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golden gate
the big walls of el capitan - breathtaking, steep, the featureless surface of the granite offers just a few
possibilities for free climbing. 8 years after the lynn hill´s free ascent of the nose all possible routes
seem to be climbed free. nothing left to explore?
no!
there is a small team which continued to explore new lines...
the heart route, which has been opened in 1970 by chuck kroger and scott davis was one of the first routes
on el cap and therefore it did follow mainly the most obvious features of the face - best chances for a
continuous free climb.
after thomas still was suffering from an injury, alexander starts at the 20th of september to solo up the
new line, which escapes from the salathé at the height of el cap spire. climbing up and down the route joins
the heart route after 4 pitches. then, most of the climb is along the original route - just the muddy and wet
rainy day woman crack has been bypassed on the left. on the fifth day of the first ascent alexander reached the
huge ramp fat city, which is the exit of the heart route, and found a fantastic freeclimbing solution to it: a
300ft high flake rips through the highly exposed and overhanging headwall to the left - the perfect exit to the
new free climb: golden gate!
on friday, the 13th of oktober, they climbed the salathé halfway up to the el cap spire, where they did send
their first bivy night.
on the second day they climbed another 12 pitches up to 5.13a and after another bivy in the wall the brothers
climb the crux of the route, the spacy a5-traverse, and reached the summit of el cap freeclimbing golden gate
in a single push...
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