List of climbs that go all free on El Capitan

If defined as going from the base to the rim, include:

El Capitan Gully (FFA J.L. Stats, 4th class)

Salami Ledge (FFA Tucker Tech, et al. 5.10)

West Face (FFA Ray Jardine and Bill Price, 5.11c)

Great to see you contributing on here Ed!!!!

I'm surprised Excalibur hasn't seen more attempts lately.  Schneider got close in the 80s/90s IIRC

Tommy has the most free ascents of different routes but in terms of number of laps free Alex may have more with all the rehearsing he did for free rider. As the OP mentioned the bulk of the free routes especially the big ones were all either the Hubers or Tommy. I do think that it’s worth mentioning that all the hardest routes are Tommy’s and his have seen the least repeats as well. The Hubers routes are amazing but a lot of what they did was finding variations to find the easiest free route up the wall. Freerider is obviously a classic but it’s really just the Salathe with variations to avoid the 5.13 pitches. The Hubers are bad ass for sure but I feel like Tommy’s routes are a notch above in difficulty and vision. And he did all the hardest routes after he cut off his finger. F@ckin crazy! Side note no one I know who’s climbed a lot in the valley considers the west face a true el cap route. It’s not hard enough, long enough, or sustained enough. It’s only 14 pitches and 11c which is not that long by valley standards compared to free rider which is 12d and 32 pitches. Not really comparable in my opinion.

Dan Mydanswrote:

Tommy has the most free ascents of different routes but in terms of number of laps free Alex may have more with all the rehearsing he did for free rider. As the OP mentioned the bulk of the free routes especially the big ones were all either the Hubers or Tommy. I do think that it’s worth mentioning that all the hardest routes are Tommy’s and his have seen the least repeats as well. The Hubers routes are amazing but a lot of what they did was finding variations to find the easiest free route up the wall. Freerider is obviously a classic but it’s really just the Salathe with variations to avoid the 5.13 pitches. The Hubers are bad ass for sure but I feel like Tommy’s routes are a notch above in difficulty and vision. And he did all the hardest routes after he cut off his finger. F@ckin crazy! Side note no one I know who’s climbed a lot in the valley considers the west face a true el cap route. It’s not hard enough, long enough, or sustained enough. It’s only 14 pitches and 11c which is not that long by valley standards compared to free rider which is 12d and 32 pitches. Not really comparable in my opinion.

No one would deny Tommy's and Alex's achievement in El Cap free climbing. If anything, the Hubers (and the FFA of Salathe by Todd Skinner and Paul Piana) are severely underrated and undersold in the US. I've heard countless (granted non-Californian...) decent climbers saying Lynn Hill was the first one to free (a big route) El Cap, and they don't know who put up freerider, whereas every climbers in the US know Tommy and Alex. 

Stoked Weekend Warriorwrote:

No one would deny Tommy's and Alex's achievement in El Cap free climbing. If anything, the Hubers (and the FFA of Salathe by Todd Skinner and Paul Piana) are severely underrated and undersold in the US. I've heard countless (granted non-Californian...) decent climbers saying Lynn Hill was the first one to free (a big route) El Cap, and they don't know who put up freerider, whereas every climbers in the US know Tommy and Alex. 

I would definitely agree that Lynn is in a class by herself.  What she did blew the doors off the paradigm at the time.  I have always thought that Lynn is one of the few female athletes who was every bit as strong as the best of her generation regardless of gender. She gets mad respect!

Skinner and Piana's ascent of the Salathe was super cool and by the valley standards at the time counts. One of skinner and Piana's coolest contributions was just breaking the mental barrier to even try.  Given how well Mark Hudon and Max Jones did on the Salathe in the late 70's I have wondered if they had had a different mindset they could have potentially done free rider in the late 70's.  They were definitely talented enough to have gotten it done at the time.

Stoked Weekend Warriorwrote:

No one would deny Tommy's and Alex's achievement in El Cap free climbing. If anything, the Hubers (and the FFA of Salathe by Todd Skinner and Paul Piana) are severely underrated and undersold in the US. I've heard countless (granted non-Californian...) decent climbers saying Lynn Hill was the first one to free (a big route) El Cap, and they don't know who put up freerider, whereas every climbers in the US know Tommy and Alex. 

Not to mention the Hubers were visiting climbers on tourist visas. They got a lot of stuff done in short bursts of time, learning on the go. 

