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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 18, 2008 - 05:02pm PT
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First Ascent Report from Nico
The secret passage – new free route on El capitan Yosemite
Sean Villanueva and I have just freed a new route on El capitain!!!! We
just came down last Friday (10 of October) after 5 days on the wall. It's
for sure one of my best climbing accomplishment and strongest climbing
experience. All my years of climbing experience seem to have blended
together to brew this new major piece of climbing. The route tested my
physical and mental abilities to their limit with the challenge of many hard
pitches to send each day on the wall plus the fatigue of hauling. In order
to leave the aid routes their original way, we were pushed to climb
sometimes on very poor gear and at other times spaced apart. But beside the
physical and mental challenge, the experience exploring the wall for a way
to free felt to me the most powerful. So many sections looked at first
impossible but with optimism, faith and creativity all of them gave away a
solution with an amazing amount of holds, which if one of them did not exist
the route
wouldn’t go free. It felt like each solution was a sign of communication
with the rock.
The idea of trying to free this line came up in December 2006 when I aided
climbed zodiac. I just couldn’t keep my eyes from looking right at the line
just like if I felt something instinctual. The line stayed in my mind and
this year as I arrived in Yosemite with Sean Villanueva mid September, it
was something I really wanted to check out. With him, I knew we could try
our best to climb it in a fun style : no fixing, no jugging, no rappelling,
just finding the way up from the ground and bringing the mandolin and flutes
for some el Cap freestyle jamming.
On our first exploration up the line we went big wall style and the goal was
just to see if it would go free. As my instinct felt always strong with the
line, my rational mind on the other hand had a harder time with rumors of
impossible blank sections, that part of the wall having been unsuccessfully
checked for free climbing on rappel by notorious el cap free climbers.
The first time up the line, we spent 4 days mostly following the aid route
“eagles way”. When a section of the aid line would not be possible to free
we would look at every option of the free climbing labyrinth and that
required sometimes doing long pendulums. Up to two pitches from the summit
everything seemed possible to free with a few very hard pitches. But there,
so close to the summit all the hopes of freeing the entire line dropped with
4 meters of blank rock. We topped out the wall then moved our rope to the
side to make sure we didn’t miss a free alternate. But no, the 4 meters of
blank rock seemed to be the easiest way up the wall.
When we came down at first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back on the line.
Why expend all this effort for something that wouldn’t go entirely free?
Then after a day of rest, I woke up with a strong feeling of needing to go
back on the line. I thought if I can’t free the whole line it could still be
so fun to be up there hanging out on El cap, free climbing pitches at my
limits and playing our musical instruments.
Before setting off for another multiple day push on the line, Sean and I
decided to work on the lower hard cruxes of the route on two day-trips. We
never fixed any line. Then we went again last week with the potential to
stay 5 days on the wall so that it would give us enough of a margin to
explore and try to redpoint the upper part of the wall. After five days on
the route, we reached the 4 meter blank section. Up to there, I had been
able to redpoint every single pitch of the climb with many of them on the
edge of my limits. And as I got ready to aid the rivet ladder I looked down
and to the side and saw a tiny bit of dirt sticking out of the super blank
polished granite. I lowered down and discovered a very thin laser-cut
looking seam impossible to see unless you are at level with it. I cleaned
the moss and “the secret passage” appeared making one of the raddest pitch
of the climb. We called our new free route “the secret passage” after this
unique pitch which allowed the climb to go 100% free.
The route follows a mix of two already established aid lines ( Eagles way
for its first 10 pitch and Bad to the bones for the 8 upper pitches of the
climb) and a bit of new terrain as well. The route is extremely steep and so
the climb is very sustained with a total of 15 pitches ( 5-10+ R, 5-11, 5-9,
5-10+, 5-12a r, 5-13c R, 5-13a, 5-12+, 5-12c, 5-13c, 5-12c R, 5-13a, 5-13a,
5-11R, 5-10+) We added a bolt on an unprotect able face climb variation to
the established aid line and place a bolt next to a rivet to make an anchor
safe. We were able to free climb the rest without adding any holes in the
rock. The nature of the climb is quite run out and dangerous at sections.
One pitch protects with hooks and fixed copperheads, a few others have hard
cruxes way past the last piece of pro and there are a few scary sections
with lose rock features we couldn’t avoid.
Sean and I started the route switching lead and following free. Then as the
climb got very sustained Sean didn’t succeed in redpointing every pitch. I
took over the lead for the pitches that he didn’t succeed as he continued to
follow free.
If you want to get a flavor of our trip in north America ,check out our blog
: http://www.xpedition.be
Here is a photo from their blog: http://www.xpedition.be
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BriGuy
Trad climber
SL,UT
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Oct 18, 2008 - 05:17pm PT
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Sick, thanks for the report Chris.
Their freestyle jammin' sounded great!
Nice job guys!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Oct 18, 2008 - 05:20pm PT
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Cheers,
well done.
(Makes me laugh to think about the comment that Sibylle's dad made when they first went to the Valley. He was a nice guy though. Met him at Kyle's place.)
