Jorg Verhoeven has repeated The Free Nose (UKC News report). I asked him a few questions about it:

How did you prepare for this climb? Bouldering in Colorado?
After last year's trip to Yosemite, I had already decided to come back this year, and since my girlfriend Katha Saurwein and I wanted to visit the RMNP the plan was born to link them. I'm currentl only working on my study thesis, so I could take 2.5 months to visit the states. Katha and I had a great time in Boulder, after which I felt super motivated to drive to Yosemite, in good bouldering shape.
It sounds a little weird, but for me bouldering shape is good for Yosemite, I hadn't climbed routes in a while, but most of the climbing is pretty low angled. Only the great roof got me a little pumped...

I wanted to prepare for the Nose back home, but decided that it wouldn't do me any good, since I would be bouldering for a month after anyways.

What did you expect from the climb?
My first time on the Nose was a one day push with two buddies of mine last year. We freeclimbed a lot, but yarded on all we encountered, and because of the little amount of time, I couldn't really stop to take a look at the hard pitches.

I knew from telling that the great roof was all about undercling pinscars and slippery feet, and that the changing corners were just super awkward, but that just got me excited to give it a go.

I had previously done El Nino, which is mainly face climbing, and a free rope solo ascent of Freerider, so I knew a little how freeclimbing on the Captain looked like. plain awesome!

A buddy sent me some old footage of Lynn and Tommy, who had both talked to me about the hard pitches, in a kind of spooky way... I knew it would be a challenge. That kind of was what I was looking for.

To me it has always been a mystery why the Nose doesn't get more free traffic, since it is The Nose, the most iconic route on the most iconic bigwall in the world. Of course it's incomparable to Karakoram and Patagonia, but that's exactly why: it's so accessible. I have had one day of bad weather on a 5 week trip here!

Did it live up to your expectations? What was different?
My expectations were high from the beginning. I knew that with the amount of motivation and drive I had for this route, my chances of succeeding were on the positive side.

That sounded weird to many people, who were surprised to get a confident answer on the question whether I thought I could climb the Nose before starting my free push. I just felt like if I did have enough time, energy and psyche eventually I would climb this thing. I took it as a multi year project though. I didn't expect to do it this year, when I left for the States.

I worked hard to get the two hard pitches dialled. That means 7 mornings (each like an hour) on cc [Changing Corners], and the Great roof thrice (harder to access on your own).

I was lucky that Jon Glassberg from Boulder was psyched to get some footage (Louder Than 11) and helped me on the whole thing, and that a buddy from Austria, Mark Amann, climbed with me on the route a bunch.

In total we did a free dolt run (first 10 pitches), a two day film and workout of the two hard pitches, and a two day push where I freeclimbed all the other 28 pitches.

The route was like I expected, the only thing I did not expect, was my nervosity before starting the free push... Being a comp climber as well, I'm normally able to handle this well, but it came harder on me than I would have thought.

What was the biggest challenge for you?
Keeping up with all the gear shuttling. Like Lynn and Tommy advised me, I pitched up a camp on top of the Captain, and slept up there previous to working on cc the next morning. That means I had to go up the east ledges a bunch of times with lots and lots of gear, food and water (only half way though as Tommy explained to me there is a spring somewhere near the top...). I got a lot of help, but the lone hikes at night, and the lone days on top of the Captain were a little frustrating. I just felt like I'd done so little climbing and so much labouring during a month in Yosemite, climbing paradise...

It was worth it though :)

So there you have it walking up the back is actually more of a challenge than climbing up the front. Who would have thought?

Huge congrats and big thanks to Jorg are in order!

Jorg is sponsored by: La Sportiva, Marmot and Petzl