Dec 16, 2011 – Top Climber Confesses to Chopping 29 Year-Old El Cap Route

Top California climber Steve “Shipoopoi” Schneider has publically confessed and apologized for chopping the bolts on the El Cap route Wings of Steel (WOS) and defecating on ropes of the first ascensionists almost 30 years ago. In his letter Schneider recounts how he and many other Valley locals did not believe that Richard Jensen and Mark Smith had put in their “time on the Big Stone before venturing onto first ascent terrain” and assumed that their attempt at a new route would result in an ugly climb full of bolt ladders. What Schneider discovered during the chopping was a line of tiny copperheads that suggested Jensen and Smith were doing some serious climbing. Unfortunately Schneider’s actions and his silence contributed to the discrediting of Jensen and Smith’s route,and only after WOS was repeated earlier this year, did climbers realize that WOS involved some of the hardest hooking on El Cap.

This revelation about WOS may have pushed Schneider to finally come clean about his actions and he has personally apologized to Jensen and Smith.

More details here.