New Pitch on Half Dome’s Damaged Northwest Face

Less than one month after a major rock-fall left a classic American route damaged, climbers have established a new pitch.

The rock-fall that sent some of pitches 11 and 12 from Half Dome’s Northwest Face crashing to the valley below left many wondering if the route was too dangerous to climb.

A few climbers, named the Bivi Brothers, have reported on Supertopo that they’ve completed a bolt ladder that links the two existing sections of the route above and below the rock-fall scar.

They uploaded this new topo that shows a new pitch-11 anchor that leads to a new bolt ladder and pendulum into the top of pitch-12. They also note a possible free variation out right that currently has dangerous flakes hanging on it.

The Bivi Brothers will add their trip report to Supertopo tonight.

The Northwest Face was first climbed in 1959 by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas. On the first day, they climbed a feature that led to a blank section of rock. Robbins aided the wall with seven bolts and then made a historic pendulum that became known as the Robbins Traverse.

They climbed two features that later fell off the wall, called the Undercling Flake and Psych Flake, years before the major rock fall mentioned above.

On day four, they climbed the Zig Zags, 80 metres of nailing up corners landed them at the fourth bivi, below the roof known as the Visor. The following day, the climbed their way to the Thank Gad Ledge, which led them under the visor to easier ground. On the night of the fifth day, they stood on the summit after having climbed the hardest big wall in America at the time.

– Sources: Supertopo, Climb Yosemite, Alpinist