When someone says they “free climbed the Nose of El Cap,” and currently only Lynn Hill can use this phrase despite having freed it nearly a decade ago, they mean they used the chipped Jardine Traverse variation to the Nose. Regular parties almost never climb this variation, though it is sometimes used to pass a slower party. This variation is required to free climb the Nose because of the nearly flawlessly granite surrounding the Boot Flake.
Free climbing the big aid routes of Yosemite frequently involves the climbers taking variations around pitches that might have been easier for the first ascensionists to aid climb, but are not the easiest path to a free ascent. The most famous route in the world uses the particularly unaesthetic variation mentioned above, but it is far from alone.
The Muir Wall was free climbed by Tommy Caldwell and Nick Sagar in 2001, but only with a huge 8-pitch variation known as the Shaft[1]. So we really shouldn’t say that Caldwell and Sagar free climbed the Muir Wall. They free climbed the Shaft Variation to the Muir Wall. This distinction isn’t that important right now, but could be in the future when maybe the original Muir Wall will be free climbed. The same thing goes for the Nose. The Nose hasn’t really been free climbed. What Lynn Hill climbed is the Free Nose.
One route where the specific variation is significant is the Salathé Wall. The reason for this is the number of free variations. Todd Skinner and Paul Piana first free climbed this route in 1988. This audacious feat took them five weeks and netted them the prestigious Robert Underhill Award for Lifetime Climbing Achievement from the American Alpine Club. On this ascent the team swung leads so that neither climbed freed every pitch. The pair stuck mostly to the original aid route, but avoided one aid pitch via the Teflon Corner and they also avoided the crux aid pitch off of the right edge Long Ledge by bolting a beautiful 5.12a knob climb off the left edge. Besides this one transgression, they climbed
Skinner and Piana split two traditional aid pitches into four pitches. They climbed the Salathé Headwall as three pitches (instead of the usual two) and they climbed the 19th pitch above the Ear as two pitches. Both involved the use of a hanging belay. Their variations to the Salathé are known as the Free Salathé. As of yet no one has freed the original Salathé Wall route.
Alex Huber was the first person to free each pitch on the entire Salathé Wall (June, 1995), except that he didn’t free the original Salathé Wall or even the Free Salathé. He climbed something known as the Free Salathé Light. This avoids the 5.13 on the 19th pitch by doing a 5.12a traverse into the 5.11a offwidth of neighboring Bermuda Dunes. Huber’s Free Salathé Light also avoids the desperate stemming of the Teflon Corner and climbs the Huber Variation instead. Both the Teflon Corner and the Huber Variation are given a 5.12d rating, but the highly technical stemming of the Teflon Corner is considered considerably more difficult to free climb if there is any sun on the pitch. Huber also eliminated one of the hanging belays from the headwall – climbing it as two pitches from the stance over the roof.
The Free Salathé Light was the route taken by Tommy Caldwell and Yuji Hirayama as well. Thomas Huber tried to climb the 19th pitch directly, but also had to use the intermediate belay that Skinner and Piana used. Huber also had to hang at the crux and eventually abandoned this pitch to climb the Free Salathe Lite. It is interesting to note that Jim Herson, sort of a super weekend warrior, is the only person who has redpointed every pitch of the Free Salathé, though the continuous free ascent still eludes him. Herson also holds the speed record on the Salathé Wall with Chanlee Harrell at 6h30m.
There is one last free variation to the Salathé Wall and it is given an entirely new name, because it avoids the entire Salathé headwall. Alex Huber discovered this variation while working on the Free Salathé Light. He returned a year later, in 1996, to climb Free Rider in a single day – only the second time El Capitan had been free climbed in a single day[2]. This variation follows the Free Salathé Light route until meeting the Salathe Roof. Here the route traverses straight left (5.12a) until it joins Excalibur for its final four pitches (all easier than 5.12). This traverse pitch is the only new pitch climbed in this variation.
Free Rider is significant because it is the easiest free route on El Capitan[3]. Thomas Huber and Scott Burke have also freed it and Dean Potter freed it on his unbelievable free link-up with Half Dome.
Are hanging belays aid? It’s a valid question. If one broke up pitches into tiny sections with a hanging belay five feet, surely no one would validate it as a free ascent, but there is a lot of gray area beyond that. Multi-pitch sport routes are put up with half-rope length pitches so that the route can be rappelled with a single rope. Frequently these routes are on continuously vertical walls without ledges so the distinction of climbing one hundred feet versus two hundred feet per pitch seems to be negligible since there won’t be a ledge and a no-hands rest anywhere on the route.
