Five years ago my brother George and I got the idea to try to onsight the Nose in a day due to an accident. Originally we were planning to climb the Nose as our first El Cap route, but the day before our scheduled departure date I tore some ligaments in the gym during one last finger crack workout and ended my season. By the time I was healed, and partly because we had never bivied on a wall up to that point, we had hatched the plan to hold off on climbing the Nose until we could do it in a day.
Years passed by quickly as we gained experience climbing other routes, but we didn’t pick a specific target date and never felt quite ready for the climb. A June 2008 ascent of the Salathe was eye-opening in that the magnitude of El Capitan was in a completely different league than any other Valley formation we’d climbed, and further postponed any plans to try the NIADO.
This year we finally had enough time and motivation to set a definitive goal. We began training in earnest in early June for a mid-September attempt. Our schedule was somewhat haphazard, basically just doing a lot of stairmaster during the week and going to Yosemite on weekends to climb long routes and practice aiding and short fixing. We had an awesome summer, doing classic routes including the Zodiac, East Face of Washington Column, SW Face of Liberty Cap, RNWF HD, Southern Man, and SFWC.
Finally, we felt ready to go for it on Sept 20th. This video is a summary of our climb. As usual, it has mostly the fun (read: early, sunny) parts of the day overrepresented and doesn't show very well just how worked each of us was at different points in the night. Suffice it to say it was both the hardest and most rewarding day of climbing I've ever had.
Well done guys! Nice photo and video compilation too with Tom's images from the bridge. Good thing you dressed up bright for him! My partner and I did the same thing a little over a year ago and the NIAD OS was our first ever route on the Capitan. Watching you top out in the dark giddy with excitement brought it all back. Your closing song by the Smashing Pumpkins is very fitting! Congratulations.
Strong work guys! Having done NIAD I know exactly what you mean about the hardest most rewarding day of your life. It's a tough one! I'd love to go back and do it again a little quicker and do the King Swing. We had a party bivying over there and went the other way. Thanks for a quality TR!
Proud! I'm still eyeing the stairmaster with disdain, but watching this has brought back a little spark of motivation to get back in shape and make this happen. Thanks for putting that together. I liked Tom's commentary. So sweet that you got it taped!
Hot damn, the NIAD teams are such an inspiration. Well done!
Answer these only if you want:
Rack?
Onsight level before the climb?
Hardest pitch RP'd in the Valley before you fired the Nose?
Anything you'd do differently if you were to do it again?
Idle questions but would love to hear back. Again, killer stuff - ah to have a sibling that were as into the mountains as I am... You two are lucky to have one another.
@Josh - The swing was way harder than I expected! It's definitely a highlight of the route though.
@tahoe523 - It was pretty funny when we got down to realize that while I was doing the swing, I had two cameras rolling on me simultaneously (from George and Tom). What a funny world we're in nowadays.
@le_bruce - I ended up writing some more beta-related thoughts about the climb on my website at http://cs.stanford.edu/people/cmclean/niad.htm, since I'd basically scoured the internet for beta and found very little for teams trying to onsight the route.
"Short" answers: My hardest onsight = hardest redpoint was the Boulder Problem (5.11c) and have done a few other 11s in the valley and Tuolumne. But I'd call us 5.10 climbers--as soon as we get into the 10c and higher range our speed drops dramatically if trying to free! If we did it again there would be two things I'd change: start earlier and have shorter blocks. We wanted to start right around daylight so that all the free climbing down low we could do in the light. Unfortunately it meant we got hammered by the sun all day long, and realistically we probably would not have gotten the NIAD (and maybe not the summit) if we didn't run across free water at both Dolt and Camp 6 (we brought 12 liters of our own, but bootied another 12!). With prior knowledge of the route, I think it would be better to start in the middle of the night so you hit the King Swing right at first light, since the free climbing down low is mainly straightforward enough to be done quickly by headlamp and then in the morning you're climbing in the light but are still shielded from direct sun by the bridge of the nose.
From your link: "As one example, an effort that matches the Stovelegs (pitches 7-11) would be to link the first two pitches of Reed's Direct three times in a row (each time finishing with the real exit, not the 5.8 escape left)."
Really cool...great job. I did the Nose in one bivvy way back in 72- fast time for then. We also were the first to free Boot Flake.
My goal is to go back in Fall 13, when I have turned 70, and do it in one day.
Okay, I already did it, but I'll still claim an alzheimers onsight.....provided i get up the damn thing.
that's a great trip report. i'm so glad cory is my partner for my next el cap route. we fixed all weekend on el cap, had a great time, and are psyched up for the rest. we had never met in person, but got introduced here on the taco. i'm the lucky first person to do a wall(IF we do it) with cory that is not his brother. ss
