How incredible is the free-climb of El-Capitan?

It is remarkable in that even 10-15 years ago it would not have been doable in this way by anybody, much less two guys. The hardest pitches (segments) are not the hardest in the world, but are among the hardest in North America, and there are several of them in a row, high on the route.

It is similar to say, running several 2:15-2:20 marathons first over a few days, then sub-13 for 5K for three days all under less-than-ideal conditions for recovery, followed by another 2:20 or two if that makes sense.

I would put it among the top five rock-climbing achievements ever, maybe top-3. At least one of those previous all-time achievements were the earliest ascents of El Cap in the early 60's. The first 9a/14d ascent by German climber Wolfgang Gullich in 1990 would be another. Incidentally, the hardest pitch on the Dawn Wall is 14d, so maybe my sub-13 (~WR in 1990) carries in here.

Definitely the most well-covered rock climb ascent ever.

Another Option wrote:

I have never climbed anything other than a hill, so I have no perspective on the degree of difficulty of the recent free-climb of El-Capitan.

Same here. Is it like just a little harder than climbing a hill, or a lot harder? Is El Capitan some kind of super steep hill? Please answer in terms of hill climbing so I may understand what these two gentlemen are doing.

how incredible indeed wrote:

Is it like just a little harder than climbing a hill, or a lot harder? Is El Capitan some kind of super steep hill?

The pictures of those guys on that cliff were terrifying. That said, I have an honest (non-trolling) question--is it common to climb these difficult routes in sections and only redo a portion of the route after a fall?

I read that one guy fell 10+ times at the same point. But I think that same article implied that he didn't start over from the beginning each time but instead went back to a certain point along the route. I was surprised that that was an acceptable practice. How is it determined what is the fair amount of distance to go back once one falls? Could he have reasoned that he climbed safely to within one foot of the point he was having trouble with and kept attempting that stretch over and over again?

Apparently somebody invented the helicopter which could fly up and land on top of that rock, before anyone figured out how to climb it. That's much more incredible.

rock hound wrote:

The pictures of those guys on that cliff were terrifying. That said, I have an honest (non-trolling) question--is it common to climb these difficult routes in sections and only redo a portion of the route after a fall?

I read that one guy fell 10+ times at the same point. But I think that same article implied that he didn't start over from the beginning each time but instead went back to a certain point along the route. I was surprised that that was an acceptable practice. How is it determined what is the fair amount of distance to go back once one falls? Could he have reasoned that he climbed safely to within one foot of the point he was having trouble with and kept attempting that stretch over and over again?

Most ascents of big walls like this focus on just getting up efficiently, and a climber will continue from his high point after a fall. They will typically also use aid in the process. In the case of an official "first free" ascent such as this, the climbers can practice a pitch repeatedly (over many years, in this case), but must lead climb from one belay station to the next in the final push. This convention is kind of like a fair v. foul in the long jump, or knocking off the standard in a high jump, and assures that each subsequent ascent can play by the same "rules", i.e. the redpoint rules.

Many first ascents of extremely hard one-pitch (sport) routes may take the climber hundreds of falls before doing the entire pitch without weighting the rope.

In this case, both Tommy and Kevin led all the hard pitches: many times for long walls a "free ascent" only requires that one of the climbers do a pitch without falls or hangs.

Here is a remarkable picture of the climb:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/14/sports/the-dawn-wall-up-close.html

It's really difficult to try and put it into terms that would allow a non-climber to be able to truly appreciate the profundity of it. Part of what is interesting about all the mainstream media coverage of it is that the "incredibleness" (and, really, it is very, very incredible) of it is so nuanced to the uninformed observer.

Saying simply that "two guys climbed El Cap", or even that "two guys freed El Cap" is sort of akin to saying that "Dennis Kimetto won a marathon" when what he really did was run the fastest marathon ever by a human in the history of the planet.

Climbing is a game that hinges upon contrived difficulty. If it didn't, a hike to the top of El Cap would be considered equivalent to freeing the Dawn Wall (which, obviously, they are not). Based on the agreed upon rules of climbing, Tommy and Kevin have done something monumental.

Basically, like any other truly notable athletic, physical/mental success, what Tommy and Kevin have done---through impressive commitment, determination, and preparation---is tangibly expand the sphere of human achievement.

That may sound grandiose, but if one's view is that they simply climbed a big rock, then that is tantamount to saying that all runners do is run around in meaningless circles.

Those two have a direct lineage to mountain climbers in the First Civilizations of Eastern Africa so it isn't suprising that they have the natural genetic makeup to achieve such a feat. It's expected of the people from that part of the planet Earth.

It says it took 19 days. Few questions.

How do they carry 19 days of food and water? Are they getting food dropped in?

How do they do #2? Do they pack it out with them in doggie bags?

Will you rock climbing experts please explain this in plain English? I don't get it.

Yuji's description is pretty spot on, they strung together a number of very difficult pitches (sections of a climb), not the most difficult in the world, but not that far off. Totally impossible for 99.999% of climbers to complete in an isolated attempt on just one pitch under the best of circumstances. And those climbs were surrounded by a bunch of relatively easier but still on an absolute scale very hard free climbing (that 99.99% of climbers couldn't complete under the best of circumstances).

Anyone who hasn't climbed seriously would be totally dumbfounded at how these guys get up the route if they were to go watch up close and try to repeat it themselves. May as well try to climb straight up a brick wall.

To question guy:

How do they carry 19 days of food and water?

