We then went to the meadow and lounged around, looking at climbers on El Cap. There we met up with our friends Ben, Katie and Stacy - we hiked up to the alcove swing together hoping for some evening entertainment, but it turned out that the swing wasn't there (no rope)! Bummer. We chilled out on the ledge there and watched the sunset/stars, eventually making it back to the car and cooking dinner.

On Sunday, we got up early and went to do the East Buttress of El Cap, a pretty fun climb that I had already done once before. There was a team on pitch 4 when we arrived (already far enough ahead that it wouldn't be an issue), as well as a team on the first pitch belay that seemed to be having a conversation. What followed was something that I'd much rather forget - but the team (a girlfriend/boyfriend) were having an epic argument, of which we could hear 100% (due to the sound carrying down the chimney), including f-bombs and plenty of cuss words. As far as I could tell the main reason for the argument was that he didn't want to lead the second pitch (the crux of the climb), and she wanted him to. Eventually he tried to do it several times, but kept falling/swinging back into her (it is a very tricky move). Then after some more swearing, she took over and tried it, also falling several times and giving up! The interaction between the two of them was unreal, something I hope to never see again. I sat for at least 30 minutes below them, trying to see if I can somehow get past them. Luckily, they decided to bail and they rappelled down - phew.

It was a big relief at that point, that they wouldn't be ahead of us... and we had an awesome time on the rest of the climb. With the 70 meter rope we linked lots of pitches: 2+3, 4+5, 7+8, 9+10, 12+13, making it in 8 pitches total (and about 6 hours on the climb including the time waiting) - not too bad. Then we had an amazingly smooth descent down - due to some awesome new fixed ropes on the East Ledges descent, we were able to quickly rappel and make it to the parking lot in 1 hour and 15 minutes from the top, which was awesome. Funnily the team that was in front of us got confused with the descent so we ended up meeting up with them and helping them/we descended together - they were very friendly and awesome and shared stories and a cold beer with us at the base! Then as luck would have it, a few minutes later the Yosemite Shuttle showed up at the Manure Pile Buttress parking lot and gave us a ride to the meadows, where our car was. Awesome timing!

	Starting up Beverly Tower	Beverly Tower with Meat Grinder/Red Zinger on the left	Stemming the Beverly Tower crux - super fun!

		What a position! Belaying underneath Wheat Thin

		Starting up Wheat Thin

	What an amazing position!	Lots of liebacking	Butterballs on the left, with the much much easier Wheat Thin on the right

	Only two cars at the Cookie... what!?	Melissa about to start Wheat Thin	What a wild flake!

	On Butterfingers		Near the top of Butterfingers

	The first pitch of EB of El Cap	Good morning, El Cap!	I started but had to wait for 30 minutes at the pitch 1 belay, for a team in front to eventually bail

	Sun rising over the Cathedrals	Melissa is snapping photos while I wait for the team in front...	Lower and Higher Cathedral Spires

		First light on a lone tree	Coming up the first pitch, finally - after waiting out the other climbers who bailed

	Our pitch 3

			Lots of teams on El Cap!

			Lots of broken rock up high

		Linked 7 & 8	Doing the sketchy 5.9 face variation to the offwidth

		Pitches 9 & 10 below (link easily)

	Epic view	Chewing a power bar

	The awesome 11th pitch with Half Dome in the background! My favorite pitch of the route.	Peak-a-boo!

		View from the top of the East Buttress	Last pitch

	The top!