BURSTThe headlines have been blowing up: “Hannes Puman climbs The Nose free via Schnoz Variation,” reads Planet Mountain; “Hannes Puman frees new variation on The Nose,” states UK Climbing; and “Remarkable Yosemite debut by Hannes Puman” echoes LaCrux.com, adding, “This difficult alternative to the Changing Corners pitch has probably never been free climbed before.” Most recently, Climbing published “El Cap Rhinoplasty: The Nose Gets Straightened.”
The 26-year-old Puman, from Sweden, spent two months in Yosemite. He traveled with Jamie Lowther from Scotland, his partner for The Nose, and Swedish climbers David Johansson and Jakob Östman.
In mid-November, I met the group over lunch with Matilda Söderlund and William Hamilton in Mariposa, west of Yosemite Valley. As rain bounced off the restaurant roof, Puman and his crew listed their upcoming plans for when the weather cleared.
While we wolfed down Mexican food, Puman said he was keen to tackle not only the hardest and most famous climbs in the Park but also Yosemite’s old-school classics—including the grovely Lost Arrow Chimney, a 5.10 all-things-wide climb established in 1947. I offered to loan him big cams and padding for his knees and elbows and asked what he had climbed so far that season.
Puman mentioned that offwidths and chimneys are rare in Sweden, but he wasn’t afraid of giving them a go. Then, he rattled off his impressive tick list from the past few weeks, which included many of Yosemite’s most challenging and iconic climbs. Below is a list of what he did during his two-month visit to Yosemite this season.
Astroman (5.11c, Washington Column) and The Rostrum with the Alien Finish (5.12b, Rostrum), Wet Lycra Nightmare (5.13d, Leaning Tower, taking a total of one day), The Phoenix (5.13a, Yosemite’s first 5.13, Cascade Falls area), Cosmic Debris (5.13b, Chapel Wall), Separate Reality (5.11d/5.12a, Wildcat Falls area), which he also campused in approach shoes, and Crimson Cringe (5.12a, Cascade Falls). He also did Book of Hate (5.13d, in Elephant’s Graveyard), Final Frontier (5.13b, Fifi Buttress), Freerider (5.12d, El Capitan), and two days later started the Nose via the Schnoz, 5.14.
As for classic blocs in Camp 4, he ticked Bruce Lee (V8), The Farce (V8), Thriller (V10), Dominator (V12), and flashed the Kauk Slab (V8), King Cobra (V8) and Midnight Lightning (V8). In Tuolumne, he also did 5.13d Peace and 5.14a Love (Medlicott Dome).
Basecamp in Mariposa
Over the following weeks, Puman and his crew regularly visited Mariposa. They rented a camper van for two months, which they all crammed into, and occasionally visited my home. In the mornings, they pulled out their two-burner stove and cooked porridge. On rainy afternoons, we baked muffins and cooked ribs while watching the original El Capitan film. They also drew inspiration from my climbing book library, which included Stonemasters, The Valley Climbers, Stone Mountains, and Desert Towers. I was happy to loan them essentials: a portaledge, an expedition fly, a haul bag, wide cams, and knee and elbow sleeves, which were crucial items for their ascents.
From Comps to Cracks
Born in Eskilstuna, Sweden, Puman’s background is in competitions, including sport climbing, bouldering, and speed climbing. (He lives in Gothenburg today.) He’s a junior world champion and European Youth Cup winner in lead climbing. He’s redpointed 9a (5.14d) and sent up to E9 trad.
With his 2023 ascent of Pain Makes Me Stronger in Frankenjura, Puman flashed up to 8c+ (5.14c). In 2018, he climbed the massive roof La Fuerza de la Gravedad (E9; The Force of Gravity) on his second attempt, marking his first crack climb.
In 2020, he made the first ascent of Niemesis (9a), Sweden’s hardest sport climb, located in Niemisel—a route later repeated by Söderlund.
Once, in 2017, on his way to the World Cup, Puman also ticked L’arcademicien des crépis (The Academician of Plaster), graded 8c, at Céüse, France.
And though he trained with the best of them and made it a whisper from qualifying, Puman narrowly missed competing for the Olympics, representing Sweden, saying, “I kind of have two jobs as a climber. One is competitions. The other is outdoor climbing. I got supported for the Olympics; indoor climbing is a big sport in Sweden.” He’s sponsored by Adidas Terrex, Five Ten, and Petzl.
Regarding his motivation for his inaugural trip to Yosemite, Puman says, “I mean, I have been wanting to go here for a long time.”
Why Puman Took on the Schnoz
Puman mentioned that cracks beyond tight hands (1 Camalot) are rare in Sweden. That means that before coming to Yosemite, he hadn’t done much climbing involving hands, wide hands, fists, offwidths, or chimneys.