Ed Hartouniwrote:

If defined as going from the base to the rim, include:

El Capitan Gully (FFA J.L. Stats, 4th class)

Salami Ledge (FFA Tucker Tech, et al. 5.10)

West Face (FFA Ray Jardine and Bill Price, 5.11c)

A bit off topic, but does anyone have any beta on Salami Ledge? There’s a basic topo in the Reid guidebook but I haven’t been able to find anything else

Take a look in the Roper 1971 guide for a written description of the West Chimney and Salami Ledge. It lines up pretty well with the topo in Reid's... 

go up and have a great adventure! and then report back (with an improved topo!!)

Ah, so THAT’s the holdup :)

Ed Hartouniwrote:

Take a look in the Roper 1971 guide for a written description of the West Chimney and Salami Ledge. It lines up pretty well with the topo in Reid's... 

go up and have a great adventure! and then report back (with an improved topo!!)

Thanks Ed—will do!

Ed, Yes, the West Chimney is a fine adventure hike,.. you definitely do not want to tumble on a few sections. We love our lists and measurements,… however, the main thing ( IMO ) is the number of free climbs on the Capitan. It’s awesome ! 🤠 It’s grand to see. When, bolted lines come to the Capitan,.. 5.16, 5.17,.. exploits will come as well…. Happy Trails !

Eric Zschieschewrote:

Ed, Yes, the West Chimney is a fine adventure hike,.. you definitely do not want to tumble on a few sections. We love our lists and measurements,… however, the main thing ( IMO ) is the number of free climbs on the Capitan. It’s awesome ! 🤠 It’s grand to see. When, bolted lines come to the Capitan,.. 5.16, 5.17,.. exploits will come as well…. Happy Trails !

The bolted climbs part is really the key. Aid climbing shouldn't dictate the nature or amount of fixed pro on El Cap or anywhere else.

The 2017 archive.org version of my "Long, Hard and Free page" is missing the 2017 and later El Cap free climbs, but it does have the FFA dates and a lot of the repeat free ascents.  It also has details on the styles of the ascents.  And the non-El Cap long hard free climbs (defined as 10 or more pitches, 5.11 or harder).

Unfortunately the MP software keeps parsing the URL text incorrectly.

If you go to

https://archive.org/

and then search for this URL:

http://web.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/longhf.htm

and then choose the May 29, 2017 capture, you can view it.

To spare some of you from that effort, here is what this version has for El Cap FFAs, 10+ pitches, 5.11 or harder, and including some that were not 100% free:

West Face - 5.11b *** (20p: 4 5.11)   FFA - Ray Jardine, Bill Price, 5/79

Lurking Fear - 5.13c ** (18p: 9 5.12, 3 5.13)   FFA - Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden, 6/2000

West Buttress - 5.13c (20p: 3 5.13)   FFA - Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden Caldwell, 6/03

Dihedral Wall - 5.14a (25p:  5 5.12, 8 5.13, 1 5.14a)   FFA - Tommy Caldwell, 5/04

Excalibur - 5.13a A4 ** (28p: 5 5.11, 8 5.12, 1 5.13, 75% free)   75% FA - Steve Schneider, Bill Price, Jeff Schoen, 5/92

Heart Route - 5.13b V10 (34p: 5 5.12, 8 5.13)   FFA - Mason Earle (all), Brad Gobright (all but the V10 dyno), 6/2015

The Shaft (Muir/Shaft/Shield) - 5.13c ** (33p: 7 5.11, 14 5.12, 4 5.13)   FFA - Tommy Caldwell, Nick Sagar, 5/2001

preMuir (Muir/Shaft/Turning Point/Shield) - 5.13 ** (33?p: 7? 5.11, 12 5.12, 6 5.13)   FFA - Rob Miller, Justen Sjong, 5/07     

Magic Mushroom - 5.13d/5.14a (31p:  9 5.12, 10 5.13, 1 5.13d/5.14a)   FFA - Tommy Caldwell, Justen Sjong, 5/08     

Free Blast - 5.11b *** (10p: 2 5.11)   FFA - Jim Bridwell, John Long, Kevin Worrall, Mike Graham, John Bachar, and Ron Kauk, 5/75   

Salathe' Wall - 5.13b *** (35p: 7 5.11, 4 5.12, 4 5.13)   FFA - Todd Skinner, Paul Piana, 6/88       

