UKC

Austrian-South Tyrolean couple Barbara 'Babsi' Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher have both freed The Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 6 days. Babsi's ascent is only the third free ascent by a woman after first ascensionist Lynn Hill, who broke boundaries with her first free ascent in 1993. The line has received three free ascents this season, from Belgian climber Sébastien Berthe earlier this month, and now Babsi and Jacopo, making for the 6th, 7th and 8th free ascents of all time.

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Great stuff. 

Didn't Beth rodden also free it, making babsi the 3rd woman?

Beth and Tommy did it half and half each, as it says in the report.

Pretty sure Beth Rodden is widely considered to have freed the nose. This report https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.climbing.com/.amp/news/caldwell-rodden-fre... at the time says "each led or followed every pitch free" snd they lead about half of the pitches each. The only caveat I can think of is that I don't think she lead the changing corners pitch, she did lead great roof though. Not that not leading changing corners would disqualify it from being a free ascent anyway.

Beth didn't lead the Changing Corners pitch according to Climbing.com, but you are correct in that it is still technically a free ascent. Babsi's ascent is closer to Lynn's 1993 ascent. 

Thanks for changing it In the same vein I think it should be 7th, 8th, 9th of all time, rather than 6th, 7th, 8th. (Hill 1993, [Burke 1998, which no-one seems to count these days, bit of a shame given he put so much effort in], Rodden 2005, Caldwell 2005, Verhoeven 2014, Kurakami 2018, Herson 2018, Berthe 2019, Zangerl 2019, Larcher 2019). Nitpicking, sorry.

Also, goes without saying really, but obviously a great effort from Babsi and Jacopo, to be honest given their success rate on El Cap free routes I'm more shocked by the news that they had a failed attempt earlier in the year than the news that they've done it!

That was only because the Great Roof was wet, though!

That's generally considered a free ascent though. Don't go telling Tommy Caldwell and Kevin jorgeson that you have to lead every pitch for it to count as a free ascent! 

Actually I believe TC and KJ both lead all the hard pitches, and only swapped leads on the easier ones (which weren't that many in Dawn). Like Berthe earlier this year as well.

This is an interesting bone of contention from the birth of big wall free in the 90s. My favourite is the Huber's kneebar(?) belay. The differing opinions pull free climbing in strange ways, perhaps overly ideal and dragging climbing away from the pitch by pitch teamwork that can be so rewarding. Big wall redpoints introduce a lot of unexpected grey areas for me. 

amazing, I have really enjoyed following there climbing achievements very recently. from el cap all the way to Pembroke. both amazing climbers and and seem like very nice people as well.