This is the Easiest El Capitan Free Route
The East Buttress should be on every climber's list of classic multi-pitch 5.10s to climb
El Capitan is one of the world’s most famous mountains, with walls that rise above the valley bottom up to 1,000 metres. While there are dozens of hard climbs up to 5.14, there’s one that allows climbers to ascend 500 metres to the top of the east end at only 5.10b.
The East Buttress is considered the easiest free route up El Capitan, although it climbs one of the shorter walls, it still gives you an amazing opportunity to experience the face and to descend the legendary East Ledges. Before it was climbed, iconic climber Steve Roper, said,“The beautiful black-and-gold buttress on the far eastern flank showed distinct cracks and chimneys on its lower section. Higher, the prospective route blended smoothly into the wall, but here also the rock looked broken and perhaps climbable.”
At the start of the 1950s, Allen Steck began to climb the most obvious routes, such as the Steck-Salathé on Sentinel in 1950 and Yosemite Point Buttress in 1952. The following year, Steck, Wili Siri, Dick Long and Willi Unsoeld made the first ascent of the East Buttress, grading it IV 5.10. It quickly became a must-climb and is now one of the most classic free routes in Yosemite Valley.
The pitches go at 5.9 45 m, 5.10b 45 m, 5.6 40 m, 5.7 40 m, 5.8 40 m, 5.9 30 m, 5.9+ 45 m, 5.5 50 m, 5.7 60 m and 5.6 30 m. While the route is often wet in May from Horsetail Falls, it makes for the perfect objective throughout the summer and on warm fall days.
