UKC

US climber Mason Earle has freed The Heart Route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park alongside partner Brad Gobright, who managed to free all but just a few metres of climbing.

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In reply to UKC News:

5.13b = French 8a right? I have never come across an 8a with a V10 crux, most crux moves on an 8a come in at V3 or V4! Even boulder problems on a rope i.e a V10 off the floor with little additional hard climbing above, get more that 8a right?!?

Thanks,
James

In reply to UKC News:

Is this a 'free ascent of The Heart Route' or a new free climb that is, in part, based around the line taken by The Heart Route?


Chris

In reply to jamestaylor92:

V3/V4 as the crux on an 8a? I'm not sure which lines you've been climbing James but you're looking at at V6-8 on your average 8a crux. V10 does seem a little steep for 8a though I'll admit.

In reply to UKC News:

Looks totally awesome!!

In reply to Chris Craggs:
Hi Chris,

There has been mention online of the free line taking in "new terrain" but until a topo is made available it's unclear as yet exactly where the route goes other than by vague pitch descriptions if you compare with a topo of the aid line. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

As for the V10 crux, I suppose a downwards sideways dyno is slightly unorthodox and not easy to grade, and height dependent most likely!

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Check out the Supertopo thread, Chris: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2643926&tn=0

Clint Cummins's post:

Heart Route - 5.13b V10 (34p: 5 5.12, 8 5.13)
FFA - Mason Earle (all), Brad Gobright (all but the V10 dyno), 6/2015
starts on Sacherer Cracker, "Heart Blast" reaches Heart Ledge in 7 pitches (2 are 5.13)
V10 dyno crux is on p6
p8-p11 are on Salathe', exits right 2p above Hollow Flake Ledge
p12-p19 are on Heart Route (3 new consecutive 5.13 pitches here)
p20-p34 are on Golden Gate (3 5.13 pitches here)
http://www.stanford.edu/%7Eclint/yos/longhf.htm#heart
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web15s/newswire-heart-route-goes-free

In reply to UKC News:

I believe the grade is supposed to be read like any other mixed free grade (E.g. M6 5.10) whereby you have to climb both standards in order to free it. Just makes grading the individual move a bit less complicated and reflects the style of the route better.

Hi Chris

It certainly doesn't follow exactly the line of the original route - and few such routes actually do - so it would have to register as the latter of your two options. Specifically; it doesn't follow the left-leaning central crack system up the middle of The Heart on the original route, as do no other free routes to date.

The description is slightly ambiguous: that the free route starts up Sacherer Cracker/The Slack; this is where Heart Route always started. After three pitches of The Slack (Sacherer Cracker being the first) Heart Route moved a short distance right into a corner/groove/crack system. It followed this system for a pitch and a bit, as far as a niche; at that point it exited right, round an arete, onto what is essentially the lefthand extremity of the slabby apron that lies beneath the Heart Ledges, and up which the perennial fixed ropes usually find their way. Several pitches led up rightwards to Heart Ledges.

The later route Bermuda Dunes carried on up from where Heart exited right; it climbed a 5.11 chimney - is anything more horrific? - and then merged with The Salathe a couple of pitches higher by arriving into the Hollow Flake from below rather than from the right. It moved left out of The Salathe below The Ear, and a couple of pitches later contributed the Monster Offwidth which seems to have become a standard way of free-climbing The Salathe. The free version of Heart appears to have climbed the 5.11 Bermuda Dunes chimney and then exited right - ie exited about a pitch above the original route. I've no idea whether the original and free versions shared any common ground between there and Heart.

It looks like the free route followed Salathe until a couple of pitches above Hollow Flake Ledge - ie about a pitch below The Ear - then traversed right across Pacemaker to join the original route at the upper lefthand corner of The Heart. I'm a bit hazy thereafter, but i THINK THAT ABOUT THREE PITCHES OF 5.13 OR SO LED TO THE POINT AT WHICH GOLDEN GATE ARRIVED FROM THE LEFT; WHEREAFTER THE FREE ROUTE FOLLOWED GG TO THE TOP. (APOLOGIES FOR THE CAPITALS; I'VE OBVIOUSLY PRESSED SOMETHING, AND HAVEN'T YET FIGURED OUT HOW TO UN-PRESS IT GRRRR). THERE'S A 5.13 FACE PITCH ON GG WHICH IS A VARIANT ON THE "RAINY DAY WOMAN" CRACK OF THE ORIGINAL HEART (USUALLY SOAKING WET); I ASSUME THEY USED THIS.

ANY "POST MORTEM" SUCH AS THIS CAN VERY EASILY END UP LOOKING LIKE A DISMISSAL OF THE ACHIEVEMENT ITSELF; ABSOLUTELY NOT! HUGELY IMPRESSIVE, INSPIRING, AND WAY UP THERE WITH ALL THE OTHER HUGELY IMPRESSIVE AND INSPIRING STUFF!

In reply to Ian Parsons:

Thanks for that detailed breakdown - it sounds like another amazing achievement,


Chris

Mason is an under the radar crusher. Total badass

What people are forgetting is that 13b is yosemite grading!! Ie. sandbagged to shit! V10=13b, sure.

In reply to owensum:

Grading anywhere tends to be variable both indoors and outdoors. If you are intending to climb a route the trick is to realise that the grading will fit in more or less with other climbs nearby and of similar style, and will be influenced by the physical and mental characteristics of the grader. The more exciting point is whether the line is attractive to you.

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:


Interesting to compare boulder and route difficulties.

I've climbed quite a lot at Hueco Tanks, the home of the V grade. I remember V4 as never easier than english 6b, and usually pretty hard 6b. So certainly there are plenty of 8as with nothing harder than that on. Having said that V6 or V8 could also be 6b, just longer and more sustained. But I think it would be unusual to find something that hard on an 8a unless it was say 12 foot section that was pretty much the entire substance of the route. But perhaps it all comes down to how much climbing one is prepared to include as a boulder problem section: 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet?

Hot Fun Closing at Rubicon is 8a and there's not much more to it than it's V7 boulder problem start. I think an 8a with V8 would be very unusual.

On this particular route I'm wondering if the V10 move/s are the entire difficulty of that particular pitch: straightforward climbing with just one low percentage dyno might equate to 8a/V10 perhaps?

In reply to UKC News:

I guess its the same as the Kor roof on Washington Column, one really really hard couple of moves so they just call it V10

In reply to stp:


It's fairly common to break routes down into sections. 7c with a v7 boulder problem in the middle... probably 8a.

There are not many 8a lines with V4 cruxes in my experience. However, I am limited to sub 30 meter routes in the SW UK. I am sure on 60m monsters in France you'll get them.

In reply to ashtond6:

This is exactly the reasoning Mason gave to me, no point in calling it 5.14b or whatever as it's an unrealistic representation of the majority of the line.