Significant First Ascents

[duncan]

Hannes Puman, supported by Jamie Lowther, has nipped in and climbed "The Schaz", a V9 or 10 variation to the Changing Corners pitch on The Nose as part of a free ascent. This was bolted a while back and Alex Honnold tried it unsuccessfully recently but, as far as I know, it had not been climbed before Puman's ascent.

In some ways it is a shame the Changing Corners has been bypassed in this way but I would guess The Nose will get a lot more free ascents in the next few years.

Source

 

[remus]

I guess it's just the nature of big walls that variations are so plentiful, but it feels a shame to miss out changing corners. Such an iconic pitch on such an iconic route. Not to downplay Hannes effort though, free climbing El Cap will always be rad.

 

[jwi]

I wouldn't trust Hannes's estimate of difficulty too much.

 

[Will Hunt]

I've had a glance at both topos but don't know enough about each route and the grading systems to make complete sense of them. Duncan, could you enlighten us, how does this shape up against Freerider now? Is the Great Roof still miles harder than anything on Freerider?

 

[edshakey]

At what point in route variation does the way these ascent are reported change? From sentences such as

I would guess The Nose will get a lot more free ascents in the next few years.

does that mean it's fair game to report this as an ascent of The Nose, and bury the details in the fine print? How divergent does a route need to be before it gets a new name?
I'm not enough aware of the precedent already set on other routes on El Cap - although obviously this isn't the first variation on a route, so I'm sure there is one!

 

[remus]

From a casual reading, these sorts of things are usually written up as "The Nose via the Schnaz variation" or similar, so it's usually pretty clear what's been done. I think it'd be pretty deceptive to say "The Nose" if you hadn't done the changing corners: if you said you'd free climbed The Nose I think most people would assume that includes changing corners.

 

[duncan]

I've had a glance at both topos but don't know enough about each route and the grading systems to make complete sense of them. Duncan, could you enlighten us, how does this shape up against Freerider now? Is the Great Roof still miles harder than anything on Freerider?

The Great Roof consists of a 25m ~11d/7a up to the roof followed by an ~8m traverse. Assuming an overall grade of about 13c/8a+ for the pitch, reverse engineering with darth-grader suggests about V9/7C for the traverse.

The Sloane guide suggested V10/7C+ for The Schnaz before it had been done. I have no idea where this grade came from. Puman suggested V9/7C after his ascent, but note jwi's comment. The boulder is "a series of tiny, reachy crimps" so may be height-dependent.

The Freerider boulder is about V7/7B or 13a/7c+ for the pitch, so probably still the markedly easier option.

Happy to be corrected, a lot of big-wall theorising going on here!

 

[Fiend]

Have been trying this over the last few months and got it this morning! Really proud of it and reckon its the best new thing I've done so far. It's quite atypical for grit, with the hardest version being around 25 moves on mostly positive holds, but steep athletic climbing. It's about halfway along Ashop edge and takes around an hour to get to without any pads. Ill post a topo for the whole roof once i've come up with some names, but heres a photo of Ben on it for scale!

Can't recall seeing footage of this but there's a great section on it at the end of the latest Wedgie action:



Really bloody good!!

 

[remus]

Does look an incredible problem. Very cool that there's gems like that still to do on the grit.

 

[andy popp]

I thought the whole film was very nice. Jim seems like a good chap and it's nice to see the moors again (even to the extent of a little homesickness).

 

[spidermonkey09]

That was really good. Well done all. Is that Bransby's perfectly behaved hound sitting in the bilberries?

 

[remus]

Nathan Philips has ticked off his longstanding project, the sit start to fake pamplemouse.

Deep fake 8c+

 

[thunderbeest]

Nathan Philips has ticked off his longstanding project, the sit start to fake pamplemouse.

Deep fake 8c+

Good name!

 

[remus]

New 9A on the bloc: No One Mourns the Wicked from Nathaniel Coleman. Sit start to Defying Gravity.

 

[Fiend]

Is 9A the new 8C+?!

Also any more deets, Remus? Vaguely recall the name Defying Gravity but that's all. Also could have had a better play on Defying Gravity (like Deep Fake above).

 

[remus]

There's some vids of previous working sessions linked here https://climbing-history.org/climb/4158/no-one-mourns-the-wicked

 

[JamieG]

Is 9A the new 8C+?!

Also any more deets, Remus? Vaguely recall the name Defying Gravity but that's all. Also could have had a better play on Defying Gravity (like Deep Fake above).

Both names of songs from the musical Wicked I think.

 

[jakaitch]

New 9A on the bloc: No One Mourns the Wicked from Nathaniel Coleman. Sit start to Defying Gravity.

Footy! He comes across as a really lovely guy too

 

[chriss]

Return of the Sleepwalker get another repeat.

 

[chriss]

Return of the Sleepwalker get another repeat.

Sorry wrong thread!!!