On July 19 at 6:15am, Nancy gave birth to our third child, Lance Hugo 
Cummins (7 pounds).  At the time, I was bivvied on top of El Cap...:

On July 14-18, I did the Dawn Wall with Wayne Burleson.  Wayne is the 
fastest wall partner I've ever had, and the many rivets also helped us 
average 5-6 pitches/day instead of the expected 4.  Another thing which 
helped was hauling 2 bags separately on separate haul lines.  Previously, 
I've always hauled all bags together, which requires parter-counterweight 
methods for heavy bags.
Day 0:  met in El Cap Meadow at 8pm and hashed out rack (sparse) details.  
Humped our water and food to the base of Mescalito, where we noted a cache 
of water and a fixed line running up the route....  That night I got my 
biggest skin loss of the trip when I stumbled in the dark and gashed my 
hand.  In the morning, I was attending to nature's call when wasps attacked 
and I had to run for it while being stung!
Day 1:  fired the first 5 pitches of Mescalito to a decent ledge.  We chose 
this start to the Dawn because I had missed these pitches when doing the 
Hockey Night start to Mescalito with John Imbrie 3 years ago.  There was no 
sign of the soloist who'd fixed the lines; his friends on Hockey Night spent 
most of the day backing off from the top of p3/4.  On p1, Wayne made 12 hook 
moves.  On p3, we belayed too early, being misled by the top of the fixed 
lines.  p4 was long and hard and jungly at times; Wayne took a short fall 
when a hook skated off.  p5 was long, but had some convenient fixed heads.
Day 2:  Wayne led the Seagull nicely.  The crux move was placing a head when 
a fixed one's cable was unravelling and twisting the biner around!  p7 
featured some large grass hummocks, and late in the day, Wayne branched left 
onto the Dawn Wall rivet ladder.  I made it to a nice ledge just before 
dark.
Day 3:  Wayne led the full-pitch rivet traverse, back-cleaning except for 
bolts, as would be our custom on the pitches above.  I took a fall in the 
first Dihedrals pitch when a TCU blew; here we started using our hammers in 
earnest.  I stopped at a false belay 80' up, and Wayne took over the second 
half of the pitch.  He lowered from a thin/technical section near the top, 
and I finished the pitch, taking some time on the tricky gear.  The next 3 
Dihedrals pitches had many more rivets, and we were gunning for a bivvy at 
Wino Tower, but darkness and a funky belay anchor led us to instead fix the 
last pitch and have a full hanging bivvy (with me in Charlie Schreck's 
hammock and Wayne in his old portaledge as usual).
Day 4:  A short free pitch to Wino Tower, with one of Harding's (empty) wine 
bottles still fairly intact.  Wayne led a long awkward "fight" crack above, 
with a nasty slot.  I got another mellow pitch with free moves to a nice 
ledge.  Wayne got on rivets that headed back left again, and I led a 
Swallow-filled flake to a small but nice bivvy ledge.  When Wayne was 
cleaning the pitch, a fixed belay pin pulled out, but it was backed up.  I 
fixed the next long and steep pitch (with some crumbly rock and a lot of 
backcleaning TCUs near the top) as it became dark.
Day 5:  Feeling the top was in range, we left a gallon at the ledge and 
motored upwards with a single haul line.  Had our single "dropsy" incident
when packing the bag -- the (unsecured) sleeping pad on Wayne's portaledge
slid off and headed west).  The big roof pitch was a minor 
epic, with a strenuous lip section and a long awkward corner above which 
required pins -- I was pretty spent at the top of it.  Wayne led to a nice 
ledge; I followed and just sat there for awhile.  We decided to at least fix 
the next one, and see how long it took, so I headed up and soon had to call 
for the pins.  Eventually, a nice pocketed seam headed up a blankish gold 
headwall, and I had fun with the technical placements (tapping small 
stoppers, tied off pins).  Just when it turned to an A4 RURP seam below the
belay, rivets appeared, which was a letdown and a relief at the same time.
An easier pitch with an A3 sloping rivet got us to another good ledge, but
only one short pitch remained, so we cranked it to a summit bivvy just before
dark.
A recommendable wall, not too hard, with several convenient ledges and some 
memorable pitches.
Booty count:  #2 Friend, #1 Camalot, #3 TCU (minus 1 TCU fixed), 3 pins 
(minus 3 others overdriven).  And I got home before my son was a day old....
What's next?  Me being a daddy for awhile, hopefully complete a FFA of Snake 
this fall, and the occasional wall (NA, PO, Grape Race/Real Nose?).

Clint