How many people get up El Cap on their first attempt?

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thekidcormier

Gym climber

squamish, b.c.

Nov 17, 2012 - 11:30am PT

Hoping to succeed on my second go.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Nov 17, 2012 - 11:40am PT

Got up the Nose, leading half the pitches, in 1981, a year after my first lead. Pretty big adventure for me. Did the 4th solo of Zodiac the next year.

but bailed on El Cap a fair amount during the past 15 years as I started taking folks up it more regularly. People get gripped after their first night on the wall and the idea of conquering El Cap seems less important than stopping the fear and loathing

Peace

Karl

Gus

Trad climber

Venice, Cali

Nov 17, 2012 - 12:18pm PT

3 and 3

Double D

climber

Nov 17, 2012 - 01:58pm PT

1975 or 6, with Bill Price and Kurt Rieder, bailed after a Stove Legs bivy. Shortly afterwards Bill and Kurt became the youngest team to do it back then.

Seriously, this thread needs a few more photos...

bob

climber

Nov 17, 2012 - 02:00pm PT

April 1st 2001 Nose in 22 hrs. Only a few times have I been more exhausted.

It was my first climb for 3 months since crushing my head skateboarding and earning a flight to Phoenix for a bit of dealing.

I had high expectations and wore Boreal Stingers. Oh they STUNG for sure. I did a fraction of the predicted free climbing and lost 6 toenails with my enthusiastic approach to the route.

Hey, it was still sub 24...........

Bob Jensen

GoMZ

Trad climber

Eastern Sierra

Nov 17, 2012 - 02:15pm PT

Zodiac, first try.
Then got shut down twice, both due to weather.
Been 4 for 4 since then though.
Bailed on a few grade Vs before trying the captain though:)

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Nov 17, 2012 - 02:32pm PT

I'm on my best streak ever right now, eight ascents with no failures.

Mark, just wondering why you don't consider this a "failure?" Not an attempt at flaming just wondering. Or have you done 8 El Cap routes since?

Disclaimer: I've never done a big wall and I suck. Just curious as to what defines success and failure on a big wall.

http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Iron-Hawk-Solo/t11586n.html

EDIT: BTW, this is one of my favorite TR's ever and have shared it with many people. Very inspiring.

I don't know what to call this one, to tell you the truth.

I certainly didn't climb those last two pitches, but I certainly did climb everything below them. I guess I consider it both a failure and a success for reasons that I can't really articulate.

In black and white, sure, I had to get rescued, but in shades of gray, there are tons of successful ascents by people who jugged other people's ropes and didn't climb the first few pitches.

I'm sure as hell not going back and climbing the whole route and those last two just to count it as a route! Ha! I'll get up them one way or another, Cheyne and I are planning on climbing the AO this spring...

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Nov 17, 2012 - 02:45pm PT

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, "Success" on El Cap, including the mystery of why it's so addictive, why it's so spiritual, why my ascents and partners are so important to me, transcends "Success" or "Failure".

Sure, you do your part to contribute to the ascent, you climb all the pitches, you get to the top, black or white, Success. If you don't, Failure.

Sure, so put my Iron Hawk ascent into the public Failure column. But for me, the twelve days up there, everything that happened, everything that happened to me emotionally, Cheyne rapping down that rope to me, me crying, dang, I can't call that a Failure. Something spiritual happened, something changed me, and it happened over twelve days on El Cap.

Black and White, yes, a Failure, but Dang! I moved, I changed, had a significant life experience, I can't call that a Failure.

Cole

Trad climber

los angeles

Nov 17, 2012 - 04:19pm PT

Well said Mark! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and bravo on all your ascents.

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Nov 17, 2012 - 04:42pm PT

It was a big success from "I kicked my ass to the limit" point. And it is a true success. Only a few get to do that to themselves. When I do a climb that is big and scary from me and end up surprising myself and getting it without a problem I actually get kind of sad. Should have picked something harder.
One of the tough things I have 'failed' on, rank as my favorite trips ever though. Climbing is personal and it is good to know what a personal success vs a failure is.

Lambone

Big Wall climber

Ashland, Or

Nov 17, 2012 - 04:48pm PT

I had Cheyne put my rope up on one pitch for me on my Shortest Straw solo. Do I consider the ascent a failure? Nope. I sacrificed half a day so they could pass me without hassle. In return they fixed my rope on one of the easiest pitches of the route. Big deal...

Cheyne should start a business, call it the "Rope Fixin Hotline" or somethin!

jurach

Big Wall climber

sacramento, ca

Nov 17, 2012 - 05:50pm PT

Nose, first try. Zodiac, first try. Shield, first try. Salathe, well, still working on that one.

Don Paul

Big Wall climber

Colombia, South America

Nov 17, 2012 - 06:38pm PT

Mark gets credit for the pinkpoint, anyway. Heck, this is just a game and everyone seems to play by different rules. I would have considered it a great acomplishment, and leave it to others to decide if I got the route clean, etc. If you're not climbing at the level where you fail sometimes, then you're not challenging yourself. Nothing to be ashamed of.

In the "Portrait of the American Climber" trailer, they say Jim Erickson slipped one time on his attempt to free the RNWF of half dome, and considered it a failure. I guess it was, then. It's up to him what he was trying to do.

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Nov 18, 2012 - 12:20am PT

Hey Mark Hugedong,

Why don't you just tell it like it is? You have climbed 7 and 24/26ths El Cap routes without bailing!

{wink}

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Nov 18, 2012 - 01:36am PT

Ha, yeah, there ya go!

Cheche

Big Wall climber

Mexico

Nov 18, 2012 - 01:55am PT

Triple direct ,1 of june 1973.
First attempt.
Mexican expedition

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Nov 18, 2012 - 03:15am PT

One hundred eighty-five posts.

I give you George Whitmore, who, I believe, only took part in the very last "send" (for lack of a better term) of the FA of the Nose.

This would entitle him to the faint praise of the first of you all.

Please, Fossil Climber, Steve, Clint, Ed, any or all, correct me if I err.

Otherwise, would it be "the man," Joe Fitschen?

It's late, and I really don't feel like checking this out for myself.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 3, 2015 - 06:31pm PT

I climbed the Tangerine Trip with Mason Frichette (from Boulder then and up this way now) first time around in 77.

George Whitmore has a much fatter climbing resume than most with many trips into the mountains so he was an equal partner on the Nose team.

He certainly did his share of work in the upper dihedral and spent some time really scoping out the line with a telescope from the south side of the Valley. My favorite Whitmore story came when I met him to have him sign a bunch of Clay Wadman's El Cap wall maps. As he traced the original line upwards he stopped at Camp Six, looked me in the eye and said very firmly "this used to be called Whitmore Tower, you know". George had seen it with his telescope and knew that a good ledge might be there so at the end of the day when Warren was setting up a belay well short of it he urged him to keep going. Warren easily managed the remainder of the lead and was so delighted with George's discovery that he yelled down "We ought to call it Whitmore Tower." It has been Whitmore Tower for me ever since.
They split a half bottle of port to celebrate that evening according to Roper.