[duncan]

Not bad for their first El Cap. route, but as it boils down to two 20’ boulder problems it probably suits them!  I think these are the 9th and 10th free ascents, assuming both led the two key pitches. (Some might add Scotty Burke and Beth Rodden, these two climbed but didn’t lead the Great Roof and Changing Corners pitches respectively).

Source: IG stories.

[Paul B]

Epic.

[abarro81]

Very cool!

[Dingdong]

Incredible achievement - first brits to do it?

[cheque]

Awesome!  Brilliant video of them cackling with delight and disbelief after doing the crux pitch.

Feels like I need to start rolling out my “I remember when Billy Ridal’s Dad used to bring him to the Notts climbing wall as a nipper” stories

[T_B]

This is really cool and I hope it gets the kudos it deserves. Plenty of good climbers have rocked up in Yosemite and got spanked. So brilliant to see how psyched they’ve been. What an adventure. Tradsters!

[stone]

Not bad for their first El Cap. route, but as it boils down to two 20’ boulder problems it probably suits them! 
Source: IG stories.

I'm just trying to fathom the climbing ability required to get the nose free feeling like two 20' boulder problems!

Hundreds of metres of steep slippery crack climbing just being a ramble.

[duncan]

This is really cool and I hope it gets the kudos it deserves. Plenty of good climbers have rocked up in Yosemite and got spanked.

It's very impressive. Plenty of people very experienced in the Yosemite style have been unable to climb those crux pitches. They climbed it with a relatively short period of preparation. I don't think they'd linked the cruxes beforehand but went for it anyway.

Free ascents so far:
Lynn Hill, twice
[Scotty Burke]
Tommy Caldwell, at least twice
[Beth Caldwell]
Jorg Verhoeven
Keita Kurakami (ropę solo)
Connor Herson
Sébastien Berthe (ground-up)
Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher
Alex Waterhouse and Billy Rydal

[lukeyboy]

Great effort. It's staggering how few free ascents there have been in the 30ish years since the first ascent - that really says it all.

[Will Hunt]

Is there a reason why so few people free it beyond it being very hard? Standards have come a long way since '93 and you'd think it would be a desirable thing to do. Is it logistically hard to work around aid teams and NIADers so the hard free climbers gravitate to the other routes?

[danm]

Is there a reason why so few people free it beyond it being very hard? Standards have come a long way since '93 and you'd think it would be a desirable thing to do. Is it logistically hard to work around aid teams and NIADers so the hard free climbers gravitate to the other routes?

The main issue is with it being such a long route and not following a direct line. It makes placing a knotted rope on every pitch a logistical nightmare.

[Bradders]

Is there a reason why so few people free it beyond it being very hard? Standards have come a long way since '93 and you'd think it would be a desirable thing to do. Is it logistically hard to work around aid teams and NIADers so the hard free climbers gravitate to the other routes?

It's bizarre that Alex Honnold has climbed it in <2hrs but not freed it!

I'd not realised how few people have freed it in all this time. Another demonstration of how incredible Lynn Hill's ascent was.

[Kingy]

I think one of the reasons it hasn't had more repeats is that the Changing Corners pitch is simply brick hard. Even at ground level, it would be a significant challenge for an 8b+ climber. I hear that its harder than Make it Funky at the Tor!

[Offwidth]

This is really cool and I hope it gets the kudos it deserves. Plenty of good climbers have rocked up in Yosemite and got spanked.

It's very impressive. Plenty of people very experienced in the Yosemite style have been unable to climb those crux pitches. They climbed it with a relatively short period of preparation. I don't think they'd linked the cruxes beforehand but went for it anyway.

Free ascents so far:
Lynn Hill, twice
[Scotty Burke]
Tommy Caldwell, at least twice
[Beth Caldwell]
Jorg Verhoeven
Keita Kurakami (ropę solo)
Connor Herson
Sébastien Berthe (ground-up)
Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher
Alex Waterhouse and Billy Rydal

Lynn has an article on the FFA on her website:

https://lynnhillclimbing.com/media/climbs-travels/the-nose/

As for stories about young kids at NCC who grew up to be wads, Billy's would be tame ;-)

Anyhow, congrats to Billy and Alex.

[stone]

Is there a reason why so few people free it beyond it being very hard? Standards have come a long way since '93 and you'd think it would be a desirable thing to do. Is it logistically hard to work around aid teams and NIADers so the hard free climbers gravitate to the other routes?

Isn't it a very unusual style of climbing on the hard pitches?

Perhaps a bit like how the Quarryman groove pitch also gets far fewer ascents than would be expected for such a famous and iconic route considering how other routes of the same grade get hundreds of ascents.

[PeteHukb]

Billy does a pretty good job of conveying why it doesn't get done that often here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyjJo3QJbgo/?igshid=YjdmOHNxd2lhZnl2

[SA Chris]

Amazing effort.

Didn't someone comment on jwi's thread about wall climbers struggling outdoors that comp climbers are often the exception?

[jwi]

Amazing effort.

Didn't someone comment on jwi's thread about wall climbers struggling outdoors that comp climbers are often the exception?

I have seen both! Matilda was an absolute monster outdoors from day one. Another comp climber (who will remain nameless) is barely better than me at the crag despite having been a regular in finals in the world cup! (Mind=blown, and she can of course still warm up on my long-term indoor project/limit boulders.)

[Paul B]

Billy does a pretty good job of conveying why it doesn't get done that often here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyjJo3QJbgo/?igshid=YjdmOHNxd2lhZnl2

I think people also underestimate just how hard it is to exist on a wall like this (even getting water out of your haul bag is a monumental pain in the ass), for a period of days, let alone how difficult it is to perform at the levels required for hard free climbing.

Changing Corners must feel absolutely nails. If you haven't climbed in Yosemite then don't imagine that the granite has a massive amount of friction. As an example of this, the first few approaches we did to routes, I tried to walk up some gentle slabs (no doubt wearing Stealth) and ended up falling flat on my face!

[duncan]

The Nose gets a notional 8b+ but the free ascents to date suggest you need to have to three grades in hand* and either bouldered 8B (Caldwell, Verhoeven, Berthe, Larcher, Waterhouse and Rydal) or have multiple years of El Cap. experience (everyone except Waterhouse and Rydal, who presumably have the bouldering power to compensate).

Or be Lynn Hill, 8b+/c sport and 7B bouldering 

All free ascentionists have had significant competition climbing careers, except perhaps Kurakami who I can't find much about his early career, but perhaps that's true for nearly all good climbers of any stripe now.

8B+ comp. climbers are not rare in 2023, perhaps Waterhouse and Rydal’s ascent will encourage others to try it.

*I think Rydal has ‘only’ climbed 8c+ but as a 8B+ boulderer he clearly could manage something harder.

[tk421a]

It's Ridal not Rydal (pedantry off)

[duncan]

It's Ridal not Rydal (pedantry off)

Thank you. And I was so careful at getting the correct number of Ls. Sack the sub-editor!

[teestub]

A google suggests this meant Billy’s ancestors are from Ryedale in Yorkshire, rather than Rydale (now Rydal) in the Lakes 😄

[lukeyboy]

Not sure if this has already been posted elsewhere, but Billy and Alex were recently on the Runout podcast (#117) with Chris Kalous (of the enormocast) and Andrew Bisharat (Rock & Ice / evening sends).

It was a good interview going into the preparation, the process of working the route and the ascent itself. Very interesting.

[danm]

Grimer has got Billy for Jam Crack Live at the Hideaway in Sheffield in Feb. I'm working so gutted I can't go, it'll be great I reckon.