The first 8-10 pitches (depending on where you belay) of the Salathé Wall route are called Freeblast. This route is located just left of the Nose buttress. Freeblast is 5.11, but can go at 5.10 A0 (although the crux 5.11b/c slab does require some slippery climbing between bolts which seems a little harder than just flat 5.10). All the hardest pitches rely on good bolts and some questionable fixed gear. This route is worthy in its own right, and will get you ready for typical El Cap weirdness. The climbing is polished and challenging (similar to the rest of the Salathé).

There are usually fixed ropes from Mammoth Terrace to the ground, so you can climb Freeblast with one 60m rope and just rappel down on the fixed lines. (If the lines are missing you would need two 60m ropes to rappel.)

I climbed this route with Steve Su. I had met Steve at the base of The Mortatorium a couple of days previous, and Nate (my main partner) and Steve had also climbed together earlier in the trip. Based out of Boulder at one point, Steve Su is a affable and humble hardman who's climbed a lot of out there stuff over the years. Steve led the hard pitches, while I led the easier Pitches 3 (10c), 6 (5.9), and 8 (5.7), partly because I was three weeks out from a tibial plate fracture and partly because I prefer to follow harder pitches anyway.

Our rack was doubles from 0.1 to 3, and a set of offset nuts. In this rack we had a set of offset cams. The offset cams and nuts were great for this route.

The climb was awesome. And slippery at times. Thanks Steve for leading the slippery pitches.

The following page gives time stats and pitch-by-pitch photos for the climb. Enjoy!