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The First All-Woman Ascent of El Capitan, An Excerpt from 1973

Sibylle Hechtel recounts the adventurous ascent by her and Bev Johnson in 1973. Featuring an introduction from Lynn Hill, who went on to become the first person of any gender to free climb The Nose 5.14 of El Cap, as well as Jim Erickson, a great climber who did the first free climb of the Northwest Face of Half Dome.

Johnson and Hechtel climbed Triple Direct, which takes the first 10 pitches of the Salathe Wall then continues up the middle portion of Muir Wall and finishes on the upper pitches of the Nose. In 1977, Molly Higgins and Barb Eastman climbed The Nose and became the second all-women team to climb El Cap and first to climb The Nose.

In 1978, Johnson was the first woman to solo El Cap by climbing the Dihedral Wall. This is an excerpt from Wild New Brave, a companion film to Brave New Wild.

1973 on El Cap

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