BURSTHistory has been made on El Capitan with the first free ascent of The Nose via the Schnoz variation by Scottish climber Jamie Lowther and Swedish climber Hannes Puman.
The Schnoz variation avoids the famous Changing Corners pitch and thus the 5.14 crux of the original Nose route. It follows a technical section to a dyno. The variation pitch was established by Brooke Sandahl and Dave Schultz in the early 1990s, prior to Lynn Hill’s first free ascent, according to the Climbing Zine here. It’s been tried by several climbers over the years.
Lowther and Puman spent six days working on The Nose via the Schnoz before completing a free ascent. Puman was fresh off freeing Freerider over five days with Jacob Ostman. So far no grade has been proposed for the Schnoz variation.
The following are the only free ascents of The Nose via Changing Corners to date: Lynn Hill in 1993 and 1994, Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell in 2005, Caldwell in 2005 again, Jorg Verhoeven in 2014, Keita Kurakami in 2018, Connor Herson in 2018, Seb Berthe in 2019, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher in 2019, Alex Waterhouse and Billy Ridal in 2023.
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