Time & Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2015 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)
Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.
Mark Hudon first climbed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 1974. He was 18 years old and a senior in High School on a trip out from New Hampshire. Over the next 6 years Mark would climb El Cap 8 more times, usually early and fast ascents of routes such as the Mescalito, Magic Mushroom, New Dawn and the Zodiac, not to mention nearly free ascents of the Salalthe Wall and The Nose. In 2009, Mark was bitten by the big wall bug again. He led the entire Nose route in 15.5 hours, his first route on El Cap in 30 years. The next spring he soloed Grape Race to Tribal Rite in 11 days and has done 15 additional routes since, including 2 more solo ascents. Mark, with various partners, has plans for 6 El Cap routes this year including Tempest, A4+, and Freerider (5.13a). Next year, after turning 60, he plans to solo another El Cap route.
Mark will present his 2012 solo ascent of Iron Hawk VI (A4 5.9r) on El Capitan. Mark’s intent was to solo the route. Twelve days later he was barely able to jumar a rope tossed down from the top for him. Mark says “It’s still hard for me to talk about it”.
