Big wall free climbing in Yosmite hasn’t lost any of its appeal and many impressive ascents were achieved in 2004. The Leaning Tower in particular has seen a lot of recent action, probably due to its more manageable length and more moderate grade (5.13a/b). First, unreported from 2003, on October 24th, Rob Miller made the second “free” ascent of Leaning Tower. The route itself has not gone free as the first pitch overhanging bolt ladder will “never go free.” Hence, when someone “frees” the Leaning Tower, they are referring to everything above the first pitch. Miller partnered with Chris Van Leuven, who followed everything free but the boulder problem to Guano Ledge. It was Rob’s 9th day of effort on the route
On March 26th of 2004, the route received its first “team redpoint” ascent by Justin Sjong (30)and Adam Stack (19). This marks a welcome return to the team ascent and this pair repeated the style a month later (5/27) with the first team redpoint ascent of the Salathé Wall. Stack, who has redpointed Kryptonite (5.14c/d), felt the hardest pitch was the 11b slab pitch low on the route. The pair climbed the Free Salathé Light version, avoiding the crux 19th pitch (5.13c/d) like every party save Skinner/Piana and Herson. The pair becomes the 6th and 7th climbers to free every pitch of the Salathé after Alex and Thomas Huber, Tommy Caldwell, Yuji Hurijama, and Jim Herson. Todd Skinner and Paul Piana are generally credited with the first free ascent of the Salathé, although they did not have both climbers free all the pitches on the climb, a more accepted style of the day (1988).
A week after Sjong/Stack’s Leaning Tower ascent Tommy Caldwell scored the first flash of this route, in just five hours. Previously routes of similar length and difficult on Washington Column (Quantum Mechanic) and Sentinel Rock had been onsighted by Yuji Hirayama.
Freeing the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome is still a very uncommon feat, despite its relatively tame rating of 5.12a. One of the reasons for this is that the route is probably harder than that. The consensus grade for the final ZigZag pitch is settling at 5.12b/c, but still a relatively moderate rating for high-end climbers. The route has some devious sections to avoid two bolt ladders and a very difficult 5.12 slab finish.
On June 26, 2004, Phil Gruber of Boulder, Colorado flashed the entire route free. I believe this is only the sixth or seventh free ascent and the first time it has been flashed. Not only that, but Phil climbed the 23-pitch, 2000-foot face in only 9.5 hours, possibly the fastest free ascent as well. Technically, Phil had seen the route before since he had previously climbed it with aid (while linking it with the Nose in less than 24 hours, also a pretty rarified feat). Phil had never seen the Higbee Heedral before, one of the 5.12 cruxes. Phil called the final 5.12 slab the crux for him since he hadn't been climbing slabs at all. In fact, he trained by working 60-hour weeks in the office!
El Capitan received its first flash ascent, as well[1] via Free Rider. Twins Mark and Mike Anderson climbed the route spread out over a few days, and Mark led or followed every pitch free, taking no falls, and leading the crux Huber-variation pitch (12d) and dihedral pitch (12c/d) just below the Salathé roof. They completed their ascent on May 8th. The pair had climbed many of the pitches two years earlier while doing a 30-hour aid ascent of the Salathé, but this avoids many of the hardest free pitches on Free Rider. Perhaps this isn’t the first flash, by the strictest definition, but it is awfully close and the best to date.
The king of Yosemite big wall free climbing is still Tommy Caldwell, though. He already has first free ascents of Lurking Fear, West Buttress, and the Muir Wall (Shaft variation), and repeats of the Salathé Wall and Zodiac. Now, he’s added possibly the most continuously difficult free climb in the world. On May 22nd Caldwell completed the first free ascent of the Dihedral Wall. Belayed by his wife Beth Rodden and friend Adam Stack, Caldwell freed the route over four days. Pitches 6 through 10 were the crux with every pitch 13b or harder and includes a few 13c, a 13d, and a 14a (6th pitch, first on El Cap with this rating, though many consider the Great Roof pitch on the Nose to be 5.14) pitch.
Another notable repeat ascent was Justin Sjong and Steve Schneider’s ascent of Golden Gate (5.13b) on El Capitan, probably the fourth or fifth ascent of this 41-pitch Huber brothers’ testpiece. After backing off in May due to jingus fixed gear, the pair returned in June, added a bolt (with the Hubers’ permission) and sent the route over six days.
