UKC

El Cap

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 Rog Wilko 15 Jan 2015
I'm very ignorant about such details, but is what we hear on air, that the latest ascent is the FFA of El Cap true, or is it just the first of that route? At least the BBC seems to have grasped the fact that free climbing isn't the same as soloing!
J1234 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Rog Wilko:

Hi Rog, if you want to know the details probably best to go to a more specilaist news source http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69418 , if you want a debate about how the wider public and media don`t understand the intricaies of a pointless exercise such as climbing or coarse fishing, crack on.
 alasdair19 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Rog Wilko:

1st free ascent of the route. it is hard a full step up from the first free route 'the nose" and salathe.

there's now quite a few but I think this one is quite far beyond them. Also probably puts the hardest big wall free climb back in yosemite rather than the alps.
 jkarran 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Rog Wilko:

There are lots of free routes on ElCap or at least routes that have been done free. Most follow lines that were previously aided often chopping and changing 'route' on the way to follow features that can be freed rather than a particular aid line bottom to top. Most ElCap ascents will still be a mix of free and aid with the emphasis on the aid (mostly clean) or at least that's the way it was a decade or so ago.

jk
 GrahamD 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Rog Wilko:

"Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell conquered the climb to them the first to scale the Yosemite peak without aids"...... to quote the BBC. Which is clearly bollocks.
In reply to alasdair19:

> Also probably puts the hardest big wall free climb back in yosemite rather than the alps.

Good and important point- hadn't considered that.
 drolex 15 Jan 2015
In reply to alasdair19:

> Also probably puts the hardest big wall free climb back in yosemite rather than the alps.

Pardon my ignorance but which route(s) would have it been in the Alps? Something in the Dolomites?
Removed User 15 Jan 2015
In reply to drolex:

And something fairly well bolted probably.
 solomonkey 15 Jan 2015
In reply to SCrossley:

> understand the intricaies of a pointless exercise such as climbing

I'd love to here of an exercise that isn't pointless ?¿
 Offwidth 15 Jan 2015
In reply to alasdair19:

It's a bit more than that. Its got to be easily the hardest 'trad' route in the world in the adjectival sense.
 tlm 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Offwidth:

> It's a bit more than that. Its got to be easily the hardest 'trad' route in the world in the adjectival sense.

But some of it is bolted? Isn't it more of a mixed route?
 Offwidth 15 Jan 2015
In reply to tlm:

A lot of US trad is bolted. Some UK trad is bolted.
 Bob 15 Jan 2015
In reply to tlm:

In the US "trad" originally referred to how a route was bolted not whether it was bolted or not. "Trad bolting" was bolting on the lead; "trickster bolting" was bolting on rapel.
In reply to Bob:
> In the US "trad" originally referred to how a route was bolted not whether it was bolted or not. "Trad bolting" was bolting on the lead; "trickster bolting" was bolting on rapel.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Thanks!
Post edited at 14:39
 alasdair19 15 Jan 2015
In reply to drolex:
I'm not that up to date but there is the bellivista roof in the dollies huber was an early free route at 8b maybe I think the Scottish route is harder.

There is also the crazy limestone of Switzerland (ratoken?!) name escapes me but 8th grade climbing 50m pitches and 5-10 bolts per pitch is worryingly standard.
Post edited at 14:43
 Bob 15 Jan 2015
In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

It came to a head in Yosemite when Todd Skinner and Alan Watts began using the practice of abseiling down to place bolts that they had used at Smith Rock. There's an article in an old Mountain magazine that describes it all, I'll try and dig it out.
 alasdair19 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Bob:

the bolt from the ground up stuff was crazy.

Peter crofts uni wall at squamish all ways impressed climb 5.12 - 5.13. stop somehow in balance in micro smears. pull up drill. tiny hole sky hook hole/divot hang on it... put in proper bolt. re-psyche repeat.
 Ian Parsons 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Rog Wilko:

This is quite handy for peering closely at the route - and anything else on El Cap; you can scroll and zoom all over the place which didn't seem an option with the earlier NYT picture. Don't think it's been posted on any of the other UKC threads yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/14/sports/the-dawn-wall-up-close...
 Chris Craggs Global Crag Moderator 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Ian Parsons:

> This is quite handy for peering closely at the route - and anything else on El Cap; you can scroll and zoom all over the place which didn't seem an option with the earlier NYT picture. Don't think it's been posted on any of the other UKC threads yet.

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

Thanks for that link - superb shot,


Chris
 Bob 15 Jan 2015
In reply to alasdair19:

The article I was thinking about is in Mountain 112: American Revolution - Conflict and Change in the Eighties by Jeff Smoot.

This is the same issue that reported the first ascent of The Indian Face by Johnny Dawes.

The Tricksters and Traditionalists article was written by Tom Higgins.
New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...