Ep 42 - Painful Lessons on the Nose of El Capitan - Mike Drake

the Sharp End Podcast

Sports

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

In 2012, Mike Drake was still a young climber, but he and his partner were well prepared for the Nose of El Cap and felt ready to take the next step in their climbing. They made it more than 20 pitches up the route before Mike suffered a damaging fall off the notorious short crack above Pancake Flake. In this episode, Mike and Ashley talk through the accident and rescue, and Mike shares insights about the long road to recovery, both physical and mental. The Sharp End is presented by Mammut, with additional support from Suunto and the Colorado Outward Bound School. This podcast is produced by the American Alpine Club.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Sharp Bend Podcast. I'm Ashley your host is for the show.
0:11.0	This podcast is brought to you by the American Alpine Club and
0:14.3	sponsored by Mamoot. Design and developed in the Swiss Alps, Mamoot has been making
0:19.5	the finest Alpine equipment since the 1860s. Driven by continuous quest for innovation,
0:25.4	Mamut's technical clothing, footwear, climbing gear, avalanche safety, and
0:29.7	alpine equipment are distinguished by the highest quality, functionality, and safety.
0:34.8	They embody Swiss technology and perfection.
0:38.0	Mamoot? Absolute Alpine. Thank you to the Colorado Outward Brown School and
0:45.0	Suuto for the additional support.
0:50.0	So in this episode of the Sharp End podcast, I get to talk to Michael Drake about the fall he took on L cap and what it took mentally, emotionally, and physically to get back on the sharp end of the rope.
1:01.0	During Michael's Adventures of Climbing and Recovery, he got a personal visit
1:06.0	from Royal Robbins in the hospital, met Hans Florian on the same route, and said hello to
1:11.3	Linhill at the Crag. I'll let him tell you the rest of the story.
1:21.2	My name's Michael Drake. I've been climbing for a little over 10 years. I got into climbing as a teenager when I worked in a semi-national park for the concession out there and kind of fell headlong into the sport. I've been doing it ever since. of
1:33.3	headlong into the sport. I've been doing it ever since. Back in 2012, almost exactly seven years ago on May 30th,
1:38.2	I was on the nose on El Capitan with my friend Zach Wasserman
1:42.3	and managed to take a pretty bad fall and got pretty
1:46.0	heard from that. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about that accident and sort of the recovery
1:50.8	process and this kind of multi-year journey that it shaped itself
1:53.9	into before I was able to finally get back on that route again. Yeah so it kind of all
1:58.0	started I had just graduated from college and Zach and I jumped into car in
2:01.8	Philadelphia and drove across the country in three days, which looking back on it now was kind of weird and way too fast.
	...

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