date a few times and her club, but I do know that ropes don't last forever. I am pretty sure they say once you have a fall on one, that you need to retire it, or there are a certain number of falls per rope before you have to retire it. Certainly, this is not as much stress as a fall, but I don't think I would trust my life to a rope that has been hanging there since last year, in the elements, with countless number of people swinging from it.

If anyone wants to "retire" a rope; just leave it at any entrance station and I'll pick it up. I cut them up and make hammocks and things out of them.

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waterpusher

Want to try out this crazy swing on El Cap this weekend:

.

I haven't come across any recent blogs on this as of yet. Any info?

The "Alcove Swing" is at the start of the South Seas route up the Southeast face of El Captian.

I'd like to try the Alcove Swing.... This one:


uh... not so much...

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Where exactly on El Capitan is the "Alcove"?

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Frank Furter

Where exactly on El Capitan is the "Alcove"?

It's location is shown on the first ten seconds of the first YouTube video that was referenced in this thread:



Just look carefully at the first 10 seconds of this video. You'll see that it's located at the beginning of the South Seas rock climbing route on El Capitan which is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean portion of El Cap's Southeast wall. The rope needs to be set up at either the first or second pitch of the route.

Here's a link to Google Maps that shows the approximate location of the base of the alcove (at the Green Arrow on the map). Note it's approximate, because the alcove being an alcove, it's hidden from a satellite view of El Cap.

Google Maps: Approx. Location of the El Capitan Alcove Swing

The GPS coordinates of the Green Arrow shown on the map are: 37.730352, -119.633743.

Hope that helps.

Here's a photo of El Capitan with the Alcove circled in red: