Conquering Yosemite's giants: the ascent of the Nose and the Zodiac on El Capitan

This autumn, together with Stan Filkor, Rob Vrlak, Mata Duda and Pete Minarik, we were on a month-long climbing trip in the mecca and birthplace of climbing, California's Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite is a place where adherents of perhaps all disciplines of rock climbing will find their place. From bouldering, sport rock climbing, traditional rock climbing, multi-length climbing of all kinds, hard bigwall hook climbing, to the pinnacle of the climbing art, free bigwall climbing. My climbing partner for the whole month was Robo Vrlak. The local style of climbing is quite specific and the classification of spars is very hard, for example, for comparison, several routes for 5.11a (6c) would be 7a/7a+ in Chamonix or the Tatras without a doubt and nobody would dare to say half a word against it.

I went to Yosemite with no specific goals, except maybe the legendary Nose to El Capitan. Wanting to climb El Capitan is great, but when you see the wall for the first time, you understand that it's not going to be easy. The Nose is the most popular route in the wall, but it's certainly not to be underestimated. The success rate of people finding the route for the first time is estimated at 50%. Since we wanted to reverse the odds in our favor as much as possible, we didn't hit El Cap right off the bat upon arrival, which would almost certainly have ended in a fiasco, but we did crawl for about 10 days in shorter one-day routes, which are also amazing in Yosemite and definitely shouldn't be overlooked. A big wall like El Capitan requires good control in addition to free climbing, and being efficient and fast at technical climbing, which we also tried to conscientiously practice before attempting. Last but not least, one needs to have optimized other techniques and tricks of bigwall climbing, from pulling a pig to building a portaledge to sucking in a bag.

All this preparation paid off, because when Rob and I got on, everything went perfectly and we worked like a well-run machine. The nose has a total of 30 lengths and 1000 meters. Unless you are directly trying to free climb, you need to prioritize efficiency of movement, not trying to onsight lengths that would cost you too much strength and time. We have generally free climbed up to 5.10a in the Nose and our free climbing classification is 5.10a, C2. "C2" means that it is relatively safe and straightforward hooking, without the need for hammering, mostly on friars and inclines, and in places on cam-hooks, which is a local specialty and is used in thin spars where hitting a clip would otherwise be necessary. We managed to climb the route with two bivouacs in the wall.

After Nose, we were busy again with one-day forays, whether on crags or multi-lengths and free climbing, but we still had the desire to return to some bigwall. I suggested the Zodiac route (5.8 C3f/A2) to Rob, to which he tentatively agreed, but after a while he was keen on it too. This is a 16 length, 600m high, extremely overhanging, pure hook climb. It is located in the right side of El Capitan. I've probably never climbed in more exposure, every length from start to finish is overhanging, the steepest one sagged to about 15 feet of rope. The technical climbing in the Zodiac is on a completely different level than in the Nose. There are several C3 lengths in the route, where you need to have a bit of chochmes and a feel for belaying. If you want to climb the route using as little hammering as possible, you won't miss the tidbits such as climbing hand-based ones, sections of skyhooks, camhooks, etc... We climbed the route the same way as Nose, with two bivouacs in the wall.

For the support, whether material or financial, I am grateful to SHS James, HK Manín, Nike Fund for the Future of Sport, Tendon and Mountain Equipment.