Sébastien Berthe climbing The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite

In November Sébastien Berthe pulled off a rare free ascent of The Nose up El Capitan in Yosemite, initially with Loic Debry then, for the final push, with Barbara Zangerl. What makes the ascent of the Belgian climber special is not only the fact that he is one of the few to free climb this masterpiece, but also that he did so ground-up; while it’s true that the 26-year-old had climbed the route twice previously, unlike his predecessors he never walked to the summit and rappelled from the top to work the crux pitches.



The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite, U.S.A.
First ascent: Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore, 1958 after 47 days of climbing
Length: 870 m (31 pitches)
Grade: 5.13c or 5.9 A2
First free ascent: Lynn Hill, Brooke Sandahl, 4 days September 1993
First single day free ascent: Lynn Hill, Steve Sutton, 22:00 19/09 - 21:00 20/09/1994