Despite that, he adapted quickly. When we met at my place recently after Puman freed The Schnoz, he emphasized the number of fist cracks on The Nose. He held his balled-up fists, saying, “So many wide cracks.”
He also described working The Schnoz and how it required him to use the entirety of his reach—“fully star-fished out”—to grab the micro crimps. Puman rated that pitch 5.13 with a V9 boulder problem. He animatedly demonstrated the beta, shadow-climbing the moves as we talked.
He also recounted his fight on the 5.13c Great Roof. To save small cams for the finish, he loaded nuts into the rope-length crack until he reached high on the pitch, then fired in spring-loaded gear. He described repeatedly falling out of the fingertips jams because the pitch was so wet. With each attempt, he had to adapt his beta, searching for drier holds. Puman said he tried the Great Roof over two mornings and two evening sessions before succeeding.
On previous day trips high up El Cap (but not to the summit) with other partners, Puman had attempted Changing Corners but was unsuccessful. He described twisting himself into a pretzel—using opposing knee bars—as he carefully unraveled his way up the notoriously technical pitch, rated 5.14a/b.
Ultimately, Puman opted for the Schnoz variation. “I talked to Ivo Ninov and Thomas Huber, who gave me a history lesson on the Schnoz,” he texted. Alex Honnold attempted the pitch twice earlier in the season but came up empty-handed. On the final move on the Schnoz, Honnold shredded his fingertips, forcing him to abandon his free attempt.
During that afternoon chat, Puman shared the whole experience of his ascent of The Nose. Puman said he was mentally exhausted from doing Freerider so close to the Nose and that Lowther was generally tired on the route because it was his first big wall. It was their first time climbing on a rope together, but things went smoothly overall. However, high on the route at Camp 6, the team faced a setback when Lowther dropped his phone into a crack below their bivy.
Instead of abandoning it 30 feet down where it landed among other junk, the climbers improvised: Using a nut tool on the haul line, they fished it out from behind a huge flake. Along with Jamie’s phone—critical for his travel information and trip photos—they retrieved a #5 Camalot, a nut tool, and even a ratty old pillow, which they threw in their trash bag.
Over six grueling days, Puman freed The Nose, while Jamie freed what he could, skipping only the cruxes and the more intricate traverses.
The Schnoz Variation: A New Chapter on The Nose
Regarding The Schnoz variation, Brooke Sandahl wrote in The Climbing Zine: “I spied an alternative way left of the Changing Corners and, together with Dave (Schultz), bolted it. It went straight up off the belay and climbed a section of perfect natural edges till you got to a stance where you could stand no-handed. (The Huber brothers [with support from Ivo Ninov] would add a belay here.) Then it cut dead right… With temps too hot, we played on it a bit but really couldn’t hold the crux piano move due to the heat.”
Sandahl recounted Lynn Hill’s historic free ascent of The Nose in 1993: “She was too short to reach the holds on my alternative, so she was forced to follow the original corner. I remarked at her crazed sequence of cross-stemming, arm barring, arête pinching, and pin-scar jamming in a dynamic tango that I’d never seen the likes of before or since.”
Fast forward to Hannes Puman’s ascent on the Schnoz over Dec. 5 to 11, 2024. He reported that some holds had snapped on the original Schnoz, but other climbers discovered a new sequence. With an additional bolt placed by Ninov and Huber, the variation went at 5.13 with a V9 stopper crux. Unlike Alex Honnold—who ended up with bloody fingers—Puman managed to avoid such carnage.
“I had an unforgettable experience with Hannes climbing The Nose on El Capitan for 6 days,” Lowther posted on Instagram. “This was my first big wall, and it was so much fun experiencing all that comes with it. So much teamwork and problem-solving are involved, which all adds to the whole adventure.”
Reflecting on the climb, Puman wrote on Instagram: “It’s pretty incredible that I managed to free all pitches. I didn’t climb Changing Corners; I did the Schnoz/boulder [problem] instead. As far as I know, it has never been [freed], and this was the first ascent. We spent six days on the wall, and I had two days of rest between freeing Freerider, which took five days. I am tired and happy. I can’t thank Jamie enough for being a great partner.”
Freerider: Training Ground for The Nose
Two days before freeing 31-pitch Nose, Puman and his partner Jakob Östman completed a free ascent of 32-pitch Freerider—marking Puman’s first time up El Capitan. They began their climb directly after a storm, leaving the wall soaked in sections due to runoff.
Despite damp cracks and thoroughly soaking sections, the duo completed an all-free ascent, with both climbers freeing every pitch.
