UKC

Tommy Caldwell Free Climbs The Nose and Freerider-in-a-day

© 2005 SteveM
Chris McNamara writes at the Supertopo forums,

"On October 30-31, Tommy Caldwell free climbed both The Nose and Freerider in a combined time of 23 hours and 23 minutes. He started October 30 at 1:03 am and cruised up The Nose in 11 hours with his wife Beth Rodden who belayed and jumared. On the crux 5.14a Changing Corners pitch he took two short falls before sending the pitch on his third go. After a few minutes of food and rest on the summit, he ran down the East Ledges descent and was back in El Cap Meadow just before 1pm.

I was his belayer/jumarer for the second leg of the link-up. We started up the Freerider at 1:36pm. On the first pitch, and for the next 28 pitches, it was impossible to tell that he had just climbed The Nose that morning. He didn't show a single sign of fatigue and it was impossible to tell when he was doing a hard move. Every move he made looked like 5.7. I felt like I was belaying him on The Nutcracker.

The first 10 pitches took 2 hours. We got to the Monster Offwidth (pitch 19 just below El Cap spire) just as the sun was setting. The wall was bright orange and as he left the belay he assured me that this pitch was actually going to be a little strenuous for him. I guess he was true to his word, because he made this 5.11 offwidth nightmare look like 5.9 (unlike the first 19 pitches that all looked like 5.7).

Below us, we watched Dean Potter speed up the route 5 pitches below us. He was going for a one day free ascent of The Salathe Wall. Over on The Nose, Thomas Huber was making a multi-day free attempt with four support crew (Ivo, Ammon, and some buddies doing there first big wall). At that moment, there were four parties on El Cap, three of which were making free ascents."

Read the full acount at Supertopo

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1 Nov, 2005
Inspirational and slightly depressing at the same time.
1 Nov, 2005
a bit of a huber beast...
1 Nov, 2005
He got the Changing Corners pitch on the third attempt this time round. I'm still not convinced that anyone human can climb that pitch. Gobsmacked.
1 Nov, 2005
I thought Steph Davis on the Salathe deserved more coverage....
1 Nov, 2005
In all, the Nose-Freerider combination has 65 pitches, or approximately 6,000 feet, of free climbing, including nine pitches of 5.12, one of 5.13 and one 5.14a, plus dozens of burly 5.10 and 5.11 pitches.
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