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Hoots
climber
Tacoma, Toyota
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Oct 18, 2008 - 05:51pm PT
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I was on the NA Wall when you guys were climbing your route, and HOLY SH*T!! I knew something was going on from the ridiculous screaming and hollering! Nice send! oh, and what was the deal with that HUGE rockfall over there? Sounded and looked like a major trundle...
I just realized it was you guys making the music! That was rad having an evening concert making dinner every night! Thanks!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Oct 18, 2008 - 06:29pm PT
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it quickens the imagination, all these free routes.
well done.
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Oct 18, 2008 - 07:01pm PT
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Sweet! Congratulations.
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Holdplease2
Big Wall climber
Yosemite area
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Oct 18, 2008 - 07:31pm PT
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As an aid climber who will forever be aiding these new free lines, I'd like to highlight the following, and send along a thanks:
"We added a bolt on an unprotect able face climb variation to
the established aid line and place a bolt next to a rivet to make an anchor
safe. We were able to free climb the rest without adding any holes in the rock."
For those of you who don't know, Nico is the dude who freed Erik Kohl route(s?) on the Falls Wall...USING THE AID PRO. This means he was taking monster whippers on...heads! We knew from watching some of the screaming dangles that happened that these guys were definately NOT turing Eagles Way into essentially a sport route.
Of course, not everyone aspiring to free big walls will or should be held to this standard. But damn if it wasn't nice to hear it was Nico over there, and to be able to hope that Eagles Way wasn't going to be glistening with fat shiny bolts when the gentlemen were done.
Thank you for pushing the classic aid line to the free standard...while continuing to let us Aid climbers have our line the way it was originally for the most part! :)
Congratulations!
-Kate.
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Levy
Big Wall climber
So Cal
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Oct 18, 2008 - 07:33pm PT
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Proud job lads!!
I look forward to seeing a topo of the route.
BTW- Where is the 4 meter blank section?
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Brian Kimball
Sport climber
Westminster, CO.
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Oct 18, 2008 - 08:51pm PT
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OHHH SOOO BAD ASS! Congratulations Nico...JOB WELL DONE!
Could their style get any better? I submit that it can not! LOL
Seriously people need to give this kind of an ascent MAD PROP'S.
As free climbing on El Cap. gains popularity, this is the kind of ascent people should strive to emulate. It is bad enough that routes like Dihedral Wall have bolts where natural gear is abundant but it is only a matter of time before free climbers start to think that "gee those bolts are a little to spaced out for me" instead of "dammm that route is sick and probably over my head-its sooo time to bail". No fixing either...WOW, AWESOME-did you guys haul your piss up the wall too???
Man Nico you deserve this one dude...you've got HEART man and you've got SOUL!
Wish someone could have captured this adventure on film.
Bravo my friend, BRAVO!
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Oct 18, 2008 - 11:24pm PT
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Kudos. Mind boggling. With climbing that rad going it, it forces the rest of us to climb for our own bliss and own reasons, cause keeping up with the Hard men is damn hard!
peace
karl
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Oct 18, 2008 - 11:31pm PT
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"One pitch protects with hooks and fixed copperheads..."
Say what?
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5br
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Oct 19, 2008 - 04:07pm PT
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Speachless.
Brainlock.
Does Not Compute. Does Not Compute.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Arid-zona
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Oct 19, 2008 - 04:09pm PT
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Damn Mac you're climbing 5.13 R? Where do you have time to climb this hard it seems like you're always jumping off of things.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Oct 19, 2008 - 04:22pm PT
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Lambone wrote in another thread
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=700009&msg=700495#msg700495
"According to Tom's daily reports, the last time they were seen up there was when we were topping out ZM. I saw one dude take this huge 70ft whipper about midway up the route. Then he yarded back up and finished the pitch without re-leading it, they hauled the bag and moved on from there. So I was wondering, are they claiming that as the free ascent?"
Not judging that one way or another, but since it's out there, I thought I'd post it so the question can find it's answer
PEace
karl
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MisterE
Trad climber
My Inner Nut
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Bump for awesome climbing
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BriGuy
Trad climber
SL,UT
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Karl,
For your clarification, Lambone saw Sean take the wipper. I am guessing Nico already redpointed the pitch previously.
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Alone
Trad climber
Antwerp
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Bad ass climbing style!
Super cheers from the Belgian front.
Nico and Sean boldness, very inspiring climbing style.
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Ryan Tetz
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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That is bold!
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bob
climber
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First off...............BAD ASS!!!!
Now, I do have one thing to say about their stated style. It was said that no rappelling occurred to check the line, but they finished the route bigwall style and moved the ropes over to check to see if indeed any options were possible besides the 4 meter blank section. Doesn't this constitute checking the route on rap regardless whether that section was freed or not? I'm not a stickler for style. I could be crushed for various antics, I was just curious about what people thought about this.
Again, those guys are totally badass and I could only wish to do a route like that rapping the whole thing and rehearsing every single move mercilessly. Even then I'd simply be worked having only freed 15 moves of the 15,000.
I'm just curious about the style thing. Always fun in my eyes.
Nice going gents!!!!!!!
Bob J.
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