UKC

NEWS: New free line on El Capitan for Caldwell and Honnold

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 UKC News 08 Nov 2019
Caldwell and Honnold's New El Cap route Tommy Caldwell, Alex Honnold and Kevin Jorgeson have joined forces to establish a new free line on El Capitan. The line initially heads up Passage of Freedom, a free route that was first climbed by Leo Houlding around 18 years ago and then continues up twenty more pitches to the top.

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 MischaHY 08 Nov 2019
In reply to Offwidth:

Sounds like it may well settle at 14a considering what Tommy said about the crux pitch and the calibre of the team involved in FA. Which if I'm not mistaken would tie it with Magic Mushroom for 2nd hardest free route up El Cap? Not bad for a 3 week job! 

 DannyC 08 Nov 2019
In reply to UKC News:

Surprised I'd not heard about Leo Houlding bolting on an Alfa Romeo badge as a hold before.  

There's a bit more about that in the American Alpine Journal here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Tt0-o0IQopkC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172...

 owensum 08 Nov 2019
In reply to UKC News:

I would love to hear the back-story of the Alfa Romeo badge..

 simoninger 08 Nov 2019
In reply to UKC News:

So they did an existing (hard) route, then added 20 pitches. Twenty. Still find it hard to get my head round that sort of thing.

 John2 08 Nov 2019
In reply to DannyC:

It was a while ago. I remember a BMC conference where Leo gave a talk with photos of the Alfa badge.

 owensum 08 Nov 2019
In reply to John2:

Did he provide any reasoning to the madness? He just happened to have an alfa romeo badge on him halfway up el cap?

 John2 08 Nov 2019
In reply to owensum:

t was a long time ago, but given the build quality of Alfa Romeos I think we can assume that the badge fell off. The only other detail that I remember is that the badge spins when a climber grabs it.

 Mark Collins 09 Nov 2019
In reply to owensum:

My memory's a bit hazy but I remember reading an article about it at the time. I believe the badge was added to the route to fill a blank section after considerable soul searching. The car in question was at one point owned by Neil gresham and had been faithful to Neil and Leo in many an adventure. I think it even makes an appearance in one of those masterclass videos. Apologies if I've got this all wrong. 🙂

 ebdon 09 Nov 2019
In reply to UKC News:

"Aspirational holds" love it....


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