The Nose in a Day

Nose veterans, what advice do you have on how to successfully climb the Nose in a day?

Be able to fully ramble 5.10c. A 150 foot 5.10c pitch with four pieces of pro should be no big deal. It should take you no more than 10 minutes to lead.

Lead in blocks.

Short fix where you are comfortable and try to accurately estimate how far you can get before your partner gets to the belay.

Keep moving.  Shaving two minutes off each belay saves an hour.  Plan with your partner to have organized gear swaps.  Carry some food in your pocket and water on your harness.

Tie bungees on the aiders for the follower so they can jug fast.  Or use adjustable aiders for the follower.

Make a plan for the pendulums.  Having a clean strategy can save another hour or more.

Be prepared to smoothly pass other parties.

Have fun, look around every now and then, and don't try to go fast at the expense of security.  You can do a comfortably sub-24hr Nose ascent without running a PDL, trimming the rack to nothing, or forcing huge runouts.  

Enjoy!  Let us know how it goes!

Mark Hudon wrote: Be able to fully ramble 5.10c. A 150 foot 5.10c pitch with four pieces of pro should be no big deal. It should take you no more than 10 minutes to lead.

Mark, I respect your vast wall experience, but feel that placing 4 pieces in a 150 foot lead in 5.10 terrain isn't necessary for a NIAD.  It may be if you are shooting for sub 12 hours, but even a party quickly aiding or French freeing 10c pitches can do the Nose in under 24 hours.

Philip,
You’re totally right. A NIAD is obviously the climb in less than 24 hours but I always think of it as far less than that.
Really, do it as fast as you can but don’t get fucking hurt!

On-sighting NIAD is a lot harder if you don't have experience doing it in a multi-day already or plenty of other long routes in the Valley in a day (SS, SFWC/Prow ie Grave V aid wall, Rostrum, Astroman, DNB, NEB etc). If any of those seem too much you **probably** aren't ready.

Mark Hudon wrote: Be able to fully ramble 5.10c. A 150 foot 5.10c pitch with four pieces of pro should be no big deal. It should take you no more than 10 minutes to lead.

If this is your skill level, then you will probably do the nose in 6-12hrs... 

Yeah, I led the whole route in 15.5 hours a few years ago. My partner was slow and cost me at least a couple of hours. 

I’m not a Nose veteran, but I did recently climb the nose in 22 hours with my wife. It was really hard and really rad.
A few pieces of advice off that top of my head:
- small totem cams were awesome
- salt tablets saved me from dehydration cramps
- we used a 20 meter piece of 4 mm cord to tag gear up to the leader. (We short fixed most pitches so we rarely met at the belays.)
- jugging wasn’t really a rest. It was critical to be efficient and keep the leader moving.
- lead in blocks (as the better free climber, my wife led most of the first half. As the faster aid climber I led most of the second half.)

We are confident on 10c but not to the degree mark described. We’d both place more gear. For a 20-something hour ascent run outs aren’t really required IMO. Again, not a veteran. Just a normal dude who worked hard and pullled off NiAD.

You know, I’m totally rethinking my approach with the recent accidents in mind. 20 hours and safe climbing, no PDL, no huge runouts and living to tell the tale is now my recommended goal. 

Mark Hudon wrote: You know, I’m totally rethinking my approach with the recent accidents in mind. 20 hours and safe climbing, no PDL, no huge runouts and living to tell the tale is now my recommended goal. 

I really appreciate this, Mark.  I don't want anyone telling me how to climb, and accordingly won't judge anyone else for for the risks they choose to accept, but I am personally pretty uncomfortable with the recent glorification of speed climbing.  I love to climb smoothly and quickly, but I would sleep better knowing that my friends and acquaintances are taking a few extra seconds/minutes/hours and hopefully earning in return a greater chance of coming home whole, or at all.

I qualify as I climbed the NIAD in 1984 (9.5 hours) and in 2014 (23 hours). Simple arithmetic tells you I must be a veteran!  

Here’s my 2p on preparation and strategy.  

