Ephemeron is New 22-Pitch Route Up El Capitan
Brandon Adams and Kristoffer Wickstrom have added a new route to El Capitan in Yosemite.
Ephemeron, named for an insect that only lives a few days, is the newest route up the world’s most famous monolith and is graded VI 5.10 A4.
Adam said on Instagram, “10 days of adventuring up the big stone with Kristoffer Wickstrom. Gonna take a while to process this one.
“The line is roughly 2/3 independent, 22 pitches long, and right up the center. We worked hard to leave what I believe to be a quality route behind us. So content and happy. Feeling immensely grateful to be where I am at this point in life.”
The route climbs parallel to The Nose and crosses it a number of times, including near The Great Roof.
“John Middendorf was generous enough to lend us a D4 portaledge to use on the climb,” said Adams.
“It performed amazingly well. Three qualities that immediately come to mind are the portaledge’s ease of setup and takedown (no spreaderbar!), it’s compactness and low weight and it’s stability. Compared with others that I have used, the D4 is clearly a superior portaledge. Thanks John.”
The climb starts left of The Nose with an A4 pitch which is followed by an A4 third pitch called The Pecking Order.
From there, you continue up serious aid before crossing The Stovelegs pitches on The Nose into C1 and A3 climbing to The Raven’s Roost ledge.
You soon climb to the Jardine Traverse and break off to more A4 before Eagle Ledge. Then you head up and meet Camp Four below The Great Roof.
After rappelling down and right to A3, you climb up some new and old ground to Camp Five on The Nose.
You then climb up and left of The Nose up to loose A4 and follow the 1982 Mediterraneo for a pitch before heading directly to the summit up a 5.9 A3 pitch.
What a great start to the Yosemite season. Scroll through Adams’ photos below.
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