If climbing a route without ever hanging in your harness is the purest free ascent short of an unroped solo, then ledges are required. What if the distance between the ledges is greater than the length of a normal rope? It would seem to be justified to do a hanging belay instead of being forced to simul-climb. For instance, on the Nose there isn’t a ledge or even really a foothold from the top of the 5th pitch until just before Dolt Tower. Besides the 5.12a traverse to Dolt Hole, the climbing is a relatively moderate 5.10. This ground could be and has been simul-climbed, but it hardly seems required. Further up, at the top of the Changing Corners pitch, there is an additional hanging belay.
Dean Potter recently freed a 230-foot pitch on a route he’s named the Epitath on the Tombstone in the Kane Creek area near Moab. He combined two pitches into one monster pitch to avoid the hanging belay.
What about the Salathé? This remarkable route has ledges at the top of most of the pitches, with some significant exceptions. First, the initial ten pitches includes at least four hanging belays. The climbing here is only 5.11b and has been simul-climbed before. I’m not sure if it has all been freed with no weighting of the harness, but the top climbers certainly could do it.
The other two sections are the three pitches from Sous Lé Toit Ledge to the stance above the Salathe Roof and the two Headwall Pitches from this same stance to Long Ledge. The pitches above Sous Lé Toit rate 5.11b-d, 5.12b-d, and 5.12a. Jim Herson had previously linked the first two pitches in 1999 and rated the combination 5.12d. Alex Huber had rated just the second pitch of this link-up alone at 5.12c/d. In September of 2002, using a 70-meter rope, Yuji Hirayama linked all three, rating the combination 5.13a. He then proceeded to link the headwall pitches, rating that 5.13c. He did this while climbing the Free Salathe Light in 13 hours[4].
Hence, Yuji efforts appear to be the cleanest free climbing efforts to date. He avoids the ledges up high and might have avoided them on the initial slabs. He also freed the route in a remarkable fast time. But he did not free the Salathé Wall!
A full discussion of the sport climbing community’s redefinition of the word “redpoint” is not warranted here, but it does have relevance here. Redpointing is leading a pitch clean, without falls, while placing all the protection that isn’t fixed. Pinkpointing is clipping pre-placed protection, like quickdraws on bolts, stoppers, cams, etc. It is always more difficult to redpoint than it is to pinkpoint, but the difference is greatly emphasized during traditional climbing. While sport climbs are considered “done” when they are pinkpointed, trad climbs are usually require a redpoint ascent. Or at least they have in the past.
In freeing the big wall routes the traditional ethics have slipped a bit. In particular, Tommy Caldwell used pre-placed protection in his freeing of both Lurking Fear (5.13c with Beth Rodden) and the Shaft variation to the Shield (5.13c/d with Nick Sagar). This can certainly be considered a valid free ascent, but full disclosure of the techniques used is required. With sport climbing it is just assumed that a “free” ascent is a pinkpoint ascent, but in traditional climbing it is assumed to be a redpoint ascent. If the ascent isn’t a redpoint then that must be specified as it significantly affects the grade of the pitch.
For example, some of the 5.12 crack pitches on Lurking Fear did not see a redpoint ascent until Jim Herson in 1999(??) This despite Steve Schneider’s freeing about 95% of the route in 199??? And Caldwell and Rodden’s ascent in 2000???
[1] This is a reference to the tickets issued to the first team to attempt to free this section: Kurt Smith, Scott Cosgrove, and Greg Epperson. They were ticketed for using power drills to place bolts – strictly illegal in National Parks and Wilderness Areas.
[2] This discounts the East Buttress Route (13 pitches, 5.10b), the West Face (22 pitches, 5.11c) and other more obscure routes further left of the West Face like Salami Ledge. Why exclude these? There are not viewed as really attacking the main difficulties of El Capitan and are significantly easier and/or shorter than other El.Capitan routes. Regardless, these routes are not counted when I refer to freeing El Capitan here.
[3] Once again, not considering the East Buttress or West Face routes.
[4] This may be a speed record for freeing El Capitan. Lynn Hill took over 23 hours for the Free Nose. Caldwell took 19 hours for the Free Salathé Light. Huber took 15h25m for Free Rider and Potter took ? hours for Free Rider (after freeing Half Dome).
