In reply to Pav:
It's a tricky question - which first El Cap Route? Lurking Fear is a good choice (I did the first 5 pitches as a warm up for other stuff)Fantastic rock, great cracks. There's some hooking on the first two pitches but the placements are bomber and the rest of the aiding is very straight forward.
I've met a few people who did Zodiac as their first El Cap route but they have usually done Washington Column or the Leaning Tower first. I cut my teeth in Zion first.
The difficulty with Zodiac depends on how clean you go and how fast you go. We were determined to do it clean but ended up placing about 4 or 5 beaks. Although we did it with one bivvy when two or even three is more common (you'll need a ledge)
By far the hardest pitch for me was The Nipple. 25 foot of upside down cam-hooks then a tiny brass nut then some decent cams. I took a pisser here and banged my hip. When I got back up there and eventually pulled round the end of the Nipple thinking I was almost there I was faced by another 100 foot of flared crack - it was going dark so out came the hammer and I placed a beak - gutted!
Pitch 14 is thought provoking too - leapfrogging big 5" cams. If you don't have enough it will be scary.
Some of the lower pitches had some rivet ladders and fixed heads - scary when you're the wrong side of 80 kilos.
On Zodiac, the 5:7 refers to the very short sections where you need to pull a few free moves to get to the next feature. I seem to remember a few pitches with the off free move, padding across slabs and pulling onto ledges, The move at the end of the Nipple is hard.
Another thing which stuck in my mind was how steep it is. Looking straight down from the belays you don't see much rock - just the ground!!
The top out is amazing though - like a crag top out going from vertical to flat without a slab and there's a sandy beach which makes a great bivvy spot.
Goucho is right about your free climbing ability though.Even on something like Zodiac where there are few mandatory free moves.
I've been in France for 10 years and was never going to get my trad grade back up to a solid E3 before a trip to Yosemite so I concentrated on general fitness - trying to climb up to 7a sport and losing weight running and cycling. Getting back down to El Cap bridge on the 4th morning after The Nose is definitely the most knackered I've ever been in my life so a good general level of fitness is essential.(was for me)
Just ask if you need any more info.
E