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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 19, 2015 - 04:37pm PT
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The big elephant in the closet when it comes to the public conception of the recent free ascent of the Dawn Wall's significance, is that there's definitely more to modern hard free than climbing "with only hands and feet" (the media's current description of free climbing).
As far as I know, only a few El Cap free routes have been "flashed"--that is, climbed truly with only hands and feet (and perhaps an occasional bum and elbow for the offwidths and chimneys). When Skinner and Piana first free climbed the Salathe (dismissing any "hanging belay" arguments), they certainly used more aid in figuring out all the moves than typical ascents of the era; indeed, for most 5.11 climbers of the day, the route was already 85% free, and about 15% aid, meaning that for a typical three-day ascent, only about 4 hours was spent on aid--hanging on the rope or a piece of gear--the rest was all free. In contrast, to work out the free climbing, Skinner and Piana spent a far greater percentage hanging out on aid to work out the difficult sections.
Similarity for the Nose--the "French Free" version typically employed by Nose-in-the-Day climbers of the 1980's only required 200 feet of actual aid (1985 topo)--the rest was mostly cruisey 5.9 or 5.10, with about a dozen or so 5.11 sections that required a bit of chalking up and a few moments of fine tuning the layout of the rack (on a shoulder sling embroidered with a paisley design of course) prior to firing up the section. Lynn Hill, coming off the professional competitive climbing circuit and no longer hindered by the prior era's "purist" ethics, worked out the moves of the 200' of harder-than-5.11 climbing over a period a few months, and returned to do the whole route in a day, with only one fall. Though she was a bit self-critical for taking a fall (implying that aid was used on the ascent), the ascent of course was the biggest milestone in Yosemite free climbing, and ushered in a higher standard of El Cap big wall free climbing.
Since then, spectacular El Cap routes have gone free. But none without resorting to aid to work out the moves. But the type of aid is new. When I was climbing big walls regularly, I took pride in free climbing as much as possible; of course we had a sand-bagging rating system. The 5.9 A2 mantle on the Kali Yuga, for example, had a nasty fall into a corner, and on the second ascent by a well known 5.13 climber involved the drilling of new bolts to avoid the "5.9 mantle". Granted, the mantle was probably harder than 5.9--maybe even 5.11a--but it was graded in the tradition of big wall free--who can say, for example, that before big camming devices, that the offwidth/layback up the Bismarck on Mescalito was really only 5.9?). The point is, switching between aid and free is actually quite a different mindset of insisting on aid climbing, even when, for example, a perfect 5.9 hand crack appears. It takes a bit of boldness to step out of the aiders. That's why "mandatory" free climbing, like the last pitches of New Jersey Turnpike, get a lot of attention, but frankly are not given a second thought to climbers who routinely try to free climb as much as possible on big walls.
Tommy Caldwell is a spectacular all-around climber--I don't know his traditional hard-aid credentials, but I suspect he would pretty comfortable on A4 and probably A5 climbing as well. But his real genius in his recent ascent in puzzling together all the free climbing potential of the largest section of El Cap's southeast face. That mapping of his route is the real brilliance--in the past seven years, he's searched the nooks and crannies of all the routes in the region (including a pitch I first climbed--the pitch above the Seagull, which was to be a major new link up called the "Diagonal"), and pieced together a route of unparalleled difficulty. He's proved it goes free--able to be climbed "with only hands and feet". In the process, I am certain he performed rope acrobatics that would terrify many traditional aid climbers.
Personally, I pride myself on having been a pretty solid 5.11+/5.12- climber back in the day, and who didn't balk at free climbing only a few letter grades below my limit on big walls. All my best partners were the same--Walt Shipley, Xaver Bongard, Steve Quinlan. On the other hand, I also climbed with partners who could climb 5.11 "on the ground", but would do everything under the sun to avoid a few 5.8 moves when on a big wall-- it would frustrate me to no end, as I liked efficiency and to climb as fast as possible. Indeed, when Xaver and I climbed the Great Trango Tower in 15 days (quite a fast time considering all involved), it was in no small part due to the fact that both of us were sprinting up sections of 5.9 and 5.10 when presented--probably about 800 or so feet of the 4400 foot vertical face.
I think a major significance of the Free Dawn route is that it's an advance in the techniques of using aid to figure out the free. No other free climb on El Cap has required such wild puzzling of the pieces to figure out the free path--that's Tommy Caldwell's real genius in my opinion. But even though the "aid" in figuring it all out is discounted (indeed, completely ignored), it is by no means the easy part of the accomplishment--rather, I reckon that's it a bold new way of climbing and as the key to the success, one of the more challenging aspects of the climb. Even the way Kevin Jorgensen, in real time on live international broadcast, worked out the fourth-to-last pitch using a bit of aid here and there, prior to doing the entire section free in one go, was quite brilliant. The time pressure was of essence in that case.
