Climbing Yosemite’s Easiest Big Wall
The classic route was first climbed more than 60 years ago. Watch a new video about an ascent that just dropped below
The South Face of Washington Column is considered the easiest big wall style route in Yosemite at a grade of 5.8 C1 over 10 pitches. Two Valley climbers recently ran a lap and released some footage.
“Another day, another big wall,” said Brant Hysell of Gravity Lab about his video called Climbing Yosemite’s Easiest Big Wall. “Absolutely classic climb with free climbing, hand jamming, and some exciting placements. We picked an easy one after Lurking Fear the day before.”
The route was first climbed by Layton Kor and Chris Fredericks in 1964, and first freed by Matthew Wilder in 2002. In Kor’s American Alpine Journal write-up, he said, “The frightening five-inch crack above turned out to be the crux of the climb. We handled this grim section with the well-known technique of struggling. After a short rest and some much needed water, we pushed on. Above a 50-foot vertical crack, we diagonaled left past large flakes to a ledge shaded by a big tree. The last lead of the climb went up the rotten chimney over our heads.”
You can find photos and some beta for the famous route on SuperTopo here.
South Face Washington Column
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