Sam Stroh's Almost-Free Ascent of El Nino (El Capitan)

After free climbing Freerider and Golden Gate, I wanted to try a harder route on El Cap and to check out a route on the eastern side of the mountain. The east side of El Cap doesn’t have many features and most of the free climbs link different crack systems. El Nino goes up the left side of the North America Wall on El Cap, and the pitches consist of mostly face climbing on edges and some thin crack climbing. I was excited to try climbing El Cap on face holds, instead of the complex (and mostly wide) crack systems on the Freerider.

After a week of shuttling bags to the base of the route, rehearsing the opening three pitches, and pre-hauling our bags up ten pitches to Big Sur ledge, we were ready to set off on a 7-day free attempt on El Nino, via the fully free Pineapple Express variation. The original El Nino, put up by Alex and Thomas Huber in 1998, included a rappel through a blank section, but, in 2018, Sonnie Trotter FAed a 3-pitch variation that winds around the rappel and allows the wall to be climbed completely free.

Tavish Hansen was my partner for the wall, and Scott Eubank was coming up with us to take photos and video. The three of us had climbed together in Indian Creek the previous fall, and we had been planning the El Nino trip for a couple months. The Pineapple Express variation is a 27-pitch 5.13b/c with 6 pitches of 5.13 and 7 pitches of 5.12/12+ which made it the hardest big wall Tavish and I had ever tried. The first 3 pitches are all 5.13 so Tavish and I decided to rehearse these pitches before going for a push.

After waiting out some rain and packing our bags for 8 days on the wall (with a little extra in case we needed to wait out some weather), we began climbing.

Day one was cold and windy, and we found ourselves dodging chunks of ice cascading down from the top of the cliff. The rain from the previous days had washed all of our chalk off the holds, but I was able to redpoint the opening 3 pitches without too much trouble.

Tavish’s hands and feet were frozen after pitch 2 so he decided to rap down to a hot shower while Scott and I ascended our fixed lines to camp. I rappelled back down at the start of day 2 to belay Tavish on pitch 3 (5.13b), he sent it first try. So we quickly progressed up to our camp at Big Sur ledge.

Directly above camp is the crux pitch. We checked it out at the beginning of day 3, but we were a bit intimidated by how hard it felt. The pitch consists of a 5.13- lieback up a thin flake to a good rest. Climbing above the rest, there is a v6 crimp boulder problem that leads to some pump climbing before the anchor. As we sorted out the beta, some weather came in that kept us back on our portaledges.

I tried the pitch the next morning, but I was struggling to find the right beta and my skin was almost gone. Tavish tied in and fired it first try. Tavish’s proud send inspired me, and after resting a couple hours, I fought hard and was able to send the pitch. We continued on and climbed the two 5.12 pitches after the crux before rapping back down to base camp.

We stayed in our portaledges on day 5 due to a storm. This was my first time weathering a storm on El Cap. Our down sleeping bags were soaked from our leaky, borrowed portaledge fly, making for cold, wet days, and colder nights.

We finally awoke to unclouded sunlight on day 6. We stripped our clothes off and laid out on Big Sur ledge to dry off. After a long morning, we ascended the ropes we had fixed two days earlier and climbed the two 12c pitches to get up to the Black Cave (5.13b).

Pulling over the 15-foot roof at almost 2000 feet off the deck was one of my favorite experiences of the climb. I was able to send this massive roof on my second try. Tavish tried the roof once and decided to wait another day to redpoint it. We rapped back to camp for our last night on the wall.

The next day we ascended our lines to the roof, and Tavish gave it one more attempt. He gave it a proper effort but was too goosed to put it down. We were psyched to keep gunning to the summit.

After 6 more pitches, three of which being 5.12, we arrived at the last 5.13a pitch dripping with water from seasonal seepage. I tried my best to dry off the holds and find beta around the wetness, but I wasn’t able to find a sequence that worked.

I was just 3 pitches from a free ascent...but I had no choice but to pull through the body length of wet rock. With headlamps on, Tavish and I climbed the remaining few hundred feet to the summit.

Neither of us had fully free climbed the route, but we had an epic adventure climbing some great pitches...and we make a proud effort!

Now it was time to haul our exhausted bodies down the East Ledges, and then enjoy some hot food and showers! 

My Favorite PhysiVāntage:

Up on the wall, I took Redux HP to help reduce soreness after so many big days. I was drinking Endure X and FLOW to stay hydrated, and I had scoops of Strawberry Weapons-Grade Whey Protein in my cereal every morning to provide extra protein intake and support recovery.

It is hard to get proper nutrition and sustenance on a big wall, but having PhysiVāntage up there helps a ton!