Oliver Tippett has made a rare British rope-solo ascent of El Capitan in under a day in Yosemite National Park. He onsighted the 19-pitch, 600-metre route Lurking Fear (C2) using a mix of free and aid-climbing techniques in 17 hours and 26 minutes.

This ascent makes Oliver only the third Brit to rope-solo El Capitan in a day (we believe, after Chris Bevins [UKC News] via The Nose and Pete Whittaker [UKC News] on Freerider) and the first to do so onsight.

'I'm not exaggerating when I say it was by far the hardest thing I've done physically in my life,' Oliver wrote on Instagram.

'There wasn't more than 5 minutes during that whole time when I wasn't leading, abseiling, jumaring, stacking ropes or racking gear. I tied two 60m ropes together and often linked 3 pitches at a time, doing the 19 pitch route in 7 mega ~100m pitches. I also carried the lighter side of the rack recommended for people not linking pitches, so had to have some massive run outs. Since I climbed mostly in the dark, I frequently wouldn't be able to see the last piece of gear below me. I also hadn't done the route before, so had to work out where to go and what gear to place on the fly in a very time pressured situation.'

Oliver is 25, has been climbing for just five years and lives in London. In a short period of time, he has achieved ascents up to E8 and has accrued many pitches of aid and rope-solo climbing during extensive trips to Squamish and Yosemite.

We sent him some questions to find out more about his climbing and his ongoing Yosemite trip.

I did start having a go at my ropes for getting stuck once or twice, but that was a fairly one-sided argument.

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When and how did you get into climbing?

My dad took me on scrambling and via ferrata trips when I was younger, which led to me doing an alpine climbing course in Chamonix at the start of 2018. I got back and did a week of Scottish winter with my dad (who had prepared by reading Freedom of the Hills), before returning to Chamonix to try the Royal Traverse of Mt Blanc. At the end of 2018 I started university and got into indoor and trad climbing there, so I've been trad climbing for nearly five years now.

What are your hardest ascents to date?

In terms of free climbing I've climbed a couple of E8s, but one is a sport pitch (The Quarryman Groove) and the other is E6 (Obsession Fatale). Both were amazing quality though, the Groove is certainly the best route I've done by far. For aid climbing, I think the hardest pitch I've done so far is The Very Old and the Very New, which is a single pitch C3 high up in the Slate Quarries. It's much harder and sketchier than anything I've done in Yosemite or Squamish, with the potential to come very close to the ground from the top if you fell. I remember the beak I was sitting on pulling out as I bounce tested the next one, fully committing myself to a piece I hadn't fully tested yet! I'd really recommend toproping it to anyone psyched on getting into aid climbing.

It looks like you've been to Yosemite before. What did you get done on that trip?

Last year was my first time in Yosemite, so we did all the classic beginner routes. We started with the South Face of Washington Column, then queued our way up The Nose. In the second half of the trip we managed to do the Regular NW Face on Half Dome in a big 19 hour push. Towards the end of the trip I wanted to climb Zodiac but no one else was very psyched to climb any A3, so I soloed it over five days.

What attracted you to try solo multipitch climbing and why did you keep pursuing it?

I'm not really sure what got me into it. My only exposure to it before doing it would have been watching the video of Pete Whittaker soloing Freerider in a day which must have planted the seed. I got into aid climbing on a wet day in the Peak doing Kyrie Eleison, which got me psyched to go to Yosemite. I got into solo aid climbing mostly because of not being able to find partners. Before heading out last year I wanted to do some final practice but couldn't find a partner, so soloed a few routes in the caves in Dovedale. Then in Squamish before Yosemite last year I similarly couldn't find any partners for aid climbing, so soloed Uncle Ben's. I think I ended up enjoying getting to lead all the pitches and being totally self reliant, so kept not looking too hard for partners and soloing!

Getting into big walling was definitely only made possible by my university union giving the mountaineering club loads of money to buy all the kit we needed, and by the university's exploration board giving funding to me and others to go to Yosemite for the last couple of years.

How did you prepare for this latest trip in Yosemite? Did you have the goal of an El Capitan solo in a day beforehand?

I didn't really do any training other than just going climbing. I spent quite a lot of time hanging around on ropes working out The Quarryman in spring, then spent six weeks in Squamish trying to do as much aid climbing as possible. I'd had a vague idea of doing El Cap solo in a day before, but thought it'd be way too hard after going really slowly trying to solo University Wall in a day in Squamish. 

Which routes did you get on before Lurking Fear?

I did Cowboys and Indians and Humpty Dumpty in Squamish, before getting on Lost Arrow Spire Direct, Afroman and Tangerine Trip in Yosemite. I then spent 10 days soloing South Seas on El Cap, which really got my systems sorted. After that I didn't have enough time to do another wall before having to drop my mates off in San Francisco, so returned to the idea of soloing routes in a day. To see if Lurking Fear would be doable for me, I soloed the West Face of Leaning Tower in 8 hours and 31 minutes, having not done it before.

Why did you choose Lurking Fear?

I'm not a very strong free climber, especially with my rope solo system, so I was only planning on free climbing the 5.9 and easier sections. A route like The Nose might be quicker to climb if you can free all the 5.10 quickly, but I didn't think I could do that so I went for a route that had more aid and was a bit shorter. It also had fewer people to pass, and I hadn't done it before and wanted a bit of an adventure.

Tell us a bit about how the ascent went? Were there any scary moments, or points when you thought you wouldn't finish in a day?

I started at 6 p.m. and climbed the first few guidebook pitches in the light since there was some mandatory free climbing I wanted to be able to see well for. After that though I climbed overnight. It got light as I entered the gully pitches (15-17). This meant that I never really got any of the full El Capitan exposure, and it only really felt like I was on an El Cap route when I got onto the recognisable descent.

The aid is all pretty straightforward, with almost all cam placements the whole way up (and the occasional bomber hook between bolts). I had a bit of a moment trying to free climb on one of the higher up pitches when a mantle was a bit harder than expected, and the last gear was quite far below me, and my GriGri was shortroping me, but I managed not to fall. Other than that it was fairly uneventful. I did start having a go at my ropes for getting stuck once or twice, but that was a fairly one-sided argument.

What was your chosen rope solo method?

For harder walls I'd use the continuous loop method with an inverted GriGri 1 and a Micro Traxion to manage the cache loop and a back-up knot behind that. I recently realised that for doing walls in a push I could swap out the haul line for a second lead line and just keep climbing for 120m (moving the whole system past the knot at halfway). This meant I could almost always link three pitches, and allowed me to do the 19 pitch route in 7 pitches. I also had enough ropes to bail from any point if I wanted to, which made things easier psychologically. I might invest in a silent partner if I want to do walls with more free climbing in the future, but for the moment the grigri is fine.

How much longer are you in Yosemite for?

I go back to the UK at the start of November, so hopefully have time for another wall or two!

What are your next goals? 

I'd like to find a partner in Yosemite and get on some moderate walls like The Shield or Mescalito before I leave. It'd also be nice to climb the Nose in a day with a partner. I've not currently got any partners in the valley, so if anyone is around please message me!

I'd also like to come back next year and get on some big classic A4s, but we'll see.