A BIG DAY OUT

Pete Whittaker goes into detail about his sub-24-hour solo link-up of Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite, USA.

What Do Your Big Days Look Like?

For Pete Whittaker, big days and testing goals are personal challenges he eagerly accepts. His recent sub-24-hour solo ascent of both of Yosemite’s notorious big walls Half Dome and El Capitan punctuate this point.

Prior to Pete’s ascent on November 11, 2018, a solo sub-24-hour link-up of Half Dome and El Capitan has only been completed 3 times by Hans Florine, Dean Potter, and Alex Honnold. For Whittaker’s achievement, he climbed The Regular Northwest Face (VI 5.12) (5.9 C2) on Half Dome and The Nose (VI 5.14a) (5.8 C2) on El Capitan for an impressive 4,900’ of climbing in 20 hours and 19 minutes.

We caught up with Pete after his return home from Yosemite to get the details on his accomplishment.

The Interview

Congrats from everyone here! How does it feel to have completed this link-up?

The thing I am most pleased about is just getting it done and being able to complete it in a short space of time. Truthfully, I went for it with a limited preparation period and still did it with plenty to spare in terms of energy. This feedback tells me I wasn’t at my limit and then I automatically start questioning, what’s next, how can I challenge myself a bit more?

This questioning doesn’t take away from completing this project though I really enjoyed it; I am just always looking to progress.

How did the climbing itself feel?

Overall the day felt great, of course, there were some mistakes but I expected this to happen so when they happened it never surprised me.

For these ascents, I decided to try a new style of climbing where essentially I got up the walls by any means; pulling on gear, aiding, and French freeing I just couldn’t ascend a fixed line. This was a new style for me but it allowed me to pretty much assure the climbing never went above 5.10 so I could move quickly. This style is what 95% of people use when climbing big walls in Yosemite and it’s how Dean [Potter], Hans [Florian], and Alex [Honnold] previously did their solo links. Overall it allowed me to move quickly up the wall.

How did this solo compare to your 2016 solo of Freerider? First, to clarify I didn't traditionally rope solo every single pitch (up, down, up), as some pitches are too easy and some pitches lend themselves well to other solo techniques such as back looping and moving belay techniques. Either way, I still had to lead each pitch to get the rope and myself up.

Overall though, this time I topped El Capitan and was much less tired than in 2016. 2016 was my first time up a big wall by myself so I took more for a kit and moved slower. Now with more experience, I was confident in taking a lighter kit with a lighter, shorter, and thinner rope, less gear, and fewer supplies. This and my systems experience both allowed me to move quicker and more efficiently, saving me loads of energy.

Was this your main goal for Yosemite? Had you been preparing before arriving?

It was 1 of 3 projects I had in mind; I was really focused to try and climb two walls in a single day.

For training I hadn’t been specifically focused on anything as I knew it would just be a big day out and I feel like I am naturally comfortable dealing with those grinds; I feel like I can do them off the couch usually. I had just come from a redpointing trip in Norway though where I had done no more than 50 moves a day and my endurance energy was low from adjusting my diet. I sorted the energy levels out quickly though by eating. I love treats and America is certainly a great place for treats so I guess that was my focused training, just eating.

What did you do to prepare once in Yosemite?

For this project, I wanted to climb both routes in single days to get a feel for them, as I hadn’t done either one before. I was quiet about my final plans so I had to find partners who were just keen for a day out.

I took an initial lap on El Capitan with a friend Hayden Jamieson who let me lead from pitch four up. My second El Cap lap was only a few days later with my old friend Tim Exley who again let me lead most of the route. For Half Dome, I climbed with my girlfriend Mari Salvesen. After our summer climbing in Norway we had been discussing a single day push on one of Yosemite’s walls so this seemed like a perfect fit. We even added some extra spice into the day by walking The Death Slabs in the morning and taking the hideous long descent off the back in the evening.

While climbing both of these walls I stuck to my “anything goes” means of ascent which allowed me to maintain climbing that felt consistently around 5.10. If it felt any harder I would step on bolts, pull on fixed gear, stand in ladders, or pull on Friends. It was surprising how much easier this made the climbing feel and how quickly I could move.

The next step was to calibrate my solo pace. The guidebook said if you can climb to Sickle Ledge - the 4th pitch on The Nose - in 1 hour, then your pace for the entire route would be around 12 to 14 hours. After I had tried and accomplished this I did a slightly generous calculation based on this figure and added in time for approaches and descents, then realized I could do it in under 24 hours.

Take us through your actual day of climbing.

I started climbing Half Dome at 6:30 am and aside from a 15 minute unintended detour of new routing on some unclimbed slab, the climb was rather uneventful. I arrived at the top of Half Dome in 4 hours and 33 minutes, which was 2.5 hours faster than my intended pace. Actually, I was a bit surprised, as I had felt slow, turns out my rope tossing and Friend pulling technique was on point though.

After a gentle jog down The Death Slabs and a steady pace over to The Nose, I was back climbing. I made it up to the Sickle Ledge in under an hour this time, at which point I stopped worrying about the ticking clock and relaxed into my pace, knowing I could keep it to the top. The rest of the climbing felt great aside from the point where I became short on water. I had only brought 1-liter as I had done on my test climb and it had long been depleted leaving me in a desperate sense of thirst that haunted me until I had made it over the Great Roof, pitch 22. However, I found some climbers who were kind enough to give me water. After a short chat with them, I made a steady pace feeling tired but strong.

After 13 hours and 26 minutes on The Nose, I reached the top. Alone in the dark and feeling a little cold I stopped shortly before my descent to applaud myself for completing the link-up in 20 hours and 19 minutes.

What’s next?

I'm psyched for this winter. I want to improve my snow bashing [ice climbing].

