New Dawn

On November 21, 2016, after an eight-day push, 23-year-old Czech climber Adam Ondra topped out the 32-pitch Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d) on Yosemite’s El Capitan, a line many consider the hardest free big wall on the planet. With eight pitches of 5.14 and 12 pitches of 5.13, the route garnered mainstream-media attention in January 2015 when Tommy Caldwell, who had put seven years of work into exploring and freeing the route, and Kevin Jorgeson nabbed the first free ascent after 19 days on the wall. Ondra, who had never been to the Valley, trad climbed, or been on a big wall before, nabbed the second ascent, thanks in part to his support team of Pavel Blazek and Heinz Zak.

Although Ondra has ticked some of the planet’s hardest sport climbs and boulder problems, critics assumed the experience-driven discipline of big wall free climbing would shut him down. Despite success that seemingly came easy, conditions, skin, and the route’s pure technical difficulty posed challenges along the way. Caldwell, Jorgeson, and Ondra spoke to us about the nuts, bolts, and near-invisible micro-crimps of this historic ascent.

- James Lucas

THE EL CAP EXPLOSION

MANY HARD SENDS WENT DOWN ON THE BIG STONE THIS FALL

“W e just entered the gold rush,” Tommy Caldwell says of the numerous free-climbing achievements on El Cap in fall 2016. Austrian Jorg Verhoeven made the second ascent of Dihedral Wall (VI 5.14a); Austrians Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher made the third ascent of Zodiac (VI 5.13d); and England’s Pete Whittaker rope-soloed Freerider (VI 5.12d) in a day.

Not all the free activity on El Cap this year was limited to repeats, however, with Rob Miller working on a free line through Grape Race, and Nik Berry and Mason Earle freeing the majority of Never Never Land on the west side. “In terms of free climbing, I would expect [many] more free climbs to be found,” Ondra says. “And possibly lines that would be even harder than Dawn Wall. It depends if somebody will be willing to put the same effort as Tommy into one line with insecure results.”

But Caldwell, who has five first free ascents on the granite monolith and has freed the formation 20 times, doesn’t think anyone will come close to Ondra’s feat. “Adam is a bit of an outlier,” Caldwell says. “El Cap free climbing is going to steadily gain popularity with or without his climb. I doubt that the Dawn Wall will see many, if any, ascents in the coming years.”

GRANITE GUMBY

NEW TO YOSEMITE CLIMBING, ONDRA EXPERI ENCED A STEEP LEARNING CURVE