The Nose is a rock climb that ascends the nose of El Capitan in Yosemite. Some sources call The Nose the best rock climb in the world: 3000 feet of granite, featuring pitch after pitch of 5-star crack climbing, with memorable pitches such as Stoveleg Crack, Boot Flake, The King Swing, The Great Roof, Pancake Flake, and Changing Corners. On paper, The Nose is rated 5.9 C2, and much of the route can be climbed free at the 5.10 level, but it is physically and psychologically demanding, and failure rate is high (various sources say anywhere from 20-50% success rate). Planning and efficiency is key.
I first climbed
the Nose in 2017, with John Plotz. This was my first (and only to date) big wall. John had climbed the route multiple times, and was happy to lead and haul as I jugged away as a happy and efficient support member. We climbed the route in 3.5 days (3 nights on the wall) and had a blast.
John and I had discussed climbing The Nose in a day (no hauling!). The covetable NIAD. However, we never quite pulled the trigger. But once I get my mind wrapped around doing something, it eats away at me until I do—someday I would climb the NIAD. That someday came in October 2022 when my climbing partner Nate Beckwith asked me if I was interested in joining on a NIAD attempt. Nate had climbed The Nose 3 times (June 1995, June 2010, April 2014), the most recent 2 of these being NIAD ascents. His personal best NIAD time was 11 hours and 35 minutes, with Eric Sloan in June 2010 (report here). His goal this time was to lead the entire route. My role would be to be the tireless, efficient, and psyched jugging support member. My initial reaction was: Dang. Wish I could! But I just started a new job, sounds like a big endeavor, and I don't think I can fit it into my schedule. But then I got to thinking: It's only a day, right? Certainly I can fit that in. Next thing I knew I was digging in my gear bins for my dusty ascenders and easy aiders. Then I was booking my plane tickets.
Nate and I climbed the route in just over 19 hours (I'm obviously not as fast as Eric Sloan...). To speed things up, Nate usually short-fixed and was already about 30-40 feet into the next pitch by the time I arrived at the anchor and put him on belay, and then passed him all of the gear I collected via his 45 foot tag line. It was a splitter October weekend, so there were several parties on the route—at least 3 NIAD parties and 5 hauling parties; we passed 6 parties and were passed by one party. Another factor to consider was the amount of daylight—sunrise at 7:06 am and sunset at 6:22 pm gave just over 11 hours of daylight. As follower, I carried the pack, which contained extra clothes, food, 1 gallon of water each (for a total of 16 lb of water starting off the route), and miscellaneous items like tape and batteries. I appreciated the athleticism of the day. Our bodies felt great, and the only real complaint on Sunday was we were a bit thirsty and our fingers hurt (my thumbnails had split back from all the jugging and Nate's pads were raw from touching 3000 feet of Yosemite granite). It was so nice to be back in the Valley again; I love this place. I took lots of photos.
The entire trip ended up being just over 69 hours Boulder-to-Boulder, during which time we flew to and from California, climbed the NIAD, wrote an entire trip report, and got a total of about 11.5 hours of sleep. I only missed a couple of hours of work. A productive weekend!
The following page gives time stats and pitch-by-pitch photos for the climb. Enjoy!
