Pou Brothers bail 2 last pitches on The Nose before Yosemite storm
Oct 28, 2004 19: 43 EST
The Pou Brothers ran out of both patience and time to free climb the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite, California. Linn Hill thus still stands as one and only to have free climbed the remarkable big wall route.
Crowded, hot and tough to film
The climbers expected the very narrow cracks on the granite wall to be the main difficulty. It’s been said that Linn succeeded because she is a woman with small fingers, enabling her to better work the tiny cracks of the smooth wall. But the Pou Brothers found there’s more to it.
They found the wall hot, crowded by aid-climbers and tough to film on ascent. The intended documentary involved fixing ropes for cameramen on nearby routes, going up and down the same pitches and repeating crux movements for the camera.
32 out of 34 ain't bad
Some weeks ago Ferran Latorre, one of the camera men told ExplorersWeb: “Let me tell you, it's (the Nose climb) going to be a difficult job; some pitches are pretty scary and you don’t feel exactly comfortable when you just hang there, holding a camera.”
The Pou brothers climbed 32 out of the 34 pitches. Only the famous Great Roof and Changing Corners pitches remained untouched. The Basque climbers left the wall October 18, content for now, “it was a great experience and a great result”.
2 Japanese cllimbers died
Only days after the Pou brothers left the wall, two Japanese climbers froze to death on The Nose. They'd been up there for six days and were pretty close to the top, about 2,500 feet up. A sudden, early cold caught climbers and hikers unprepared in several feet of snow. The Japanese climbers were unprepared for the cold and lacked a portaledge to spend the night
The Nose is one of the most visited routes to El Cap and seven climbers were on El Capitan when the storm hit. Rangers airlifted almost a dozen climbers and hikers from the area. Two climbers were rescued from El Capitan and rappelled down.
7/7
Iker and Eneko free-climbed the neighboring –El Niño’ route last year, as part of their global project ”7 walls, 7 Continents” - to free climb a great big wall on each continent.
Linn Hill was the leader of the team that opened ‘Bravo les Filles’, in Madagascar. Iker and Eneko made the first repetition of the route; for the African part of their 7’ project.
Al Filo
The Pou brothers free climb attempt of the Nose was financed by “Al Filo de lo Imposible” - the Spanish TV adventure series also involved in the recent K2 expedition summits of Edurne Pasaban, Juan Oiarzabal, Juan Vallejo and Mikel Zabalza. Ferran Latorre was camera man on that K2 expedition as well, eventually giving up his own summit bid to rescue Oiarzabal.
Eneko and Iker Pou have free climbed 'El Niño', on El Capitan (Yosemite) and the exposed and technical 'Zumbelzt' route on Naranjo de Bulnes, the huge limestone big wall in northern Spain. The Pou brothers were supposed to travel to Pakistan this season for the Asian stage of their project, to free climb 'Eternal Flame' on the Trango Towers. Expecting Karakorum to be too crowded this year, they instead switched to Madagscar where they free climbed ‘Bravo les Filles' (600m up to 8b).
Image of the Pou's climbing the Nose courtesy of Pou Anaiak
|
|
Feature Stories |
|
Latest News |
more news |
 |
Everest Supercouloir: "What is a summit compared to a friend's lif
Full Story
|
 |
Mystery Chopper's Utopia summit - VIDEO
Full Story
|
 |
Annapurna South: "It was such a great climb"
Full Story
|
 |
ExWeb Special report: The Ropes and Summit Push on Everest...
Full Story
|
 |
Real men
Full Story
|
 |
Christian Kuntner - a mountaineering legend is gone
Full Story
|
 |
14 x 8000: Ed Viesturs joins the world's most exclusive...
Full Story
|
 |
ExWeb Special: Ed Viesturs "I still have peaks that I want...
Full Story
|
|
|
| Andrew Lock on Annapurna tragedy: "I wanted to keep on climbing" Jun 6, 2005 | | Gabriel Filippi and Sean Egan's soul, together on the summit of Everest Jun 6, 2005 | | "Supermom" Monica Kalozdi update: Everest Summit and hard descent Jun 5, 2005 | | Robert Milne dies during summit push Everest South Jun 5, 2005 | | Grania Willis summits Everest this morning Jun 5, 2005 | | ExplorersWeb Week-In-Review Jun 5, 2005 | | Himex summit - Update from climber Jun 4, 2005 | | No Mountain top too high, my Love Jun 4, 2005 | | Jagged Globe team summits again! Jun 4, 2005 | | More summits for DCXP/Project Himalaya this morning Jun 4, 2005 |
| | End of season... Jun 4, 2005 | | Ranulph Fiennes turns back on Everest Jun 3, 2005 |
|
|
