The Most Controversial Climb in Yosemite History

In June and July of 2011, 42-year-old Ammon McNeely and 22-year-old Kait Barber set out to climb the never repeated route of Wings of Steel on Yosemite’s El Capitan. There is no known third ascent of the famed route, so with summer approaching it might be one to add to the this.

Graded VI 5.10+ A3, Wings of Steel sat unclimbed since the first ascent by Richard Jensen and Mark Smith in 1982. They spent 39 days climbing the route, which was seen as controversial because they weren’t local climbers and they added a lot of bolts. It resulted in death threats, physical assaults and a slander campaign that polarised the Yosemite climbing community for over 30 years. In 2011, we wrote about how one climber confessed to chopping bolts off the route – read it here.

Shrouded in controversy and with a bounty waiting for the second ascent team, there seemed to be no better person to climb it than McNeely. With over 70 El Cap climbs by 60 different routes, McNeely was a seasoned climber. Barber had three El Cap ascents on her resume and all of them with McNeely by her side. Logging over 500 feet of falls, a dislocated shoulder, McNeely pressed on up the wall. On day four, stress levels hit a boiling point as they began to turn on each other.

Retold in interviews with the first ascent team, their detractors, climbing historians and personal interviews with both McNeely and Barber, combined with footage shot during their historic ascent, the truth about the most controversial climb in Yosemite history was told in the below film: Assault on El Capitan – the Most Controversial Climb in Yosemite History.

Assault on El Capitan