El Niño

An interesting fact is that the order three of the earliest routes climbed on El Cap and the order that those three became the first three free routes on the captain roughly line up, the first being The Nose (1958 and 1993), second being the Salathe (1961 and 1988), and third being the North America Wall and its free variation, El Nino (1964 and 1998).  While The Nose and Salathe follow beautiful splitter crack systems on the bullet rock of the southwest face, the North America Wall and El Nino were each bold adventures into the unknown of the dark, chossy, and wildly steep diorite of the southeast face that were visionary in their respective times.  The climbing tends to have an adventurous feel, with many airy runouts on wandery but high quality face climbing, some pockets of munge and choss, breathtaking exposure, and far fewer people than the now ever popular southwest face.  It seems likely that this is the most epic free climbing adventure to be had on the big stone!

P1 (5.6, 50m) Corner on the right side of The Footstool, which has a luxurious ledge on top
P2 (short 5.9, 10m) Up and left to a small ledge

The first three crux pitches:
P3 The Black Dike (5.13a, 30m) Follow a small left facing corner protected by pins and small cams to the first of 6 bolts and gain the diagonal dike. Techy boulder problems between the spaced bolts with one diffinitive crux and an airy fall if you pop the tiny feet getting to bolt 4. "Tech tech slab slab" in the words of Honnold
P4 The Missing Link (5.13a, 20m) A V6ish boulder problem right off the belay leads to a huge runout up and left, then a rising traverse back right on super cool knobs. 3 bolts
P5 Galapagos (5.13b, 40m) Head up and right through some long runouts to more consistently spaced bolts. A sporty pitch with several well protected cruxes and airy, pumpy 5.12 getting between them. 6 bolts, a piton at the end, and a black totem for the long runout. Video of Honnold on this pitch here: youtu.be/jOFMp4mRsIU

P6 (5.11a, 15m) A short pitch straight up to a great stance. Can be very grassy
P7 Legitimately Exciting (5.11d R, 55m) We are fairly sure that Alex Honbold himself referred to this pitch as "Legitimately exciting" and have taken to calling it as such. Follow the right facing corner for an eternity, starting off with micro cams and ledge fall potential, a tricky move best protected with a hand placed beak, the slick crux protected by a flaring blue totem, and slowly easing terrain to a ledge with high bolts
P8 (5.9, 20m) Blocky terrain heads up and left to Calaveras Ledges

Move up and left to the opposite end of Calaveras Ledges. This is a great ledgeless bivy.

P9 (5.11c, 30m) Right facing corners lead to an awkward stance
P10 (5.10c, 45m) More right facing corner with cool moves to a 5.7 chimney ending at Big Sur ledge

Big Sur makes a great portaledge bivy and is a good basecamp for the route if your tactics involve prehauling like ours did. Our personal recomendation after weathering multiple storms and spending way too much time here in the portaledge is that you only climb walls in a push. 40 gu packets and a liter of water run the pdl and really go for it. Sonnie, Brad and Honnold all know whats up.

The next three pitches make up the Pineapple Express variation put up by Sonnie Trotter with help from Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell, which allows the route to go all free. We did these pitches so I will describe them here. The Huber's route following the original aid line looks like higher quality rock, but is blocked by one blank slab of granite that they sort of freed with the so called Man-Powered Rappel, where Alex rapped off of Thomas' harness while he held onto a jug with a bolt backing him up. Avoiding the shenanagins that boil down to a point of aid intrigued us and we found the quality of the movement on Pineapple Express to be amazing in its own right despite some chossyness. Follow your heart.

