Valerio Folco attempts 'Tempest', El Capitan

The Italian Valerio Folco travels to Yosemite to climb 'Tempest', El Capitan

PlanetMountain.com

04

October 2001

The Italians Valerio Folco and Marco Spataro, two Mountain guides from the Aosta region, have just left Italy, destination Yosemite, where they plan to “Tempest” on El Capitan. They will join forces with the Americans Tom McMillan and Bruce Bindner for this 20-pitch, 1200m aid route.

tempest
Valerio describes the route as follows: "Tempest is a magical line on El Cap. It rises just to the right of Mescalito on the smoothest and most overhanging section of the wall. We don’t have any info about possible repeats and we haven’t even got a reliable drawing with the grades (A4+?) and gear needed."

photographers
Marco Spataro and Jerry Dodrill have been charged with the task of photographing the ascent. They will climb about 10 pitches of South Seas (situated next to Tempest) to then reach the second half of Tempest and abseiling about 400m using the belays on Pacific Ocean Wall.

internet
The two plan to chronicle their ascent on www.valeriofolco.com
with day-to-day photos and videos.

right: El Capitan and Tempest.
top: El Cap
bottom: Valerio Folco on 'Sea of Dreams'.

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