Nov 3, 2010 – Stanhope and Honnold Bag Southern Belle

During his current trip in Yosemite, Canadian Will Stanhope teamed up with American Alex Honnold and bagged the third ascent of the notorious Southern Belle 5.12d R. This serious route was first climbed in 1987 by Dave Schultz and Walt Shipley and freed a year later by Schultz and Scott Cosgrove. The 14 pitch climb includes four pitches of 5.12 and six pitches of 5.11 which are peppered with difficult and dangerous runout climbing. Alan Lester and Hank Caylor tried to repeat the route in 1994, but had to retreat after Caylor broke his ankles in a 60-foot fall. In 2006, Dean Potter teamed up with Leo Houlding for a successful second free ascent of the route.