A BIG DAY OUT

Pete Whittaker goes into detail about his sub-24-hour solo link-up of Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite, USA.

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What Do Your Big Days Look Like?

For Pete Whittaker, big days and testing goals are personal challenges he eagerly accepts. His recent sub-24-hour solo ascent of both of Yosemite’s notorious big walls Half Dome and El Capitan punctuate this point.

Prior to Pete’s ascent on November 11, 2018, a solo sub-24-hour link-up of Half Dome and El Capitan has only been completed 3 times by Hans Florine, Dean Potter, and Alex Honnold. For Whittaker’s achievement, he climbed The Regular Northwest Face (VI 5.12) (5.9 C2) on Half Dome and The Nose (VI 5.14a) (5.8 C2) on El Capitan for an impressive 4,900’ of climbing in 20 hours and 19 minutes.

We caught up with Pete after his return home from Yosemite to get the details on his accomplishment.

The Interview

Congrats from everyone here! How does it feel to have completed this link-up?

The thing I am most pleased about is just getting it done and being able to complete it in a short space of time. Truthfully, I went for it with a limited preparation period and still did it with plenty to spare in terms of energy. This feedback tells me I wasn’t at my limit and then I automatically start questioning, what’s next, how can I challenge myself a bit more?

This questioning doesn’t take away from completing this project though I really enjoyed it; I am just always looking to progress.

How did the climbing itself feel?

Overall the day felt great, of course, there were some mistakes but I expected this to happen so when they happened it never surprised me.

For these ascents, I decided to try a new style of climbing where essentially I got up the walls by any means; pulling on gear, aiding, and French freeing I just couldn’t ascend a fixed line. This was a new style for me but it allowed me to pretty much assure the climbing never went above 5.10 so I could move quickly. This style is what 95% of people use when climbing big walls in Yosemite and it’s how Dean [Potter], Hans [Florian], and Alex [Honnold] previously did their solo links. Overall it allowed me to move quickly up the wall.

How did this solo compare to your 2016 solo of Freerider? First, to clarify I didn't traditionally rope solo every single pitch (up, down, up), as some pitches are too easy and some pitches lend themselves well to other solo techniques such as back looping and moving belay techniques. Either way, I still had to lead each pitch to get the rope and myself up.

Overall though, this time I topped El Capitan and was much less tired than in 2016. 2016 was my first time up a big wall by myself so I took more for a kit and moved slower. Now with more experience, I was confident in taking a lighter kit with a lighter, shorter, and thinner rope, less gear, and fewer supplies. This and my systems experience both allowed me to move quicker and more efficiently, saving me loads of energy.

Was this your main goal for Yosemite? Had you been preparing before arriving?

It was 1 of 3 projects I had in mind; I was really focused to try and climb two walls in a single day.

For training I hadn’t been specifically focused on anything as I knew it would just be a big day out and I feel like I am naturally comfortable dealing with those grinds; I feel like I can do them off the couch usually. I had just come from a redpointing trip in Norway though where I had done no more than 50 moves a day and my endurance energy was low from adjusting my diet. I sorted the energy levels out quickly though by eating. I love treats and America is certainly a great place for treats so I guess that was my focused training, just eating.

What did you do to prepare once in Yosemite?

For this project, I wanted to climb both routes in single days to get a feel for them, as I hadn’t done either one before. I was quiet about my final plans so I had to find partners who were just keen for a day out.

I took an initial lap on El Capitan with a friend Hayden Jamieson who let me lead from pitch four up. My second El Cap lap was only a few days later with my old friend Tim Exley who again let me lead most of the route. For Half Dome, I climbed with my girlfriend Mari Salvesen. After our summer climbing in Norway we had been discussing a single day push on one of Yosemite’s walls so this seemed like a perfect fit. We even added some extra spice into the day by walking The Death Slabs in the morning and taking the hideous long descent off the back in the evening.

While climbing both of these walls I stuck to my “anything goes” means of ascent which allowed me to maintain climbing that felt consistently around 5.10. If it felt any harder I would step on bolts, pull on fixed gear, stand in ladders, or pull on Friends. It was surprising how much easier this made the climbing feel and how quickly I could move.

The next step was to calibrate my solo pace. The guidebook said if you can climb to Sickle Ledge - the 4th pitch on The Nose - in 1 hour, then your pace for the entire route would be around 12 to 14 hours. After I had tried and accomplished this I did a slightly generous calculation based on this figure and added in time for approaches and descents, then realized I could do it in under 24 hours.

Take us through your actual day of climbing.

I started climbing Half Dome at 6:30 am and aside from a 15 minute unintended detour of new routing on some unclimbed slab, the climb was rather uneventful. I arrived at the top of Half Dome in 4 hours and 33 minutes, which was 2.5 hours faster than my intended pace. Actually, I was a bit surprised, as I had felt slow, turns out my rope tossing and Friend pulling technique was on point though.

After a gentle jog down The Death Slabs and a steady pace over to The Nose, I was back climbing. I made it up to the Sickle Ledge in under an hour this time, at which point I stopped worrying about the ticking clock and relaxed into my pace, knowing I could keep it to the top. The rest of the climbing felt great aside from the point where I became short on water. I had only brought 1-liter as I had done on my test climb and it had long been depleted leaving me in a desperate sense of thirst that haunted me until I had made it over the Great Roof, pitch 22. However, I found some climbers who were kind enough to give me water. After a short chat with them, I made a steady pace feeling tired but strong.

After 13 hours and 26 minutes on The Nose, I reached the top. Alone in the dark and feeling a little cold I stopped shortly before my descent to applaud myself for completing the link-up in 20 hours and 19 minutes.

What’s next?

I'm psyched for this winter. I want to improve my snow bashing [ice climbing].