P11 La Nina (5.13b/c, 45m) Head up to the left leaning ramp above Big Sur. Follow the bolt protected thinning black flake to its top, probably 13a on its own. Milk the rest while staring the crux in the face. A crimpy V7 to a good sidepull is followed by a funky V5 move then chossy 12a out right to the shallow corner. Some thin gear and holds around the arete get you past an intermediate anchor to a knifeblade. Clip it and do a few final 11+ moves left to the anchor. A slightly chossy but overall fantastic pitch. 8 bolts. Video of me on this pitch here: youtu.be/n-d9CSGvApo
P12 The Muffintop (5.12b, 20m) Downclimb left and either dyno to the "perfect muffintop sloper" from a sidepull or climb further down and around on loose flakes to pop straight up to the muffintop. Head left to the thin golden corner and up to a sloping slance. 5 bolts and a finger sized cam for the end
P13 Self Rescue Corner (5.12b, 15m) Traverse left with sparse gear off the belay to gain the dirty left facing corner. 3 bolts and gear get you up to a hanging belay in the Black Dihedral, merging back with the original route.

P14 The Black Dihedral (5.12c, 40m) This pitch is awesome in an adventurous way. Head up the wild chimney then follow the right facing corner with pumpy 12a layback moves. As the corner pinches down clip a bolt to protect a steep face move around the arete. Get it all back at a no hands stance and optional belay before mustering some granite trickery on tiny crimps and foot chips to head straight right. Awkward 11a leads past several more bolts to the Rotten Island, a tiny stance surrounded by chossy flakes. 7 bolts, double rack from .2 to 3
P15 The Black Cave (5.13b, 25m) This pitch is totally bonkers! Three spaced bolts and hard face moves lead to the base of the roof, with fixed pins and cams from .3 to 1 protecting wild 3 dimensional climbing mostly on jugs, culminating with a radical V5 boulder along a dike to the belay around the lip
P16 (11a, 20m) Straight left off the belay for 20 feet, up 10 feet, back right 20 feet, then up to the first nice ledge since Big Sur.
P17 Slalom (5.12c, 35m) Not a single bad move on this one! Reach out right to clip the first bolt, climb 15 feet down to a balancy traverse right, climb up to the next bolt, and head up and right to the roof on vertical crimps and pockets. Plug a cam or two then pull wild moves around the roof on jugs. Clip one more bolt and head out right, then up to big ledges beneath the Cyclops Eye. 4 bolts total

Cyclops Eye is the second good ledgeless bivy on the route.

P18 (5.11a, 15m) Start off the right side of the ledges. Up and right past a short crux then straight up to a great stance.
P19 (5.12c, 30m) Yet another high quality 5.12 pitch. Consistent 11+ climbing with spaced bolts brings you up and then right to a stance. Perform a downwards mantle, then campus right on slopers before stabing a foot out to some edges. 4 bolts. Clipping the pin after the bolt at the crux would make your follower a lot happier. Follow the corner up to a slopey stance under the roof with various options from .2 to 3 for a gear belay.
P20 The Dolphin Chimney (5.12b, 20m) As if there weren't already enough mind bending pitches on the route. Posters of one of the Hubers on this pitch once appeared in climbing gyms and awed and inspired many a climber. Head left to the hanging chimney to scooch, stem, and finally hand jam your way to glory while trying not to think about dropping straight to the bottom of El Cap through the bomb bay doors. Two bolts protect some sporty 12a face climbing back right around the arete to a decent stance. Single rack of cams protects the chimney

P21 (5.12a) Clip one bolt and head straight up on steep juggy climbing. If finishing with Lucy is a Labrador, break left from the shallow corner to a huge, thin flake and head up past two rivets to an anchor at a narrow ledge. Continue straight up towards two bolts into Eismeer if you go for that option.

P22 Eismeer/Lucy is a Labrador (5.13a) There are two options here. The original Eismeer pitch followed face climbing straight upwards to easier terrain. It has reportedly broken and now involves a heinous, sharp boulder crux of unknown difficulty. To the left lies the Lucy is a Labrador pitch, which comes down to a steep compressiony boulder problem that is often wet but is well protected for the leader and follower by two high bolts. Venture way out left on exposed, juggy 5.7 to a some 5.11 face moves to a spacious stance

In either case, once you get through one of these options there is just several hundred feet of rambly 5.9 climbing between you and the summit! Try not to get lost, and congrats!

Top o the footstool, down under the big dark blob that kinda looks like a distorted map of north america if you really use your imagination

Diverse collection of tiny cams and nuts, totems, doubles to #3, lots of quickdraws and alpines