First NIAD
Almost every day for the past month I’ve stared up at this piece of rock. My big objective for this season in Yosemite was to climb NIAD (Nose in a day) aka climb 3000 ft straight up the middle of El Cap in under 24 hours. This was first done back in the 70s by a few climbing legends and has become more popular year by year. Still, most parties choose to take 3-5 days on the route. Last week I took Graham Green and our 67 year old friend Kieth Hale up the Nose in a 4 day wall-style ascent. G and I met Keith at the climbing gym in SF a year or so ago and found out it was his dream to climb El Cap. Graham and I felt compelled to make it happen so we packed 10 gallons of water, food for 5 days and quested off on an adventure that eventually ended in a successful summit. My body felt destroyed having Ied and hauled almost every pitch but it was an incredible experience. We slept in some of the most incredible locations, climbed arguably the best rock on the planet, and got to watch Nina Caprez and Lynn Hill go for a historic free climbing attempt of the route while sharing a bivy at camp VI. After coming back to the valley floor and spending a couple rest days strategizing NIAD, Chris Farrah and I went back up yesterday and got to the top in 8 hours, 6 minutes, and 13 seconds. We were genuinely confused and blown away by our time. We went into the planning hoping for something between 14 and 17 hours and I would not have been surprised if it took longer. I climbed the first 18 pitches on the route in 4:11 refilling gear only 3 times. Chris Farrah took over at the great roof doubtful he could keep the pace but absolutely crushed it. I’ve honestly never had so much fun climbing a route and the very best part was how safe it felt the entire time. It inherently sounds dangerous to speed climb big walls but yesterday I learned it can be done in a manor acceptable for my risk tolerance. We hiked down yesterday afternoon with plenty of daylight and energy. We joked about running down in order to climb Half Dome but instead we opted to run down for pizza and beer.
A detailed Account
The alarm went off at 4:30 am on November 7, 2019 in El Cap Meadow. My first thought was that I was tired, but I knew I slept well. My second thought was that I was really cold. Everything I needed that morning was laid out perfectly in my van. I quickly got dressed, brushed my teeth, made breakfast, and taped up the numerous cuts on my fingers from previous climbs before setting off into the woods for a cold morning poop.
Chris was about 10 minutes ahead of me and already had his harness on when I stepped out. I hurried back from the woods, got my gear and we took off on the short approach to the Nose. For some reason, we calculated our wake-up time would get us to the base of the Nose right at dawn, but we arrived early and there was no sign of light. It was around 5:30 and we still had another 15 to 20 minutes after I was already tied in and ready to go. I made a comment suggesting we wait for light, but Chris urged me to just go for it under headlamp and I agreed.
Chris started the timer, and I began climbing. The first 20 feet is an easy scramble that leads into a right facing corner with a hand crack. I climbed up the crack as high as I could sink bomber jams and then placed a #1 Camelot. My right foot slipped somewhere around where I placed my gear and Chris later reminded me that it had also slipped on our Dolt run two days earlier. I continued up the first pitch feeling solid and free climbing more than I had previously done on the Dolt run. I plugged in and pulled on gear in a few tricky spots, but I didn’t have to step in any slings. I intentionally went slow on this pitch to be extra safe as I felt the first four pitches during our Dolt run a couple days back felt a little more insecure than I would like. Once I fixed the rope at the anchor, I called down to Chris and he told me my time was 13 minutes… 1 minute slower than before… I was happy. I pulled up enough slack to get me to the next bolt, put on my Revo for a self-belay and I climbed up to the bolt by pulling on some gear just after Chris arrived at the first anchor to put me on belay. I lowered, tensioned over to the crack on the right and began climbing while back cleaning all gear until I got in a #3 at the strange looking hole well above and right of the first bolt. I continued pulling though pin scars and performing 5.10 slab moves to avoid using gear as much as possible. I eventually got to the easy face section that branches out right. It doesn’t really protect well and there is a fairly reachy move back left into the crack at the end. This was my third time pulling this move in the past week and it felt super solid this time. I continued up and stepped in one or two slings on the second or third pitch. I eventually got to the crux move where you smear a left foot and reach back into the crack for a pin scar finger jamb. It felt solid. Once I got the pitch 4 I short fixed again and made my way though the bolt ladder. I tried swinging to the piton out right, but I missed the cord attached to the bolt and fell back. I then tried a simple tension traverse and it worked perfectly. I did a second tension traverse into the hand crack before sickle and made my way to the Sickle Ledge.
