Yosemite Valley has long attracted the best climbers in the United States and frequently the best climbers in the world. Climbers come here to prove themselves as crack climbers. While more difficult crack climbs might exist elsewhere, no where else has such a collection of hard, long crack climbs and such variety. Yosemite first pushed the limits of crack climbing back in the Golden Age when Royal Robbins put up Reeds Direct (5.9 hands) and later soloed it; when Chuck Pratt put up the still rarely climbed Twilight Zone (10d offwidth). Later, the Stonemasters moved in and people like Bridwell, Long, Bacher, and Kauk pushed standards further, culminating with the first one day ascent of El Cap and the free ascent of Astroman (12 pitches, 11c). Later, Peter Croft would arrive and team up with Bacher to climb El Cap and Half Dome in a single day and free solo Astroman (still the only person to do this) in under 90 minutes.

Next up was the visionary team of Max Jones and Mark Hudon. This team wrote a very influential article entitled "Long, Hard, and Free" about their efforts to free the long aid routes of Yosemite. They freed Pegasus on East Quarter Dome (except for the pendulum), most of the Rostrum, and all but about 300 feet of Salathé Wall on El Capitan.

Then, in 1988, Todd Skinner and Paul Piana would arrive with the goal to free the entire Salathé Wall. After more than a month of effort, they would pull it off, rating four pitches 5.13. This feat seemed to usher in a new era of "long, hard, and free." Work was done on freeing the other major routes on El Cap including Lurking Fear, the Muir Wall, and the Nose. Lynn Hill was the first person to free the Nose, rating it 13b (though subsequent efforts have indicated the route is more like 14a.) Lynn would later lead every single pitch free in a single day. She is still the only person to lead free all the pitches on the Nose.

Finally, in 1995, a new challenger for the Salathé showed up. Alex Huber, a German climber who has put up ten pitch alpine 5.14 routes from the ground up, arrived in the Valley intent on learning crack climbing. And learn he did. Huber upped the ante by freeing every pitch on the Salathé, though he used some different variations than the Skinner/Piana team.

A year later Alex's brother Thomas showed up became the second person to free every pitch on the Salathé. He tried three times to free the entire route in a day but failed.

Next up was the incomparable Yuji Hirayama - the best crack climber in the world. Yuji was fresh off the first (and only to date of 6/99) flash ascent of Sphinx Crack (5.13c) in the South Platte area of Colorado. After much crack climbing preparation where he was apparently doing laps on the Phoenix (13a) and working the Nose for a free ascent (he thinks the Great Roof pitch is 5.14), Yuji attempted to flash the Salathé. All other attempts to date involved from two to over four weeks of preparation working the route. Yuji didn't get the flash, he fell four times, but he completed the ascent free in only a little over a day and a half. Amazing!

Tommy Caldwell got the fifth free ascent of this route in May, 1999. He attempted the route back in 1997, but found his crack climbing skills lacking. When he returned, he worked the upper headwall pitches before the continuous ascent. On the final push Caldwell led every pitch while taking only one fall. I believe this to be the fewest falls for anyone freeing the Salathé.

In 1998, the Huber brothers teamed up to free a variation to the North American Wall on El Cap called El Nino. This route has a couple 5.13c pitches, but the cruxes all involve face climbing. The brothers then teamed up to make the first free ascent of Free Rider, which is a four pitch variation to the Salathé that avoids the 5.13 headwall cracks. This only involved one new free pitch - a 5.12a traverse from below the Salathé Roof to the adjacent route Excalibur. This ascent was done in a little over 15 hours and is the fastest all free ascent of El Capitan. This was only the second time El Cap has been freed in a day (not counting the East Buttress and West Face which most people don't for some reason.) The first being Lynn Hill's 23 hours on the Nose.

Meanwhile a new crop of superstars are working on various projects in the Valley. Jim Herson is close to redpointing the Salathé Wall. This is a seemingly normal guy who has a 40+ hour/week job, a wife, child, house, etc. He climbs in Yosemite on the weekends like the rest of us stiffs. Yet he is a superstar. He owns the speed record for the Salathé in an absolutely amazing 6 hours and 32 minutes! He did this with Chandlee Harrel - one of only eight people who have climbed El Capitan and Half Dome in a single day.

On a previous ascent of the Salathé, they clocked a time of 8 hours and 10 minutes. At the time the third fastest time. You'd think after doing this they'd deserve some rest. And take it they did. A full two hours before blasting up the Nose through the night. They missed the 24 hour mark by a couple of hours though. Too bad. What rookies! The only team to ever do this was Peter Croft and Dave Shultz. And they did it in 18 hours!

When Jim passed us, he was going for a redpoint attempt and his belay monkey was Peter Coward. Peter climbed the first 16 pitches of the Salathé in 2/3 thirds of a day while wearing a pack! This is the belay monkey! Peter owns a number of speed records on El Capitan routes (Aquarian Wall, Son of Heart, Water Fall Route, Realm of the Flying Monkey) and climbs 5.12 cracks. He has also climbed El Cap and Half Dome in a single day.

Scott Burke put in over 250 days working the Nose and eventually became the first male to free climb the Nose (and second person after the incomparable Lynn Hill). He recently (May, 1999) did the second free ascent of Free Rider - leading every pitch. Scott is working on freeing the Salathé and has only fifteen feet left to work out. He is also working on freeing the Triple Direct. His plans are to complete both of these, and free the Nose in a day before the year is out. Ambitious!

Peter Croft teamed with Hans Florine, multiple world speed climbing champion, to set the speed record for the Nose: 4 hours and twenty two minutes. Hans has so many speed records in Yosemite that they can't be listed here but they include the fastest solo of the Nose and the Regular Northwest Face on Half Dome. See his site at: http://www.speedclimb.com/. One of his most amazing times is 2:31 for the West Face of El Cap, though this isn't even the record! That belongs to Croft and Shultz at 2:20! This time was part of a 3.5 route marathon where these two climbed the Rostrum, the Crucifix, the West Face of El Cap, and then tried to finish with Astroman. Shultz was bonking and making mistakes so the pair didn't finish the last route.

Steve Schneider is another superstar. He has the solo speed record on the Salathé. He teamed with Hans Florine to climb three El Cap routes in a single day (Nose, Lurking Fear, and West Face). He freed about 95% of Lurking Fear with some new variations up to 5.13a. Steve also worked on freeing Excalibur and is the only person to free the 5.12 offwidths (5.12b, 5.12c, and 5.12d) on this route. He climbed the Rostrum (5.12b roof finish), West Face of El Cap, and Astroman - all in less than 24 hours leading every pitch with no falls!

These are the superstars of Yosemite Valley. Not only incredibly gifted climbers doing 5.13 and 5.14 pitches, but climbing extremely fast and with world class endurance! Inspiring!