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The Nose (El Capitan)
Encyclopedia
The Nose is one of the original technical climbing
routes up El Capitan
. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America
and considered a classic around the world.
"El Cap" has two main faces, the Southwest (on the left when looking directly at the wall) and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a massive prow. While today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose, which follows the massive prow.
, and among those coveting it was Californian Warren Harding. He made an unsuccessful attempt on Half Dome in 1955, and returned for the 1957 season just as Royal Robbins
and team were completing the first ascent. "My congratulations," Harding recounted, "were hearty and sincere, but inside, the ambitious dreamer in me was troubled."
Harding turned to an even larger unclimbed face, the 2900 feet (883.9 m) prow of El Capitan, at the other end of the valley. With Mark Powell and Bill "Dolt" Feuerer, they began the climb in July 1957. Rather than follow the single-push "alpine" style used on Half Dome, they chose to fix lines between "camps" in the style used in the Himalaya. Attempting to get half way on the first push, they were foiled by the huge cracks, and Feuerer was required to form new rock spikes or pitons
by cutting off the legs of wood stoves. This gave the name to the crack system leading to the half way point, the "stove leg cracks".
Compelled by the National Park Service to stop until after Labor Day due to the crowds forming in El Capitan meadows, the team had a major setback when Powell suffered a compound leg fracture on another climbing trip. Powell dropped out, and Feuerer became disillusioned. Harding, true to his legendary endurance and willingness to find new partners, "continued", as he later put it, "with whatever 'qualified' climbers I could con into this rather unpromising venture." Feuerer stayed on as technical advisor, even constructing a bicycle wheeled cart which could be hauled up to the half-way ledge which bears his name today, "Dolt Tower"; but Wayne Merry, George Whitmore, and Rich Calderwood now became the main team, with Merry sharing lead chores with Harding.
In the fall, two more pushes got them to the 2000 feet (609.6 m) level. Finally, a fourth push starting in the late fall would likely be the last. The team had originally fixed their route with 1/2 in manila lines, and their in situ lines would have weakened more over the winter. In the cooling November environment, they worked their way slowly upward, the seven days it took to push to within the last 300 feet (91.4 m) blurring into a "monotonous grind" if, Harding adds, "living and working 2500 feet (762 m) above the ground on a granite face" could be considered monotonous. After sitting out a storm for three days at this level, they hammered their way up the final portion. Harding struggled fifteen hours through the night, hand-placed 28 expansion bolts up an overhanging headwall before topping out at 6 AM. The complete climb had taken 45 days, with more than 3400 feet (1,036.3 m) of climbing including huge pendulum swings across the face, the labor of hauling bags, and rappel descents.
The team had finished what is by any standard one of the classics of modern rock climbing. The Nose Route is often called the most famous rock climbing route in North America, and in good fall weather can have anywhere between three and ten different parties strung out along its thirty rope lengths to the top. On the 50th anniversary of the ascent, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the achievement of the original party.
The second ascent was made in 1960 by Royal Robbins
, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt
and Tom Frost
, who took seven days in the first continuous climb of the route without siege tactics. The first rope-solo climb
of The Nose was made by Tom Bauman in 1969. The first ascent of The Nose in one day was accomplished in 1975 by John Long
, Jim Bridwell
and Billy Westbay. Today The Nose attracts climbers of a wide-range of experience and ability. With a success rate of around 60%, it typically takes fit climbers 2-3 full days of climbing to complete.
As it became clear that any face could be conquered with sufficient perseverance and bolt-hole drilling, some climbers began searching for El Cap routes that could be climbed either free
or with minimal aid. The "West Face" route was free climbed
in 1979 by Ray Jardine
and Bill Price; but despite numerous efforts by Jardine and others, the Nose resisted free attempts for another fourteen years.
The first free ascent of a main El Cap route, though, was not The Nose, but The Salathe Wall
. Todd Skinner
and Paul Piana made the first free ascent over 9 days in 1988, after 30 days of working the route (grade
d 5.13b by the Yosemite Decimal System
).
