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I follow the international rock climbing scene, and we constantly hear of repetitions of hard routes on El Capitan. On Youtube, it is possible to find many videos of strong climbers from all over...
#2: Nominated for promotion
by
Charlie Brumbaugh
·
2020-12-25T23:51:01Z (almost 4 years ago)
#1: Post edited
by
Charlie Brumbaugh
·
2020-12-23T17:14:48Z (almost 4 years ago)
<p>I follow the international rock climbing scene, and we constantly hear of repetitions of hard routes on El Capitan. </p><p>On Youtube, it is possible to find many videos of strong climbers from all over the world climbing (sometimes free) routes such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VapbvTq8GOE&t=483s" rel="noreferrer">The Nose</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPYyF-plQY&t=9s" rel="noreferrer">Golden Gate</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f13cti8iLsw&t=157s" rel="noreferrer">Zodiac</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/features/athletes/alex-honnold/most-dangerous-free-solo-climb-yosemite-national-park-el-capitan/" rel="noreferrer">Freerider</a> and Salathé Wall. </p><p>But if you look for videos of people climbing Half Dome, or articles about ascents on Half Dome, you find almost nothing.</p><p>At first I thought that it is because most of the routes there are aid climbing routes, and aid climbing is not very fashionable right now. However, most of the routes on El Capitan are also aid routes, and many of them have been free climbed, so this explanation is not very satisfactory.</p><p>Is it because of the difficulty, i.e. is it much harder to free climb Half Dome (apart from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Northwest_Face_of_Half_Dome" rel="noreferrer">Regular Northwest Face</a>), or are other factors involved?</p><p>That rock is just so iconic, and it seems very strange that no strong climber is interested in it.</p><p><em>(I am looking from the factors that could explain why Half Dome is much less frequented than El Cap, possibly with facts to back up the answer, like interviews to climbers or statistics.)</em></p>
- <p>I follow the international rock climbing scene, and we constantly hear of repetitions of hard routes on El Capitan. </p>
- <p>On Youtube, it is possible to find many videos of strong climbers from all over the world climbing (sometimes free) routes such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VapbvTq8GOE&t=483s" rel="noreferrer">The Nose</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPYyF-plQY&t=9s" rel="noreferrer">Golden Gate</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f13cti8iLsw&t=157s" rel="noreferrer">Zodiac</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/features/athletes/alex-honnold/most-dangerous-free-solo-climb-yosemite-national-park-el-capitan/" rel="noreferrer">Freerider</a> and Salathé Wall. </p>
- <p>But if you look for videos of people climbing Half Dome, or articles about ascents on Half Dome, you find almost nothing.</p>
- <p>At first I thought that it is because most of the routes there are aid climbing routes, and aid climbing is not very fashionable right now. However, most of the routes on El Capitan are also aid routes, and many of them have been free climbed, so this explanation is not very satisfactory.</p>
- <p>Is it because of the difficulty, i.e. is it much harder to free climb Half Dome (apart from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Northwest_Face_of_Half_Dome" rel="noreferrer">Regular Northwest Face</a>), or are other factors involved?</p>
- <p>That rock is just so iconic, and it seems very strange that no strong climber is interested in it.</p>
- <p><em>(I am looking from the factors that could explain why Half Dome is much less frequented than El Cap, possibly with facts to back up the answer, like interviews to climbers or statistics.)</em></p>