They didn't, although theoretically they could have hoisted up a ton of big haul bags (they wouldn't climb while carrying the weight of the bags of course, but they could haul them up using ropes while at a belay station).

Are they getting food dropped in?

Basically, people do what I say they could have done above every few days.

How do they do #2?

In a "wag bag", google it. Basically a zip lock bag with chemicals that break down the crap.

Do they pack it out with them in doggie bags?

Yes, they seal the bags after they go and haul them out (or their support crew hauls them).

clueless observer climbing wrote:

It says it took 19 days. Few questions.

How do they carry 19 days of food and water? Are they getting food dropped in?

How do they do #2? Do they pack it out with them in doggie bags?

They carried some up with them, but they have ropes up and down the face for others to resupply. As for #2, yes it's "pack your sh!t out"; I suspect the "sherpas" are helpiong with that too. In the old days, If you hung out at the base of El Cap, you had to dodge the occasional gift bag from above.

Normally, Dehydration is a big factor on El Cap, but climbing in winter has kept that to a minimum, as well as helping food keep fresh and most of all, allowing the best possible friction.

Much of what they are climbing is like stepping on and grabbing pocket change, including many dimes, that has been glued to the glass on the side of a skyscraper. Other times it is like shimmying between two vertical panes of glass that abut at 90 degrees. In one place, the climber must leap ten feet through the air to grab an edge the size of a grammar school ruler.

One subtlety that's missed in a lot of news stories is that was that Jorgeson and Caldwell did *not* make the first free climb El Capitan. They made the first free climb of a specific route, the Dawn Wall route. The Salathe Wall and the Nose have been free climbed for years. Tommy Caldwell free climbed the Nose route in just 11 hours in October 2005, and Lynn Hill free climbed it in about 23 hours in 1994.

The Dawn wall has a 5.14d pitch, among others. Nobody climbed even a single 5.14d pitch until 1991, and Jorgeson and Caldwell did it as part of a big wall climb. That's insane.

Not really a "free climb" when you use ropes.

To understand how difficult this was, one must first understand climbing grades.

The YDS (Yosemite Decimal Scale) is generally what is used in the US to grad climbs. It ranges from 5.0 to 5.15, at the moment.

A 5.0 climb would be a scary 'hill' climb that might involve a couple technical moves and a lot of scrambling up steep terrain.

At about 5.4 to 5.5, average joe hiker will feel very uncomfortable and would be wishing for a rope, protection on the wall, and a good belayer.

Now, I believe (I have been rock climbing for about 3 years) that most people, that are generally pretty fit and have the ambition to stick with rock climbing, can climb up to 5.10 relatively easily. That is not to say that 5.10 is not difficult, it requires much practice and strength/endurance building.

At 5.10 the YDS will start with minor grading indicated by A, B, C, D. If you start thinking about getting into 5.12 range, you are a pretty serious climber and very strong. Not too many people can climb 5.12 consistently. To compare this to running, I would say it is equivalent to breaking 15:00 in a 5k, so about .5% to 2% of climbers can climb 5.12 outside on rock. I understand that 2% of runners cannot break 15:00 in a 5k, but there are far fewer rock climbers than runners.

The most difficult pitch (generally one rope length of climbing, 30 to 70 meters) on the Dawn Wall is 5.14d. So to put this in 5k terms, you are getting pretty close to the world record, I believe the hardest pitch recorded is 5.15b, there are 5 to 10 guys right now that can climb 5.15. Now this 5.15b pitch was done off the ground as a single pitch. What we are talking about on the Dawn Wall is 17 pitches ranging from 5.12b to 5.14d, with several pitches of 5.14 climbing.

This is a pretty impressive feat, however it will be repeated soon and we will start seeing more climbers 'free climbing' long hard routes around the world. Tommy and Keven are on the forefront of some pretty historic climbing.

Nutella1 wrote:

Not really a "free climb" when you use ropes.

Absolutely wrong. Free climbing is defined as climbing a route under your own strength, without the assistance of aid such as jumars (rope ascenders) or pulling on protection to help you advance upwards. Ropes and protection in the rock are only used to keep the climber from falling to their death.

Free soloing on the other hand, is climbing free of ropes and protection. The only thing between you and the ground is air.

You don't get it. They only use the ropes to catch a fall, in which case they return to the start of the pitch and try again. So they never use the ropes to assist forward progress on the route, all progress is made exactly as it would be if there was no rope.

This contrasts heavily with how everybody else has climbed this route in the past, and how the vast majority of people climb any route on El Cap, where what is called "aid climbing" techniques are used. This is a much more gear intensive form of climbing where the climber places pieces of gear that attach to the wall, and then they use that gear to actually move up the wall. In a lot of cases the gear attaches to bolts drilled into the wall, not even using natural features to anchor to.

For example they may have a rope ladder that can be attached to the wall, they reach up, hook it in, climb a couple steps up the ladder, then anchor themselves to the wall at this higher position, unclip and move the ladder up again, and so on. Do a google image search for "aid climbing" to see what it looks like. These techniques allow mortals to "climb" the kind of nearly blank sections that Tommy and Kevin cover only using their hands and feet directly on the rock.

Good speculation. To add, the hardest sport climbing grade is 5.15c which has been climbed by Adam Ondra and Chris Sharma. I would equate a 14d to a sub 13:10 5k, but each feat is so different it would really come down to what percentage of each population could do either.

Good info in the thread, all around.