The Nose was the second major route to be freeclimbed. Two pitches on The Nose blocked efforts to free the route: the "Great Roof" graded 5.13c and "Changing Corners" graded 5.14a/b. In 1993, Lynn Hill
came close to freeing The Nose, making it past the Great Roof and up to Camp VI without falling, stopped only on Changing Corners by a piton jammed in a critical finger hold. After removing the piton she re-climbed the route from the ground. After 4 days of climbing, Hill reached the summit, making her the first person to free climb the Nose. A year later, Hill returned to free climb The Nose in a day, this time reaching the summit in just 23 hours and setting a new standard for free climbing on "El Cap."
The Nose saw a second free ascent in 1998, when Scott Burke summitted after 261 days of effort. On October 14, 2005, Tommy Caldwell
and Beth Rodden
became the 3rd and 4th people (and the 1st couple) to free climb the Nose. The husband-wife team took 4 days on the ascent, swapping leads with each climber free climbing each pitch, either leading or following. Two days later, Caldwell returned to free climb the Nose in less than 12 hours. Caldwell returned two weeks later to free climb El Cap twice in a day, completing The Nose with Rodden, then descending and leading Freerider in a combined time of 23 hours 23 minutes.
As mentioned previously, Lynn Hill's initial all-free one-day ascent was completed in 23 hours (1993), a record that held until Tommy Caldwell free climbed the route in less than 12 hours (2005).
Holders of the Nose speed record (aid and free, two-person teams):
A full list of records can be viewed on Hans Florine's site at: http://www.speedclimb.com/yosemite/Elcap.htm
The pitch number below is approximate since there are alternative belay stations and the possibility of linking some pitches.
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
routes up El Capitan
El Capitan
El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about from base to summit along its tallest face, and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.The formation was...
. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America
Fifty Classic Climbs of North America
Fifty Classic Climbs Of North America is a climbing guidebook and history written by Steve Roper and Allen Steck. It is considered a definitive piece of climbing literature, known to many climbers as simply "The Book", and has served as an inspiration for more recent climbing books, such as Mark...
and considered a classic around the world.
"El Cap" has two main faces, the Southwest (on the left when looking directly at the wall) and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a massive prow. While today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose, which follows the massive prow.
First ascents
Once thought to be unclimbable, the high granite walls of Yosemite valley began to see their first attempts and first ascents in the late 1950s. One of the most coveted routes was the Northwest Face of Half DomeRegular Northwest Face of Half Dome
The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. It was first climbed in 1957 by a team consisting of Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas. Its current rating is VI 5.9 A1 or 5.12 for the free variation...
, and among those coveting it was Californian Warren Harding. He made an unsuccessful attempt on Half Dome in 1955, and returned for the 1957 season just as Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins is one of the pioneers of American rock climbing. After learning to climb at Tahquitz he went on to make first ascents of many big wall routes in Yosemite...
and team were completing the first ascent. "My congratulations," Harding recounted, "were hearty and sincere, but inside, the ambitious dreamer in me was troubled."
Harding turned to an even larger unclimbed face, the 2900 feet (883.9 m) prow of El Capitan, at the other end of the valley. With Mark Powell and Bill "Dolt" Feuerer, they began the climb in July 1957. Rather than follow the single-push "alpine" style used on Half Dome, they chose to fix lines between "camps" in the style used in the Himalaya. Attempting to get half way on the first push, they were foiled by the huge cracks, and Feuerer was required to form new rock spikes or pitons
Piton
In climbing, a piton is a metal spike that is driven into a crack or seam in the rock with a hammer, and which acts as an anchor to protect the climber against the consequences of a fall, or to assist progress in aid climbing...
by cutting off the legs of wood stoves. This gave the name to the crack system leading to the half way point, the "stove leg cracks".
