Freeridden, or freeloading on Freerider

Success! Over the period of four days I was able to free climb El Capitan via the route Freerider, a three pitch variation to the Salathe Wall that skips the oh-so-impressive (and burly!) Salathe headwall.

I lucked out and met a fabulous partner Tom Moulin while I was up mini-traxioning (rehearsing alone with a self belay) the upper pitches on May 17. Tom was also hoping to free climb el cap, and had already stashed a bunch of food, water and bivy gear to support such an effort. So, after a weekend in the Bay Area and a recon trip from the ground (via some handy fixed ropes and a bunch of climbing) to the boulder problem pitch (the technical crux) with el cap veteran and great climber Nick Martino, we headed up the route, swapping leads, following free, and hauling only a light bag.

A marathon day one brought us to "The Alcove", a great ledge below El Cap Spire. A whole bunch of quality and pretty damn physical climbing including the fearsome monster offwidth pitches. We then took a rest day at the alcove, during which I finally knuckled down and finished Wuthering Heights - neither Tom, nor Cedar and Nick, who climbed the route a day later and shared the Alcove our second night and were resting the next day could be convinced to read more than a page, despite the fitting title and the fact that it was the only book at the bivy (only book on el cap?).

Day three took us up to "The Block" - only 5 pitches higher in a shady morning's climbing. I led the boulder problem pitch and fired first try, to the relief of my extremely thin tip skin. Tom fired the boulder problem on his second try and had the pleasure of leading The Sewer, the foulest pitch on the route, which was soaking and muddy as usual, uggghh. We rested all afternoon, ate most of the last of our food, obsessed about the coming pitches, and tried to ignore the overwhelming smell of urine that accompanies many el cap bivy ledges when it hasn't rained in a while.

Day four took us 8 more pitches to the top. I took my only fall of the climb following the first corner pitch above Soux le toit ledge in the morning, but lowered back to the belay and sent it next try. The second corner pitch, one of the toughest on the route, was nice and dry and I was relieved to fire it first try, but not without a pretty good fight. The traverse over to the "Knights of the Round Table" ledge (where the route leaves the Salathe) felt desperate, with the ricey footholds and exposed position, but I managed not to fall. The final four pitches, including the somewhat fearsome wide pitch went smoothly and we topped out around 3:30PM. We then rapped the route and cleaned off all our stashed gear and trash - this was the part that I dreaded but it went pretty darn smoothly and we were back on the valley floor well before dark and had plenty of time for a shower and pizza at camp curry.

I am eternally indebted to Tom, who was a great partner for the route and put in a lot work stashing all the gear that let us do the climb without hauling heavy bags. Tom came really close to a free ascent too, missing only the second monster (which he actually lowered down to on our rest day and laybacked!), the first corner, and the traverse pitch.

Anyhow, a huge relief to have finally achieved a long-term climbing goal. Now my friend Brian Lenz is out from Jackson for his first week ever in the valley, and he is helping keep me from resting too much, and distracting me from moping around and missing Rose, who is now home in Wisconsin, where I will be joining her in a week. West Face of el cap tomorrow so I gotta rest up...

Ty