I pulled up all the slack at the anchor and set off om easy terrain. I placed one #1 at the 5.9 crux before the anchor, clipped the same leaver biner that I contributed two days before and lowered down, cleaning the #1. I pendulumed over to the lower anchors and put Chris on belay as he climbed up the easy terrain. Once he got to my height, he pendulumed over and grabbed my outstretched hand at the anchor. I refilled gear and started up the next pitch. One more pendulum and I was at the base of the Stovelegs. There was another party at this pitch, and I kindly asked if we could pass. I continued to have a brief conversation and realized that I wasn’t even out of breath or sweating. It all felt pretty casual thus far. I fixed the rope and climbed the entire first stovelegs pitch without placing a single piece of gear. It felt cruiser. When I got to the top, the leader of the party we passed recognized me from out Dolt run. He had bailed form the Nose the same day, but it looks like he found a new partner. He also asked if I was the dude with the climbing YouTube Channel and inquired how to climb the wide section in the second Stovelegs pitch above. I informed him that I was the dude with the YouTube channel and that I very much pull on gear for the wide section above. I continued to cruise up the Stovelegs clipping fixed gear. My rope got caught on a flake at one point which tripped me up for a minute or so. I eventually made it to the wide section and pulled on multiple .5s to get through it. Once I got to the first crack, I took out both #3s and crack jumared my way up. It went fast. I did the same for the short #4 section before Dolt. Chris used fishing line to fix the trigger wire on his #4 the day before and it ended up falling off the cam trigger. It took me about a minute to get it back on before continuing. When I got to Dolt, I fixed the rope and sat down to open up the food and water stash we left two days back. I wasn’t very thirsty or hungry. Chris got up shortly after and informed me that it has been 2 hours and 40 seconds. I jokingly informed him that he should have jugged faster since we were over 2 hours. I ate ½ of a PB&J and drank a half liter of water. I still hadn’t broken a sweat, but the sun had only recently hit. We had 4.5 liters stashed and Chris suggested we dump some out. I agreed. I refilled gear once again and took off towards El Cap Tower. After about 100 feet, the rope tangled at the belay, and it took multiple minutes for Chris to untangle it. It felt like an eternity. I crack jumared up the #4 crack and eventually made my way to the Texas Flake. This was the only pitch I didn’t lead on my previous Nose climb a few days before, but I wasn’t worried about a 5.8 chimney. I went for a straight PDL this time since there was no pro anyway. Getting into the Chimney via the chock stones was more difficult than I expected. Once in, I walked over to the far west side and began to chimney up. The start was challenging, and I was far more gripped than I should have been. This was a good reminder that I suck at chimneys. I was breathing harder than any other part of the climb but the higher I got, the easier it became. The move to surmount the Texas Flake was awesome and I quickly fixed the rope in order to start the bolt ladder to the boot. I clipped the last bolt, high-stepped with my ladders and clipped a fixed nut. I high-stepped again and got in a cam hook which got me to the start of the boot hand crack. I love cam hooks. I placed a #1, left my ladder on it and began to free climb the boot. The crack widened to fists, I placed a #3, pulled on it, left it clipped as my last piece, and continued up to the top of the boot. I untied, put the rope though the chains and lowered to clean my last few pieces and retrieve my ladder. I then started the king swing but realized I was too low. I did some strange moves to help Chris take up some slack and eventually got over after a few swings. I love pendulums.
Chris went for the swing and I threw out a bite of rope to lasso him over the Eagle Ledge. This was the third and last time we would meet on my lead block. I began climbing the 5.10c section pulling on gear when necessary. I fixed the rope at the Lynn Hill Traverse and started off just after the cleaner or another party was finishing it up. It required some balancy face moves but nothing too difficult. The topo says 5.10d A0 but I don’t think it was that bad. I reached the party in the grey bands, and they let me pass. I lowered myself down on the first grey band anchor and traversed over the 5.11 section. I pulled on gear and still found that section a bit of a pain. I eventually got the camp 4 and fixed. I started up the face climbing pitch before the great roof and at once point kind of almost slipped out of a hand jamb. I eventually ran out of rope and had to wait a couple minutes for Chris to put me on belay. At this point, it had been 4 hours and 11 minutes just before Chris met me at the anchors. I was shocked. I was hoping for sub 6.
Chris started up the great roof and was quickly cruising. I had a nice conversation with the guide who we had just passed and agreed to tag up his haul line to the next anchors. I hadn’t done a lower out in over a year, so I asked him for a quick refresher. He provided it and I was shortly up the pitch after my only required lower out on the route. I started off using two ladders to jug but shorty switched to using only 1. Somewhere around camp 5 I threw on some pocket music and I spent the next few hours just taking in the scenery and shouting encouraging remarks at Chris. He was worried about keeping pace, but it appeared he was on track for a 4sih hour time for his block as well. At the glowering spot, I ate the second half of my PB&J and tagged up some gear for Chris.
I had done the Nose in 4 days earlier in the week and I had stashed a half gallon of extra water at camp 6 with out names on it. We got up there and I wasn’t even thirsty. Chris had taken a liter of it and I gave the rest to a Belgian team who was camped out on the ledge going for a free attempt of the route. Apparently, they were running low on food and water. We later found out that one of the Belgians sent! The entire changing corners pitch contained preplaced gear which made things easy for Chris since he free climbed most of it. The lower part of changing corners is my favorite free section of the Nose. I eventually made my way to the wild stance and took a long look down. So epic! Chris fixed the first few bolts of the bolt ladder and after I jumared the 10c section, I took off my jumars and began to simul-climb the bolts. I honestly struggled quite a bit. I was a jumbled mess with all the rope hanging down while trying to keep the slack tight between Chris and my Gri Gri. I eventually just hung on a bolt and waited for Chris to pull all the slack through once it was clear he was finished with the bolted section. I for sure lost a few minutes here. Once I could tell I was on belay, I took the daisys off of my ladders and began to power through the bolts. I made it to the 5.5 section and climbed as fast as I could to the tree. I gave it a tag and Chris read out the time… 8:06:13.
We were both totally blown away and genuinely confused how quickly we made it up. We were hoping to be somewhere in the 12 to 14 hour range but we really had no idea. We packed up quickly and began the decent down. We both were still feeling fresh and joked about going for half dome the same day. We opted for pizza and beer instead but next season, we will defiantly be back for the link up. Such a fun day!