Compelled by the National Park Service to stop until after Labor Day due to the crowds forming in El Capitan meadows, the team had a major setback when Powell suffered a compound leg fracture on another climbing trip. Powell dropped out, and Feuerer became disillusioned. Harding, true to his legendary endurance and willingness to find new partners, "continued", as he later put it, "with whatever 'qualified' climbers I could con into this rather unpromising venture." Feuerer stayed on as technical advisor, even constructing a bicycle wheeled cart which could be hauled up to the half-way ledge which bears his name today, "Dolt Tower"; but Wayne Merry, George Whitmore, and Rich Calderwood now became the main team, with Merry sharing lead chores with Harding.
In the fall, two more pushes got them to the 2000 feet (609.6 m) level. Finally, a fourth push starting in the late fall would likely be the last. The team had originally fixed their route with 1/2 in manila lines, and their in situ lines would have weakened more over the winter. In the cooling November environment, they worked their way slowly upward, the seven days it took to push to within the last 300 feet (91.4 m) blurring into a "monotonous grind" if, Harding adds, "living and working 2500 feet (762 m) above the ground on a granite face" could be considered monotonous. After sitting out a storm for three days at this level, they hammered their way up the final portion. Harding struggled fifteen hours through the night, hand-placed 28 expansion bolts up an overhanging headwall before topping out at 6 AM. The complete climb had taken 45 days, with more than 3400 feet (1,036.3 m) of climbing including huge pendulum swings across the face, the labor of hauling bags, and rappel descents.
The team had finished what is by any standard one of the classics of modern rock climbing. The Nose Route is often called the most famous rock climbing route in North America, and in good fall weather can have anywhere between three and ten different parties strung out along its thirty rope lengths to the top. On the 50th anniversary of the ascent, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the achievement of the original party.
The second ascent was made in 1960 by Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins is one of the pioneers of American rock climbing. After learning to climb at Tahquitz he went on to make first ascents of many big wall routes in Yosemite...
, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt
Chuck Pratt
Charles Marshall Pratt was an American rock climber from California, best known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley...
and Tom Frost
Tom Frost
Tom Frost is a rock climber from California, best known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He is also a photographer and climbing equipment manufacturer.-Rock climbing and mountaineering:...
, who took seven days in the first continuous climb of the route without siege tactics. The first rope-solo climb
Roped solo climbing
Roped solo climbing or rope soloing is a way to climb with relative safety without a climbing partner.- Variations :*Roped solo free climbing refers to top roping on a fixed rope or to a traditional rope solo free climb....
of The Nose was made by Tom Bauman in 1969. The first ascent of The Nose in one day was accomplished in 1975 by John Long
John Long (climber)
John Long is an acclaimed American rock climber and author whose stories, ranging from adventure yarns to literary fiction, have been translated into many languages. He has more than forty titles and two million books in print...
, Jim Bridwell
Jim Bridwell
Jim Bridwell is a noted American rock climber and mountaineer, active since 1965 especially in Yosemite Valley, but also in Patagonia and Alaska. He is noted for pushing the standards of both free-climbing and big-wall climbing, and later alpine climbing...
and Billy Westbay. Today The Nose attracts climbers of a wide-range of experience and ability. With a success rate of around 60%, it typically takes fit climbers 2-3 full days of climbing to complete.
Free climbing
Free climbing
Free climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend, employing ropes and forms of climbing protection to prevent falls only....
or with minimal aid. The "West Face" route was free climbed
Free climbing
Free climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend, employing ropes and forms of climbing protection to prevent falls only....
in 1979 by Ray Jardine
Ray Jardine
Ray Jardine is an American rock climber who, with Bill Price, in May 1979, was the first to free climb the West Face of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley...
and Bill Price; but despite numerous efforts by Jardine and others, the Nose resisted free attempts for another fourteen years.
The first free ascent of a main El Cap route, though, was not The Nose, but The Salathe Wall
Salathé Wall (El Capitan)
The Salathé Wall is one of the original technical climbing routes up El Capitan, a high granite monolith in Yosemite National Park. The Salathé Wall was named by Yvon Chouinard in honor of John Salathé, a pioneer of rock climbing in Yosemite...
