Pre-Muir Wall on El Capitan repeated by Camilla Moroni, Pietro Vidi

Italian climbers Camilla Moroni and Pietro Vidi have successfully free-climbed the Pre-Muir Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, USA. The 35-pitch route, graded up to 5.13c/d, was established in 2007 by Justen Sjong and Rob Miller and follows pitches of Muir Wall, The Shaft, and The Shield, with some added 5.13 pitches, up the middle of El Capitan.

Moroni and Vidi spent 3 days on the wall to check out the crux pitches, before setting off for their push on the 20th of October and topping out on the 26th of October. During their 6 days on the wall, the pair free-climbed every pitch, swinging leads on the easier sections and each leading the three crux pitches: Pitch 16 (Silverfish, 5.13b/c), Pitch 24 (Stemming pitch, 5.13c/d) and pitch 32 (5.13c). Vidi managed to either onsight or flash every pitch, with the exception of the 3 cruxes, each of which he climbed on his second try. Moroni needed 3 attempts for both the Stemming and Silverfish pitches and a few more (she lost count) to master the Pitch 26 traverse.

This is Vidi's second free ascent of a big wall on "The Big Stone" following his repeat of Lurking Fear, earlier this year.

Moroni commented: "I have been dreaming of a free ascent on El Cap for a few years. It was a side-goal alongside competitions, and this year felt like the perfect time to try, since I was focussing more on my rock climbing and a little less on the World Cup circuit, to take a break following the Olympics. I had several routes in mind, as possibilities, but we decided to start with this one because the other ones were still pretty crowded.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy one to attempt as my first big wall route. It’s one of the longest routes on El Cap (35 pitches), sustained climbing, with twelve pitches in the 5.12 range and six in the 5.13 range. On the other hand, there were no offwidths, which is something I usually struggle with.

I left the ground knowing it could end up as either a huge failure or a great achievement. I was mentally prepared for the struggle!

Actually, everything went better than I expected, definitely thanks to Pietro, who helped me a lot with his previous experience and did most of the hauling.

It took us six days to top out, and all the hard pitches went down pretty quickly (2 or 3 tries each), except for the 13a traverse (pitch 26) after the iconic stemming corner, one of the most unique pitches I’ve ever climbed. You rely only on your palms and feet getting my calves very pumped! It’s the same section from the famous photo of Babsi, which was one of the reasons that inspired me to try this route in the first place.

I couldn’t even enjoy the send before splitting my fingers on the sharp crimps of the next pitch. That one was the hardest for me, reachy moves, warm rock, and humidity. Even when we finally reached the summit, our enthusiasm was immediately crushed by the brutal descent, my legs are still sore!

From this big wall experience, I realized that you can’t really enjoy the send until you’re sitting in the meadow with some snacks, admiring what you’ve done! I have to admit, I thought the climbing would feel physically harder after six days, but our bodies actually held up better than expected!"

Vidi added: "It was our first big-wall together and we could work really well as a team, both leading the cruxes and swinging lead on the rest of the pitches, for sure Cami had a lot to learn but she managed things really well, except the hauling where her 50kg weight was just not enough to move those heavy pigs ;-)

We climbed all the cruxes pretty fast and we definitely felt we can turn things up a notch as a team, still a month left in the valley and lots more stuff to do!"