Free climbing on El Cap has largely been male dominated, but Steph Davis added her mark in 2004. After free climbing Free Rider in April, becoming only the third woman to accomplish this feat along with Rodden and Hill, Davis returned in late May to send the route in a day. Lynn Hill’s sub-24-hour ascent of the Nose is the only other female one-day free ascent. Belayed by Heinz Zak, Davis freed all 38 pitches in 22 hours and 15 minutes.
But enough about free climbing, what about the speed-climbing scene? Two words: Ammon McNeely. He did 11 speed climbs on El Cap in 2004 and came away with nine records – the most prolific speed climbing season ever. McNeely did the first one-day ascents of the Atlantic Ocean Wall (23:38) and Wall of Early Morning Light (23:43) with Brian McCray, and Never Never Land (16:00) and Horse Chute (20:39) with Chris McNamara. Other records included Iron Hawk (30:42) with Cedar Wright, Pacific Ocean Wall (33:02) with Ivo Ninov, and the 2nd ascent (and first one-day ascent) of Pressure Cooker (23:41), also with Ninov.
Heidi Wirtz and Vera Schulte-Pelkum teamed up for a trio of female speed climbing records. In training for a Half Dome / El Cap link-up, which they ran out of time to actually attempt, the tireless twosome climbed the West Face of Leaning Tower on June 17th in 5 hours 15 minutes. Two days later, they did the Regular Route on Half Dome in 5 hours 19 minutes, and on June 23rd they climbed the Nose in 12 hours 15 minutes.
Yes, new routes are still being put up in Yosemite. Unreported from 2002, Kirsten Kremer, Greg Collins, and Paul Turecki put up The Twisted Road (VI, 5.12-, 19 pitches) on the southeast arête of Higher Watkins Pinnacle. They speculated that this was possibly the last major unclimbed wall in the Valley. The pinnacle is attached to the south face of Mt. Watkins and the route the first seven pitches of Hook, Line, and Sinker before breaking left to ascend the pillar. The route took 16 days to establish over the months of March through May.
Also in 2002, Sean Kriletich and Bob Jensen put up Separation Anxiety (5.11+ R) on Fairview Dome. It starts up Inverted Staircase before breaking right to find a dike. This dike is followed a long way before merging with route Roseanne for the finish.
In 203, over a ten-day period, Hannah North, Tom Harper, and Tom Malzbender established an “alpine rock route” Cloud’s Rest they named My Favorite Things (IV, 15 pitches, 5.10-). Cloud’s Rest is the largest unbroken sweep of granite in Yosemite, though not many routes are documented on this huge, lower-angled slab. The route is accessed by descending Tenaya Canyon from the top. Lots of information has been posted on the web at http://www.mindspring.com/~thharper/FTTop.html.
A new route was put up on Higher Cathedral Spire that was mentioned on Supertopo.com. The route is all 5.10 or easier except for one 5.11+ pitch hands pitch through a roof, but nothing more is known to this author.
Cedar Wright, with Luis Rivera, did the first free ascents of both the Camp 4 Wall and the Arrowhead Wall. Wright onsighted these routes and graded them 5.11. (I couldn’t get any more information from Cedar, so I’m not sure if both routes are 5.11)
Finally, Jacek Czyz (46) and Maciej Ciesielski (28), both of Poland, did the second ascent of The Central Scrutinizer (VI 5.11 A4) on El Cap. They took six days to repeat the 22-pitch route.
Still to do: Mike Schaefer’s route in Touloumne. I lost the reference to this if I ever had it).
References:
http://www.bdel.com/community/destinations/yo_au.html
http://www.bdel.com/community/destinations/yo.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~thharper/FTTop.html
http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/longhf.htm
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/forum.html
http://outside.away.com/outside/news/20040525_1.html
http://www.superTopo.com
http://www.climbing.com/news
http://www.mindspring.com/~thharper/FTTop.html
Bill Wright
American Alpine Club
Satan’s Minions Scrambling Club
1954 Breen Lane
Superior, Colorado 80027
home: (303) 494-7232
work: (303) 443-7447 ext. 108
Suggestions on what to cut if this is too long:
[1] This doesn’t count the West Face (12a) and the East Buttress (10b) routes, which most seem to discount as too easy or out of character with the other El Cap free routes.