Salathe' Wall / Freerider - 5.12d ** (37p: 8 5.11, 5 5.12)   FFA - Alex and Thomas Huber, 10/98     

Golden Gate = Salathe' Wall / Heart Route - 5.13b  (41p: 5 5.12, 3 5.13)   FFA - Alex and Thomas Huber, 10/00     

El Corazon = Free Blast(Salathe') / Flight of the Albatross / Son of Heart / Heart Route - 5.13b  (35p: 5 5.12, 5 5.13)   FFA - Alex Huber, 10/01

The Nose - 5.13c/5.14b *** (34p: 6 5.11, 4 5.12, 1 5.13, 1 5.13/5.14)   FFA - Lynn Hill 9/93     

Free Dawn - 5.14d (30-31p: 8 5.12, 10 5.13, 7-8 5.14)   FFA - Tommy Caldwell, Kevin Jorgeson, 1/2015       

El Nino - 5.13c A0 ** (30p: 5 5.11, 7 5.12, 6 5.13, 1 25' rappel, 99% free)   FFA - Alex and Thomas Huber, 9/98       

New Jersey Turnpike - 5.13? A0?   80% FA - Leo Houlding, Ivo Ninov, Tim Emmy, 2003   

Zodiac - 5.13d (21p: 6 5.12, 6 5.13)   FFA - Alex and Thomas Huber, 10/03     

The Prophet - 5.13? (13p: ? 5.13)   FA/FFA - Leo Houlding, Jason Pickles, 10/10     

The Secret Passage - 5.13c R (15p: 5 5.13, 4 5.12)   FA/FFA - Nicolas Favresse, Seán Villanueva, 10/08   

Lost in Translation - 5.12b/c (10p: 2 5.12)   FA - Nicolas Favresse, Ivo Ninov, 9/06   

Eric Craig wrote:

Ban the bolt.

Or: Maybe Yosemite should be opened to rock crawling jeeps and dirt bikes? At some point there is no difference. 

At least snowmobiles travel on an annually renewable resource. 

If you can climb UP to it free, chop it, and continue up free, then by all means, go ahead.

and your example is bs. One of these things you can barely see from 50', the other is easily visible via satellite. You may as well say ban hiking, as that has much more visible impact

John Clarkwrote:

If you can climb UP to it free, chop it, and continue up free, then by all means, go ahead.

and your example is bs. One of these things you can barely see from 50', the other is easily visible via satellite. You may as well say ban hiking, as that has much more visible impact

What if the bolt in question was placed using aid? Or the holds for free climbing were manufactured by aid placements? Maybe, at least on El Cap, all routes should be ground up with all fixed pro placed on lead. This would ensure at least one wall exists for truly pushing the limits of climbing. The rash act of simple minded rap bolting is just the actions of self limited climbers who lack long term vision. 

And yeah, comparing jeeps and dirt bikes to bolts and pitons is pretty silly. 

John Clarkwrote:

If you can climb UP to it free, chop it, and continue up free, then by all means, go ahead.

and your example is bs. One of these things you can barely see from 50', the other is easily visible via satellite. You may as well say ban hiking, as that has much more visible impact

You are completely missing the point. Adding more bolts is exactly like getting behind the wheel of a more capable 4 wheel drive. In multiple  ways.  But I am not going to explain.  If you are really curious, you are probably smart enough to figure it out. It should be serious food for thought by all, especially right before drilling the next hole.

When you can explain my point,  then call bull shit. Otherwise it just shows an extremely narrow point of view.

I apologize for the thread drift.

Eric, you are going to need to explain that to me. How is bolting, even if done every 3’ up the whole cliff, more impactful than a hiking trail? Assuming done by hand. Powered drills/vehicles i agree should stay out of parks.

Total aside. What route is Sasha D climbing right now?

Eric Craig wrote:

Ban the bolt.

Or: Maybe Yosemite should be opened to rock crawling jeeps and dirt bikes? At some point there is no difference. 

At least snowmobiles travel on an annually renewable resource. 

John Clarkwrote:

Eric, you are going to need to explain that to me. How is bolting, even if done every 3’ up the whole cliff, more impactful than a hiking trail? Assuming done by hand. Powered drills/vehicles i agree should stay out of parks.

Total aside. What route is Sasha D climbing right now?

It’s not more impactful than a trail. If a bolt ladder with 3’ spacing is constructed, should via ferrata rungs be added for comfort? Assuming the line isn’t free climbable?