BURSTThe Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley is not only America’s most iconic big wall climb, but it’s one of the most sought after and famous in the world.
The first ascent was in 1958 after 47 days of effort by Wayne Merry, Warren Harding and George Whitmore. The route climbs 31 pitches up the most prominent feature on El Cap. The most famous pitches are the Stovelegs, King Swing and the Great Roof. The grade for most climbers is 5.10 C2.
To climb it, you and your partners need to climb at least 5.10 trad in Yosemite, and before you go, study the topo to speed things up, as there will be other climbers. For a breakdown on what it takes to climb The Nose, visit big wall climber Andy Kirkpatrick’s guide here.
History of free climbing The Nose: In 1993, Lynn Hill made the first free ascent of The Nose at 5.14a. The crux pitches were the Great Roof and Changing Corners. After her ascent, she famously said, “It goes boys.” She returned the next year and freed it in a day.
Then in 1998, Scott Burke reached the top after 261 days of effort, leading all but the Great Roof, which he toproped free. On Oct. 14 2005, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden spent four days swapping lead. Two days later, Caldwell returned and climbed it all free in less than 12 hours. Two weeks later, Caldwell climbed The Nose and Freerider 5.13 in 23 hours and 23 minutes, leading every pitch free.
The next free ascent of The Nose didn’t come until 2014 when Jorg Verhoeven spent three days working on the send. Then in 2018, Keita Kurakami became the first climber to rope-solo free The Nose. Stephane Perron was the first to free an El Cap route by rope-soloing in 2007 via Freerider, followed by Pete Whittaker on the same route in 2016 and then Kurakami. After his climb, he said, “I sent almost all the pitches on the first try. But I took a fall on the Great Roof and Changing Corners. In total, I fell about 10 times before redpointing the pitches cleanly. But I knew the route well because I took three years, maybe more than 100 days to climb it free.”
Shortly after Kurakami’s ascent, 15-year-old Connor Herson became the youngest climber to free the route. His dad, Jim, became the eighth person to free the Salathe in 2003. Herson did a jumarless ascent of Half Dome with his dad at age 11 and a jumarless ascent of The Nose in a day at 13. He’d also sent 5.14c sport routes. His mom, elite climber Anne Smith, said, “On a couple weekend days late last spring they checked out the Changing Corners pitch, it was to investigate long-term project potential. But everything Connor has done his whole climbing life has helped prepare him for this, so the multi-year schedule, also, was cut short.”
Then, less than a year later, three more climbers added their names to The Nose Free list: Seb Berthe, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher. Belgian climber Berthe freed The Nose after an eight-day push, but he’s the first climber to free it ground-up. Climbing with partner Loic Debry, he led every pitch and reached the Great Roof on the second day. On day three, he sent The Great Roof on his third attempt and then sent Changing Corners 5.14 a few days later. Debry had to leave and Babsi Zangerl took over as support. Berthe has a lot of experience on El Cap, as he sent Freerider 5.13 in a day in 2017 and the Heart Route 5.13 in 2016.
Zangerl and Larcher freed it a few days later. They swung leads on the easy pitches, but both led the cruxes, including the Changing Corners and Great Roof. The Corners pitch was putting up a fight. “It got wet after a storm hit the valley,” Zangerl said. “Mainly the pin-scares right in the corner were wet. So, we didn’t even try to use them. Our beta was to stay on the arête and lay-back all the way up to a good foothold, where we got into the corner and after another insecure move, we were able to grab the saving jug. On our first tries this beta wasn’t promising at all. It was hard to even connect some moves. After some more effort and figuring out the perfect foot positions, we were able to sort out the crux sequence. I think it is mega cool that there are some different ways how to climb that pitch, from stemming to the scissor-beta of Lynn Hill or lay-backing. Every beta is hard in his own way and takes time to feel good on it and it doesn’t matter if you are very tall or short.”
Then in 2023, British climbers Alex Waterhouse and Billy Ridal have free-climbed The Nose. Both led and freed the Great Roof and Changing Corners pitches. The first British climbers to climb The Nose were Rob Wood and Mick Burke in 1968. “After retiring from comps at the beginning of the year, we set this goal and knew it was audacious,” Waterhouse said. “With no big-walling experience and honestly no idea what it would take, we (and I’m sure many others) weren’t sure it was possible. But we planned, trained, learnt and grafted every day for 5 weeks here in the Valley with that single mission in mind. We left for the push having not linked the crux pitches, sat in a puddle for 2 days through a storm and somehow left with the fairy tale ending.”
And then late last year, Scottish climber Jamie Lowther and Swedish climber Hannes Puman opened a new variation to the Changing Corners pitch called The Schnoz, thus free climbing The Nose with a few new pitches.
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