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By 2009, Smith-Gobat was climbing in Yosemite and interested in taking on big-wall challenges. The Salathé Wall is a classic route up El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. At approximately 3500 ft and 35-pitches, it is also one of the longest routes, known for its difficult, off-width crack sections.
El Capitan is composed almost entirely of a pale, coarse-grained granite approximately 100 MYA (million years old). In addition to El Capitan, this granite forms most of the rock features of the western portions of Yosemite Valley. A separate intrusion of igneous rock, the Taft Granite, forms the uppermost portions of the cliff face.
Ammon McNeely (June 3, 1970 – February 18, 2023) was an American rock climber who specialized in big wall climbing and aid climbing, and who set many speed climbing records and made the first "one-day ascent" for many climbing routes on El Capitan in Yosemite. His other interests included BASE jumping and wingsuiting.
El Capitan has two main faces, the Southwest (on the left when looking directly at the wall) and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a massive prow . While today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose , which follows the massive prow.
Competition speed climbing, which takes place on an artificial and standardized climbing wall, is the main form of speed climbing. However, there are types of speed climbing that take place outdoors, such as climbing famous big wall climbing routes in the shortest times, notable examples being on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
The Nose (870-metres, 31-pitches) – El Capitan, Yosemite (USA) – 1993 – Second multi-pitch at 5.14a (8b+), [193] by Lynn Hill (partnered by Brooke Sandahl); the big-wall free climb is considered as one of the most important ascents in rock climbing history, and also a major milestone in female rock climbing; in 1994, Hill repeated it in ...
[7] [16] During this era, new milestones were also set in big-wall free solo climbing by Alexander Huber, with Brandler-Hasse Direttissima on the Cima Grande in 2012 at 7a+ (5.12a), by Hansjörg Auer, with Fish Route on the Marmolada in 2007 at 7b+ (5.12c), and by Alex Honnold with Freerider on El Capitan in 2017 at 7c+ (5.13a). [16]
Climbers will often differentiate climbing routes by the general types of challenges they present. Four of the main types of rock-climbing challenges are: [6] Crack climbing, are routes following a system of crack(s) that the climber uses to ascend the route; the width of the crack dictates the techniques needed, and crack-climbs are further differentiated by the body parts that can be 'jammed ...