So instead of reinforcing this whole notion that Caldwell and Jorgensen climbed the Dawn using "only their hands and feet", and ignoring the aid involved, I think we as climbers should celebrate the wild aid, as it's not only a challenging and unique skill-set, but a necessary stepping stone to the potential "flash" ascent. Yosemite always will be the best training ground for the remote mountains, and this new advance of puzzling out the free on aid has the potential to lead to further progression of remote ascents in unforgiving places, where ascents will always be more likely with "flash" tactics.
--John Middendorf (aka the "Deuce")
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steve s
Trad climber
eldo
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Jan 19, 2015 - 04:51pm PT
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Deuce, interesting analogy! Thanks
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 19, 2015 - 04:56pm PT
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Indeed! Nice stuff, John!
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ground_up
Trad climber
mt. hood /baja
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Jan 19, 2015 - 04:57pm PT
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Well said ... good points
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The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
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Jan 19, 2015 - 05:56pm PT
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Well said.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 19, 2015 - 06:33pm PT
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This is why I find the prospects of the subsequent ascents so fascinating. With ever growing amounts of route and move beta; what will the other totally good climbers be able do on it?
edit: as almost all others have said: great and well said piece!
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Jan 19, 2015 - 06:39pm PT
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Great read, awesome perspective.
There is real live monsters up on them walls.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Jan 19, 2015 - 06:54pm PT
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This is why I find the prospects of the subsequent ascents so fascinating. With ever growing amounts of route and move beta; what will the other totally good climbers be able do on it?
Flail wildly for one thing . . . Probably not too many serious suitors at this point in time. When you look at Tommy's resume it becomes apparent that he owns the place . . . only AH and the Huber brothers come close. The "totally good climbers" should probably be working some of his "easier" EC free routes prior to any "Free Dawn Wall" attempts.
Nice insight JM . . . the "Old School" routes deserve so much respect.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Jan 19, 2015 - 08:43pm PT
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AAJ: "El Capitan received its first flash ascent, as well (not counting the 5.12a West Face)"
-feeling better about that one now.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Jan 19, 2015 - 09:14pm PT
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In another thread I suggested that---forget about the general public---most climbers (I included myself) do not understand what Tommy and Kevin did on the Dawn Wall. I was thinking of the number and kinds of free-climbing difficulties they confronted, but this commentary from Deuce exposes some more of the depth of ignorance I and I suspect most climbers have about the subject. I certainly hadn't understood the routefinding aspect to the endeavor, for instance.
Thanks for the enlightening commentary!
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Jan 19, 2015 - 09:26pm PT
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"Only hands and feet"
My brother is fairly climbing savvy, so from the TV reporting he assumed they were free soloing.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Jan 19, 2015 - 09:41pm PT
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So well said Deuce. This was a seven year+ project for a reason. It is not because Tommy was some moron.
Just from a basic concept ..to consider the biggest blankest part of el cap and think.. HMM I wonder..I want to free climb this ridiculous thing.
Spend days and weeks then months and years and whatever it takes looking rapping, aiding, working your ass off to find some line that goes.
How many dead ends? They even managed to get a bit off route the last couple days because it was really complicated.
Lot of folks have criticized the effort and that it was not pure free.
It is what it is..
The most improbable line by two of the best in the world using every trick possible to barely pull off something really freaking HARD.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Jan 19, 2015 - 09:54pm PT
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Spot on questions. How does one celebrate the difficulty of getting up there in a way that is challenging for the aid climber, and also makes it possible for the free ascent.
Bosque, Mucci, DeWeese have been thinking about these, but ultimately the FA has it easy in a way. They get to dictate how hard they want to go.
The subsequent ascents have a challenge in balancing out the history to the challenge of the future.
To that end, does hanging on a fixed line change the ascent when establishing fixed gear for the free ascent?
It seems trivial in retrospect how the bolt goes in... in light of the monumental efforts of these two giants of the way of life we call climbing.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Jan 19, 2015 - 09:59pm PT
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There hasn't been anybody climbing with just hands and feet since Hot Henry did it in the '70's.
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 19, 2015 - 10:02pm PT
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Lot of folks have criticized the effort and that it was not pure free.
No such thing has ever been done on this planet by mere mortals to begin with.
You need oxygen, food and everthing else to sustain life as basics to even begin.
Everyone is dependent.
No one is pure free ......
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Jan 19, 2015 - 10:26pm PT
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No one is pure free ......
yep
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jan 20, 2015 - 06:37am PT
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It's pretty obvious this climb was done in the best style possible for a route this long and of such extreme and sustained difficulty.
I wouldn't have expected anything else. The more pertinent question for me is whether this will now become the acceptable style on your neighborhood single pitch 5.9 as these sorts things once out of the bag general turn up at your local crag pretty fast.
At least here locally retro-bolted headpoints with pre-placed pro are now the lauded norm for 5.13a 'trad' FFAs at what was [formerly] a staunchly trad crag.
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