Honnold and Caldwell Repeat Yosemite 5.13b
In 2015, the late Brad Gobright and Mason Earle made the first free ascent of The Heart Route on El Capitan
Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold have repeated a free route in Yosemite first climbed by Mason Earle and Brad Gobright in 2015 called The Heart Route. It climbs through a huge heart feature on the southwest face of El Capitan.
Caldwell and Honnold, who recently cycled from Colorado to Alaska climbing famous alpine peaks along the way, spent three days climbing the 31-pitch 5.13b that has a V10 dyno on pitch six. Caldwell released few details about their ascent, but noted that Honnold freed the route, while he didn’t completely free it.
It was first climbed by Chuck Kroger and Scott Davis over seven days in April 1970 at VI 5.9 A4 as one of the first routes on El Capitan. In 2001, Alex Huber and Thomas Huber used the upper section of the route to create Golden Gate. Earle and Gobright said they were inspired by the Dawn Wall ascent by Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson to complete a free variation to The Heart Route. Earle freed the entire route while Gobright freed everything except for the crux dyno.
Also this week in Yosemite, Miles Fullman and Tyler Karow climbed the Yosemite Triple Crown in a day – read about it here.
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