Firstly, get efficient: be really slick at hand-overs, French-freeing, and transitioning between free and aid. Practice short-fixing to see how you feel about this strategy. The biggest time gains for most will be in these areas. You don’t need to climb quickly but it is important to not waste too much time. Climb many valley IVs and Vs. By 1984, I’d spent 9 months climbing in Yosemite, done most of the classics, and was pretty familiar with the style.

Do not underestimate the physical demands. Good conditioning and aerobic fitness are important. In 1984, I worked in construction and binge free-soloed. In 2014, I lifted weights and did 100s of laps on the auto-belay. Both worked.

Obviously you have to be solid on cracks of all sizes. A good standard to aim for is cruising 5.11 cracks (gear every 15-20’ ;) ) and, more importantly, be able to climb 5.10 efficiently after 25 pitches. Assuming you have all your other systems dialed, this sets you up for a potential ~12 hour ascent.

12-15 hours could be a sweet-spot regarding risk-taking. 15 hours could mean most of the climbing is done in the light. I run out of gas after about 15 hours on the go and the fatigue makes me more prone to mistakes. I recommend trying to avoid climbing the final pitches and descending on the dark when you’re knackered. In 1984 we simul-climbed 5.10c, in 2014 I aided 10c. Objectively, 1984 was riskier but was it more dangerous? In 1984 we topped-out at 2.30pm and were back in Camp 4 by 4pm, still feeling fresh. In 2014 I was still climbing at midnight after a 2am start. We were beat. Errors were starting to creep in and we bivied on the summit, too exhausted to descend safely. Going very fast will compromise safety but taking too long might do too.  

I wrote down some more ideas and go into more detail about tactics here.

Best two days of my climbing life.

Whats up Daniel! Let me know when you and Greg head up so I can join and make it a party of 3!

I have not done a NIAD. But from what I saw while climbing the Nose, it would be a really good idea to do a demo run up the first 12 pitches (El Cap Tower) and leave some water for yourself somewhere along the way, write your name date and NIAD on it so no one thinks it is abandoned.

It's a good test run of what you'll be doing, with an easy rap back down. 

Simon Bratt wrote: Whats up Daniel! Let me know when you and Greg head up so I can join and make it a party of 3!

No Simon!! I don’t climb in parties of 3!

Ryan Hamilton wrote: I have not done a NIAD. But from what I saw while climbing the Nose, it would be a really good idea to do a demo run up the first 12 pitches (El Cap Tower) and leave some water for yourself somewhere along the way, write your name date and NIAD on it so no one thinks it is abandoned.

It's a good test run of what you'll be doing, with an easy rap back down. 

I know people run up to dolt or el cal tower to prepare and that makes sense but I have no idea why I didn’t think to leave water up there on a practice run! That’s genius 

This page has some pretty killer beta on the NIAD:

http://alpineteam.co.nz/2017/el-capitan-nose-day-beta 

The "stiffie" (Kong panic) draw and Link cams seem like a good idea.

Also, the Sloan NIAD beta suggests "Green Gummies" around pitch 25. That is an increasingly common ultra-marathoner tactic.

https://store.yosemitebigwall.com/climb-nose-el-capitan-day-niad/

Cheers from Osaka,

john 

Matt Desenberg wrote: Seems like most people just bring a tag cord on an actual NIAD vs practice; other than weight, why not bring another rope, assuming you are prepping with a dolt run(s). You still need two ropes to rap the route after reaching Dolt, etc.

It would seem if you have already practiced managing two lines (not rocket science, but...) out of necessity to descend from Dolt, you’d want to keep that system. You’d need to tag gear anyway on a full NIAD and having two lined would be insurance in case things go south. Bring committed up there with one rope gives me the willies, but I’m a wuss anyway...

Also, is a Dolt run considered 25% of the total time edtimate?

We had a second rope (60 m pull line) when we did our dolt run. Managing that thing SUCKED! The wind was blowing it all the way to the Dawn wall. And we didn’t have room to put it in the backpack. For us, committing to the top was the better way to go for the actual ascent but YMMV. 

Just do a Dolt run and you'll know if you have it or not. It's easier than you think you just need to be in good shape. I pull on gear through most 5.10 moves and have done it in 12 hrs.