Changing Corners Beta

I've talked to a few people about the changing corners pitch on the Nose and have heard a few different strategies for it. 1) move right over the corner at the first bolt and place really small gear for a few moves and then it gets better, or 2) climb up to the top bolt (3rd?) and then move over to the right where the gear is prett good.

I've hear option 2 makes it not as big of a deal, but am wondering if there is mandatory hard free climbing to make this happen. I was watching the Huber brothers video the other night and noticed that it seemed they did this as well. Let me know what you think!

Either way is C1. Most of the time the thing is pretty well fixed so moving in high or low makes no real difference.

It's not C1, it's C2, but either way, it is not that hard. I climbed up to the 1st bolt and went up the crack the rest of the way clipping the bolts for pro in between the placements. In any case, it is not that hard, a set of offset nuts will make things fairly straight foward.

I guess I was interested to know if there are mandatory free moves to get to the bolts or if it is a ladder. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Also, would you say this is the aid crux of the route? I heard there are some funky moves on the first couple pitches as well.

Aaron O wrote:I guess I was interested to know if there are mandatory free moves to get to the bolts or if it is a ladder. Can anyone shed any light on this? Also, would you say this is the aid crux of the route? I heard there are some funky moves on the first couple pitches as well.

No, there is no mandatory free, it is 5.14 or so right before the bolts. You are correct about the first four pitches. Most consider the first four pitches to be the aid crux of the Nose. Granted the Changing Corners is technical harder, but the first four pitches have a fair bit of flaring placements, and you have to climb four of them in a row. Further more, if you try to climb the first four pitches completely on aid, anchor to anchor, it is actually C2+ with mandatory hook moves. So there is some mandatory free mixed in between the aid moves on the first few pitches if you don't want to up the aid grade of the route.

Yes, I would say the CC pitch is technically the hardest, assuming you dont try to aid the mando free moves on the lower pitches, but the great roof is pretty close in difficulty. The great roof pitch is really long, and if you don't back clean some placements, you may run low on gear by the end of the pitch. You also want to be careful on the Glowering Spot pitch. The book gives it C1, but I would call it C1+ IMO, and if you dont have offset nuts, call it C2 or 2+. The pitch mostly involves flaring pin scars and there is a ledge fall (which is why the topo says dont back clean placements.) However, that pitch is pretty cruiser with offset nuts, so dont sweat it.

Anyway, the CC pitch really is not that bad as far as aid in Yosemite goes. It basically starts out with something like 20' of 5.8 face climbing, or C1 if you aid it. Then it switches out to a mostly splitter crack that goes at 5.10d or C1. This continues for about 40' past the initial 20' of 5.8 After that you hit a lower out spot and you swing over right into the dihedral. This is when the C2 stuff starts. You aid up about 15' on C2 pin scars until you reach the first bolt. Then it is another 25' or so of the same stuff until you reach a splitter crack that is C1 for the remainder of the pitch. So in reality, you are only climbing about 40' of C2 on the pitch, and you have three bolts to clip along the way, so it is not that bad.

The Nose probably has the easiest aid of any wall on El Cap. Climb the route Sigmata at the Cookie Cliffs and climb the first pitch of the North American wall. P1 of the NA wall is about as difficult as the crux aid pitches of the Nose (again, assuming you dont try to bypass the mando free moves down low on the Nose.)

Although you need to have basic aid dialed, it is more important to work on speed. The Nose is one of the longest lines on El Cap and you need to be moving efficiently. The number one cause of failure on the Nose is a lack of efficiency. People move too slow, haul too much crap, and they just run out of time or supplies. Also, hauling on the Nose sucks, so you really do not want to bring more than five days of stuff or you are really going to kill time and energy in hauling for the first few days.