Yosemite Sees a Late-Season Push on Hard Routes
A big few weeks of sends, including 5.13 walls and single-pitch test-piece gear lines
Yosemite Valley has had another busy season of sends thanks to mostly stable conditions and the presence of several experienced trad and big wall climbers. Here are a few of the successful sends over the past few weeks.
The Platinum Wall, a 39-pitch 5.13+, had two repeats this past month, one by Sasha DiGiulian (supported by Elliot Faber and Ryan Sheridan), and one by Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold. It was established by Faber and Rob Miller between 2012 and 2016, and repeated by Germans Tobias Wolf and Thomas Hering in 2018. DiGiulian spent several weeks working on a ground-up free ascent, the long duration was due to weeks-long snowstorm that she waited out.
Platinum Wall, which few climbers had heard of before this year, will surely become more popular thanks to the glowing review by Caldwell, who said that it “is probably one of the best climbs in the world.” DiGiulian shared some time on Platinum Wall with Honnold and Caldwell, as Caldwell pointed out on Instagram, “I had tons of fun sharing some wall time and logistical strategizing with [DiGiulian] and Elliot. It was super inspiring to watch you stick it out through a major storm. Many people’s instinct is to be most inspired by pure physical performance. Personally, I usually find dedication like yours even more impressive.”
Wet Lycra Nightmare, established by legendary Valley climbers Todd Skinner and Jim Hewitt in 2004, got its first female ascent by Laura Pineau. The nine-pitch 5.13d has been gaining popularity over the past few years, thanks in part to the steepness of the line and the good protection. The real climbing starts at the 5.12c second pitch, and is followed in order by pitches that clock in at 5.13a, 5.12d, 5.13d, 5.13a, 5.13a, 5.10, and a final 5.13. Pineau’s send of Wet Lycra Nightmare came at the end of a seven month visit to the area, which started with a sub-24-hour completion of the famous Yosemite Triple (El Cap, Half Dome and Watkins) with Kate Kelleghan.
Magic Line: Pietro Vidi successfully repeated one of Yosemite’s most famous and difficult trad climbs with Magic Line 5.14c. Vidi has had an impressive year in Yosemite, as his first El Cap route was the second free ascent of the 19-pitch 5.13c Lurking Fear, followed by PreMuir Wall (5.13+, 30+ pitches), and Meltdown 5.14c trad. In an email to Gripped, Vidi said the route consisted of “a hard intro boulder, followed by some very delicate laybacking on really bad smears and little edges and then a final no-hands rest before the last boulder.”