. Todd Skinner
Todd Skinner
Todd Richard Skinner was an American free climber. His climbing achievements included the first free ascents of many routes around the world and the world's first free ascent of a grade 7 climb....
and Paul Piana made the first free ascent over 9 days in 1988, after 30 days of working the route (grade
Grade (climbing)
In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...
d 5.13b by the Yosemite Decimal System
Yosemite Decimal System
The Yosemite Decimal System is a three-part system used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs. It is primarily used by mountaineers in the United States and Canada. The Class 5 portion of the Class scale is primarily a rock climbing classification system. Originally the system was...
).
The Nose was the second major route to be freeclimbed. Two pitches on The Nose blocked efforts to free the route: the "Great Roof" graded 5.13c and "Changing Corners" graded 5.14a/b. In 1993, Lynn Hill
Lynn Hill
Lynn Hill is a United States rock climber, known as a top sport climber of the 1980s and famous for making the first free ascent of the Nose Route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley....
came close to freeing The Nose, making it past the Great Roof and up to Camp VI without falling, stopped only on Changing Corners by a piton jammed in a critical finger hold. After removing the piton she re-climbed the route from the ground. After 4 days of climbing, Hill reached the summit, making her the first person to free climb the Nose. A year later, Hill returned to free climb The Nose in a day, this time reaching the summit in just 23 hours and setting a new standard for free climbing on "El Cap."
The Nose saw a second free ascent in 1998, when Scott Burke summitted after 261 days of effort. On October 14, 2005, Tommy Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell is an American rock climber. He was previously married to prominent American rock climber Beth Rodden....
and Beth Rodden
Beth Rodden
Beth Rodden is an American rock climber. She was the youngest woman to climb 5.14a, and is one of the only women in the world to have redpointed a 5.14c/8c traditional climb. She lives near Yosemite, California....
became the 3rd and 4th people (and the 1st couple) to free climb the Nose. The husband-wife team took 4 days on the ascent, swapping leads with each climber free climbing each pitch, either leading or following. Two days later, Caldwell returned to free climb the Nose in less than 12 hours. Caldwell returned two weeks later to free climb El Cap twice in a day, completing The Nose with Rodden, then descending and leading Freerider in a combined time of 23 hours 23 minutes.
Speed climbing
Speed climbing The Nose of "El Cap" is also popular. Teams of two, well-trained, produce the fastest time, and there is an unofficial competition to produce the best time. Speed climbing is a mix of aid and free-climbing - whatever is fastest! Speed records for free-climbing and solo-aid(speed) climbing are also kept, but these fields are less competitive.As mentioned previously, Lynn Hill's initial all-free one-day ascent was completed in 23 hours (1993), a record that held until Tommy Caldwell free climbed the route in less than 12 hours (2005).
Holders of the Nose speed record (aid and free, two-person teams):
| Date | Party | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 11/6/2010 | Dean Potter, Sean Leary | 2:36:45 |
| 10/12/2008 | Hans Florine, Yuji Hirayama | 2:37:05 |
| 7/2/2008 | Hans Florine, Yuji Hirayama | 2:43:33 |
| 10/8/2007 | Alexander and Thomas Huber | 2:45:45 |
| 10/4/2007 | Alexander and Thomas Huber | 2:48:30 |
| 9/29/2002 | Hans Florine, Yuji Hirayama | 2:48:55 |
| 11/2001 | Dean Potter, Timmy O'Neill | 3:24:20 |
| 10/2001 | Hans Florine, Jim Herson | 3:57:27 |
| 10/2001 | Dean Potter, Timmy O'Neill | 3:59:35 |
| 1992 | Hans Florine, Peter Croft | 4:22 |
| 1991 | Peter Croft, Dave Schultz | 4:48 |
| 1991 | Hans Florine, Andres Puhvel | 6:01 |
| 1990 | Peter Croft, Dave Schultz | 6:40 |
| 1990 | Hans Florine, Steve Schneider | 8:06 |
| 1986 | John Bachar, Peter Croft | 10:05 |
| 1975 | Jim Bridwell, John Long, Bill Westbay | 17:45 |
A full list of records can be viewed on Hans Florine's site at: http://www.speedclimb.com/yosemite/Elcap.htm
Significant Features