But they did have setbacks. After pre-hauling their gear to Hollow Flake Ledge, about 1,000 feet up, they discovered that mice had gnawed through their haul line and punctured holes in their water bottles, which they refilled from runoff. Their haul rope was so riddled with core shots that they nearly bailed but patched it up with duct tape instead.
“The collected water was yellow and brown, but we drank it anyway,” Puman says of refilling their compromised and patched water bottles. They used this damaged rope for fixing, forcing them to slide their ascenders over long stretches wrapped in tape where the sheath had torn away.
Puman recounted leading Hollow Flake, which goes down nearly a whole rope length, over via a ledge and then up an ever-widening crack without a single piece to keep rope drag down. He kept saying, “Man, there’s a lot of wide climbing on that route. I didn’t expect so much.”
Then he added that since the offwidths drained him, and he didn’t want to re-read them in case he gassed out and gave up or fell, he found it rests whenever possible and paced himself. This was especially true on the Monster offwidth on pitch 19, which he said felt like a three-hour lead but, in reality, was closer to one hour. He reached the anchor beat, and they continued.
When the two arrived at my house after Freerider, Puman was eager to return to El Cap for a free attempt of The Nose. Östman, however, was exhausted and ready for an extended rest. With David Johansson back home recovering from hand surgery, Jamie Lowther partnered with Puman for the ascent of The Nose.
Big Sends: Wet Lycra Nightmare and King Air
Regarding earlier on the trip, Hannes told me about sending Wet Lycra Nightmare. Darryl Hatten and Angus Thuermer established it in 1977 as Wet Denim Daydream (5.6 A3), and Todd Skinner and Jim Hewett first freed it in 2004 and rated it 5.13d.
Puman flashed most of the route and nailed the cruxes within just a few short goes. At the final roof crux offwidth (5.13a), he slid out of a chicken wing and found himself dangling by his arms at the bottom of the outward, downward-flaring crack. Somehow, he did a pull-up, wedged himself back into the flare, and completed the send. Then he told me about flashing King Air (V10 R).
Located on the massive LeConte Boulder, across from Housekeeping Camp and near Curry Village, King Air is an iconic highball problem that the late Dean Potter first climbed. Mountain Project describes the climb as, “Jumpstart to a good sloper jug. Make some hard moves on credit card crimps from here until you get to the decent ledge. From there, make a huge move up to a good crimp, and don’t die on the topout.”
Hannes recounted his experience at the boulder, saying he arrived at the end of the day, debating whether to try it on a top rope first. Instead, he decided to just go for it.
“I was like, okay, I can just try and see how it feels. If it feels okay, I will try; if not, I’ll jump. But the first crux was surprisingly difficult, and then I got to the ledge. The second crux came, and it was fine; not so dramatic, but you’re like, 30 feet off the ground.”
Epic on the Lost Arrow Chimney
Though it wasn’t the headline ascent of their trip, Puman and Johansson had an epic on Lost Arrow Chimney (1,100 feet, 5.10a). The adventure left Johannson with a broken hand, and the duo spent all night descending the Yosemite Falls Wall.
When we first met over lunch, Puman had spoken excitedly about Lost Arrow Chimney—his dream route. The wild climb was first completed over five and a half days in 1947 by John Salathé, the father of big wall climbing, and Anton Nelson. As Robin Hansen wrote in the American Alpine Journal, “This feat ushered in the era of Yosemite climbing that knew no limits.”
However, things didn’t go as planned for Puman and Johansson. Midway up the route, Johansson pulled a small rock from the crack he was hand jamming, inadvertently triggering a cascade of rocks. A large stone slammed into his hand, and a microwave-sized block tumbled out, narrowly missing Puman, who was below at the anchor. With his hand pinned in the crack, Johansson had to yank it free, breaking his thumb in the process.
Despite the injury, Johannson managed to finish the pitch. However, he was forced to stay off the sharp end for the remainder of the climb. Eventually, the team started the descent, which turned into a 14-hour ordeal as they rappelled off route in the dark, spending the entire night navigating the Yosemite Falls Wall. For anchors, they looped slings over chockstones, left cams, and carabiners.
That afternoon, a tired and battered Puman and Johansson showed up at my house, sharing tales of their never-ending retreat.
Johansson flew home to Sweden for surgery, leaving Hannes and Östman to rack up and head for Freerider immediately after the next storm passed. Two days after completing Freerider, Puman and Lowther headed up The Nose.
When I asked Puman what was next, he replied: “We were all really keen on going to Patagonia next season.”
To see more of William Hamilton’s photos, visit his website and Instagram page.
The post Recap: Hannes Puman’s Mind-Blowing First Visit to Yosemite appeared first on Gripped Magazine.