UKC

NEWS: Another El Cap route goes free

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 duncan 20 May 2008
Alpinist magazine reports The Magic Mushroom route as having been climbed free, ground-up in a single push, by Tommy Caldwell and Justin Sjong. No details of grade as yet. The climb follows a line of grooves and corners that define the left side of The Shield feature on the South West face of El Capitan and was first climbed in 1972 by Squamish climbers Hugh Burton and Steve Sutton.

Magic Mushroom was a relatively unpopular aid route, without the 'fly on the wall' positions of it's neighbors. It's strong natural line and the seemingly straightforward free ascent suggest it might become a classic free route.

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web08s/newswire-free-caldwell-magic-mushroom
OP duncan 02 Jun 2008
In reply to duncan:

Well I got that completely wrong.

It seems that Magic Mushroom took 5 weeks of work before the free ascent:
http://tinyurl.com/6ale7a

And is rather hard:
http://tinyurl.com/56gwvu

This hasn't stopped Caldwell going back and doing it in a day with Beth Roden, reports Tom 'elcap-pics' Evans:
http://tinyurl.com/6klyos


In reply to duncan:

Wonder what athletic 8a chimneying looks like. I don't think I want to think about it.

jcm

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