The nose

The route "The Nose" runs roughly on the border of light and shadow

Climbers at a stand

The Nose is a 1000 meter long climbing route on El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley in California (USA). The route was originally rated VI, 5.10 / A3 . Later it was climbed “clean” with wedges and mobile clamping devices without the use of rock hooks , but was still rated “VI 5.11 / A3”. The "VI" corresponds to an alpine multi-day tour in the Yosemite Decimal System . Without the use of artificial aids, i.e. in free climbing , the difficulty is “5.13b”. The route is still one of the most popular rock climbing routes in the USA. The possible bivouacs are referred to as "camp" based on high alpine routes. The climbing campsite in Yosemitetal was named after the fourth bivouac site "Camp IV", a striking platform under a large roof. About halfway up the route is the "El Cap Tower"; this is a rock pillar protruding slightly from the wall, the summit plateau of which can be used for bivouacking.

history

Warren Harding and his then climbing partner Mark Powell had to admit defeat by Royal Robbins on the first ascent of the north-west face of Half Dome . Now they were looking for a comparably outstanding target.

In July 1957, they decided to tackle the route along a prominent ridge ( The Nose ), which gave the route its name. Since their attempts attracted large crowds, the Park Service once prohibited further climbing and ordered that such ascents should only take place out of season. On November 12, 1958, Harding finally managed the first ascent with Wayne Merry , George Whitmore and Rich Calderwood in 47 days with several attempts. Royal Robbins did the first repeat in just 7 days in 1960 with Joe Flitchen , Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost .

When free climbing developed in the late 1970s, El Capitan initially presented an unsolvable challenge. Ray Jardine climbed the easier west flank in 1979; but it wasn't until 1988 that Todd Skinner and Paul Piana were able to freely climb the south face for the first time . In the even more demanding The Nose , two sections were not considered free to climb at that time.

In 1993, Lynn Hill , accompanied by her partner Brooke Sandahl , was able to freely climb the route on El Capitan. A year later she even surpassed this achievement when she was the first to conquer the entire route in a single day. Lynn Hills' initial rating for the Free Nose was 5.13b. The free ascent of the Nose remained for five years after Lynn Hills unrepeated first ascent - despite numerous attempts by some of the best big wall -Kletterer the world. For this reason, some climbers suggested increasing the difficulty level for this route to at least 5.14a, making the two free ascents of the nose one of the most impressive achievements in climbing history. In 1998 Scott Burke made the second free ascent. On October 14, 2005, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden managed to clear the nose as well, and on October 16, 2005, Caldwell climbed the route in less than twelve hours.

Also speed Climber discovered The Nose . Yūji Hirayama , together with Hans Florine , needed the time of 2:48:55 to climb the wall in 2002. An attempt by the “ Huber boys ”, Alexander Huber and Thomas Huber , to improve this record is the subject of the award-winning documentary Am Limit by director Pepe Danquart from 2006/2007. The Huber boys only improved the record on October 4, 2007 by 15 seconds. Four days later, they corrected it to 2:45:45. On July 2, 2008, this record was undercut by Hans Florine and Yūji Hirayama with 2:43:33 and improved on October 12, 2008 to 2:37:05. This record was improved on November 6, 2010 by Sean Leary and Dean Potter with a time of 2:36:45. On June 17, 2012, the record was broken again, Alex Honnold and Hans Florine climbed the route in 2:23:46. It took until October 23, 2017 for the record to be broken again: Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds climbed the route in 2:19:44. In 2018, Alex Honnold and his climbing partner Tommy Caldwell were the first to climb the route in under 2 hours. In a series of ascents within a few days, they continued to improve the record (May 30: 2:10:51, June 4: 2:01:50) and finally achieved a time of 1:58:07 on June 6 .