BURSTTraverses, which often start at one end of a cliff and end at the opposite, can be found at climbing areas around the world. In North America, there are dozens, but three are among the longest and least repeated.
75-pitch El Capitan Girdle Traverse (5.10 A4-): This is the longest continuous girdle traverse in the world, it climbs from the bottom right-side of El Capitan to the upper left side. The route is 14,000 feet long. It was established by Chris McNamara and Mark Melvin in April 1998, and it has never been repeated. On Moja Gear, McNamara said, “Doing the first Girdle Traverse on El Cap with Mark Melvin, one of my climbing mentors and business mentors, was definitely my favorite FA. It’s a 75-pitch route that I think covers 2.5 miles of climbing, rappelling and swinging.”
88-Pitch It’s All McConnell’s Fault (5.11 A0): The traverse of Yamnuska in the Canadian Rockies has been accomplished twice, with the most recent being in 2016 by Mark Bramble with a number of partners over a few trips. He traversed the route in 88 pitches. The first ascent of the traverse was in 2004 by Allan Derbyshire and Choc Quinn. Yamnuska is one of the most popular cliffs in the Rockies, with over 100 routes from one pitch to 10, and from 5.5 to 5.14. A film about Yamnuska was released in 2023, watch the trailer here.
67-pitch The Great Wall of China (5.9R): In October 2021, Drew Herder and Ben Wilbur completed the first continuous ascent of the Great Wall of China, a 9,000-foot route that traverses the Trapps cliff at the Gunks. They climbed the three-kilometre route in a 36-hour push, making it a contender for the longest technical rock climb ever done in one go. The route was first climbed by Gunks climbers Ken Nichols and Dave Rosenstein in May 1987. They would climb a section, lower to the ground, head home and return later to continue climbing. It took the first ascent team several trips over a few weekends. They graded it 5.9R, but many believe it to be a sandbag. The only other repeat was in 2011 when Doug Ferguson climbed during the day, but lowered to the ground at night.
The post 230 Pitches in Three Monster Rock Climbs appeared first on Gripped Magazine.