

The Dawn Wall – El Capitan’s Most Unwelcoming Route - lalmachado
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/09/sports/the-dawn-wall-el-capitan.html

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scottcha
The graphic is amazing, definitely one of the better implementations which
help put the scale in to perspective.

Couple of details which I think help put this route in to perspective for the
non-climbers:

1\. Caldwell, one of the best climbers in the world, has been working on
trying to climb this since 2007--the combination of longevity and perseverance
is hard to match.

2\. The easiest pitch (out of 30 total for the route, a pitch being a rope
length usually between 100 and 200 feet) is 5.11 which is pretty hard but the
real kicker is that there are 5 pitches 5.14 and of those 2 are 5.14d which is
was the upper limit of difficulty until the last decade. Most 5.14 routes are
short single pitch routes which take pros sometimes weeks or months of
practice to climb. Not every pro can climb every 5.14 since they are dependent
on a high degree of specialization. There are 10s of 5.12 and 5.13 pitches
thrown which makes the whole project together the hardest complete free route
in history.

Essentially this route is an order of magnitude harder than anything which has
yet been climbed in rock climbing.

I'm kind of amazed to see this much press (multiple NYT stories, new channel
coverage) on a big wall climb (or any climb not involving someone dying) and
can't really remember something equivalent.

This is a pretty good article with more specific details about the climb:
[http://www.adventure-journal.com/2015/01/why-is-climbing-
the...](http://www.adventure-journal.com/2015/01/why-is-climbing-the-dawn-
wall-such-a-big-deal/)

~~~
weaksauce
I have a hunch that the field reporters are enjoying this because they are
likely not camping, staying at the Awahnee on the company dime, not a whole
lot goes on when watching the climbers try burns as there is a lot of downtime
on a big wall. It is also likely that some of the field reporters are climbers
and that the editors aren't so the story gets put into terms that no climber
would say.

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Friedduck
I recommend everyone visit Yosemite once. The scale is mind-bending. The falls
appear in slow motion because the water is traveling such a great distance.
Enormous, ancient trees appear as peach fuzz atop the walls.

I can't think of another place where you can walk right up to something so
massive rising out of the earth.

I climbed a much more modest, easy peak there 15 years ago, and saw the
headlamps across the valley of climbers on el cap. Its an awe-inspiring scene
in the literal sense.

If you go, take the time to hike away from the crowds. It's a zoo of cars but
quiet and breathtakingly beautiful if you explore.

~~~
steveax
Indeed, the scale really is mind bending. If you start in EL Cap meadow and
hike towards the base, you'll notice that the base keeps being farther away
than you thought it was because the height is much greater than what you
thought. This is even more pronounced when approaching the South face of Half
Dome (from the South) as there are no tree to obscure the view. Also, if it's
your first visit to the park, I highly recommend entering on Highway 41 (as
opposed to 120). You don't really see anything until you pass through the
Wawona tunnel, and then you are greeted with the amazing Wawona view [1]

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_View](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_View)

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SoftwareMaven
That's...interesting. I have a second monitor running Photoshop, and images
from the second monitor (perhaps just from Photoshop) are being mapped onto
the model of El Capitan, making the visual completely broken. This occurs in
Firefox, Chrome, and Safari (using OS X, if it's not clear).

This does not fill me with warm and fuzzy feelings. :)

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markbnj
Doesn't appear to work in Firefox 34.0.5, although it works fine in Chrome.

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steveax
Previous discussion of the effort [1] from a NYT article on January 5th [2]. I
think this was mentioned in the previous discussion, but Tom Evans is doing a
great job covering this on The El Cap Report [3].

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8836763](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8836763)

[2] [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/sports/on-el-capitans-
dawn...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/sports/on-el-capitans-dawn-wall-
two-climbers-make-slow-progress-toward-a-dream.html?_r=0)

[3] [http://www.elcapreport.com](http://www.elcapreport.com)

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harlanlewis
Very cool. I was lucky enough to see them on the wall a week ago, and the
scale and difficulty of it completely blows my mind. This visualization does a
better job reproducing the in-person awe than any others I've seen.

I wonder if NY Times is using this 3D map of El Capitan?
[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130612-yosem...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130612-yosemite-
el-capitan-rock-mapped/)

~~~
krebby
Doesn't look like it. The article says it's using a 3D model by three students
from the University of Lausanne.

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sdouglas
Nice work from the guys at the NYTimes. They seem to have a pretty solid
development team. My enjoyment of the graphic was somewhat diminished however
by the terrifying thought of undertaking that climb.

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eagsalazar2
I hope they are filming this somehow so we can soon enjoy the incredible
documentary that would come of it.

~~~
nagrat
Tommy Caldwell also recently made the first ascent of the Fitz Traverse in
Patagonia. This route spanning an entire mountain range was considered classic
before it was ever accomplished due to the sheer magnitude of the objective.
His partner for that project was renown climber Alex Hannold.

There's a film of that ascent coming out later this year, the preview was just
released:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOScetWwEwc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOScetWwEwc)

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lisper
Why are they doing this in the winter?

~~~
dangerlibrary
Climbing is easier in the cold - your hands / fingertips don't get as sweaty
and adhere better to the rock face.

Also, the dawn wall is full in the sun for much of the day, and the rock can
get insanely hot during the summer. They need to climb before dawn on warmer
than average days, or they would make no progress whatsoever. .

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jrockway
Free climbing seems like the least forgiving hobby in existence.

~~~
rryan
Free solo climbing -- climbing without the use of ropes for protection -- is a
no-margin-for-error hobby. That's not the style of ascent being done by
Caldwell and Jorgeson here though (it would essentially be suicide!).

Free climbing (climbing without the aid of a rope but using it for protection
in the event of a fall) is a quite forgiving hobby! I've fallen hundreds of
times while free climbing and lived to tell the tale :).

The distinction between free solo climbing and free climbing is frequently a
point of confusion -- especially in news articles!

~~~
dfgray
Have they had to rely on the ropes at all so far in this climb?

~~~
dangerlibrary
They use ropes at all times for safety, just not to ascend.

What is special about this attempt is that it appears they will successfully
climb every pitch, in order, without using the ropes to ascend.

~~~
prawn
Probably worth clarifying: each pitch is being climbed in order, and for each
pitch alone they not using ropes to ascend. But between these harder pitches
(at least, and maybe all), they return to a base camp (on the cliff-face)
before using ropes to ascend up to where they want to start the next pitch.

