Oldest person to climb el cap

I'm getting up there, so I'm curious. I see Honnolds mom just did it but she just jugged up right?

Bill W wrote:

I'm getting up there, so I'm curious. I see Honnolds mom just did it but she just jugged up right?

She freed it of course, how else would she get up it?

Fehim Hasecic wrote:

She freed it of course, how else would she get up it?

Ummm by jugging. 

Bill W wrote:

I'm getting up there, so I'm curious. I see Honnolds mom just did it but she just jugged up right?

Her most recent trip (despite the non-climbing news media's claim) wasn't an El Cap ascent, as she made it up to the summit via jugging the fixed lines on the east ledges then hiking up to the top. I believe she was/is the oldest woman to climb el cap when she followed Alex up Lurking Fear 4 years ago at the age of 66. 

Gerry Bloch claimed the title of oldest person to climb El Capitan via Aquarian Wall in 1999 at the age of 81. 

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There's no difference between claiming as ascent via leading vs. climbing an ascent via seconding. Yes a second is "just" jugging (from a freeclimber's perspectives) but on a bigwall, the second has to know and employ a variety of systems and techniques that the leader (and freeclimbing seconds) don't have to. It can often be as hard and sometime sharder to second a pitch than to lead it depending upon the terrain and any sort of rope trickery (and time honored screwing of the second) that the leader employs This is why a climber can claim an ascent of El Cap if they only second while they climb. 

Hans Florine is sort of the keeper of El Cap records, and he has confirmed she broke her own record.

Is there any climber here who could say with a straight face that they "climbed El Cap" while jugging every pitch?  Not me.  You gotta lead your share.  I will say this: She's pretty tough.  That's a big workout.

Fail Falling wrote:

Her most recent trip (despite the non-climbing news media's claim) wasn't an El Cap ascent, as she made it up to the summit via jugging the fixed lines on the east ledges then hiking up to the top. I believe she was/is the oldest woman to climb el cap when she followed Alex up Lurking Fear 4 years ago at the age of 66. 

Gerry Bloch claimed the title of oldest person to climb El Capitan via Aquarian Wall in 1999 at the age of 81. 

- - -

There's no difference between claiming as ascent via leading vs. climbing an ascent via seconding. Yes a second is "just" jugging (from a freeclimber's perspectives) but on a bigwall, the second has to know and employ a variety of systems and techniques that the leader (and freeclimbing seconds) don't have to. It can often be as hard and sometime sharder to second a pitch than to lead it depending upon the terrain and any sort of rope trickery (and time honored screwing of the second) that the leader employs This is why a climber can claim an ascent of El Cap if they only second while they climb. 

She didn't second elcap. A guide followed the pitches on lurking fear behind Alex,  cleaned the gear, and fixed a free hanging line to lower her out on. Just for clarity. Still a good workout 

Ryan Sheridan wrote:

She didn't second elcap. A guide followed the pitches on lurking fear behind Alex,  cleaned the gear, and fixed a free hanging line to lower her out on. Just for clarity. Still a good workout 

Ah interesting. I was unaware of this detail. Thanks Ryan 

BAd wrote:

Is there any climber here who could say with a straight face that they "climbed El Cap" while jugging every pitch?  Not me.  You gotta lead your share.  I will say this: She's pretty tough.  That's a big workout.

Are you talking about jugging a fixed line up El Cap or jugging to second and clean the pitches?

PWZ wrote:

Definitive Big Wall language

That's when seconding is so hard you have to bring your brown pants 

Nano Tradgressor wrote:

Yea, I don't think jugging fixed lines would count. a better question is probably who is the oldest to lead an El Cap route?

Gerberding just finished doing an old man ascent of Squeeze Play this season. Not sure how old he is but he's no spring chicken 

Fail Falling wrote:

 sharder

Definitive Big Wall language

Ryan Sheridan wrote:

She didn't second elcap. A guide followed the pitches on lurking fear behind Alex,  cleaned the gear, and fixed a free hanging line to lower her out on. Just for clarity. Still a good workout 

Yea, I don't think jugging fixed lines would count. a better question is probably who is the oldest to lead an El Cap route?

Oldest solo?

alpinist 47 wrote:

Oldest solo?

This is a good question.  My understanding is it’s not nearly as old as you would think.

 Nano Tradgressor wrote:

Yea, I don't think jugging fixed lines would count. a better question is probably who is the oldest to lead an El Cap route?

Kevin DeWeese wrote: 

Gerberding just finished doing an old man ascent of Squeeze Play this season. Not sure how old he is but he's no spring chicken 

Donini and Lowe, at  70 and 69 respectively, were elder than Steve, even though they missed their NIAD by a few hours in 2013.

I'm guessing but would bet Gerberding is the eldest to do a FA of El Cap ;-)

Terry E wrote:

Donini and Lowe, at  70 and 69 respectively, were elder than Steve, even though they missed their NIAD by a few hours in 2013.

Shame Donini and Lowe didn't quite make the 24, that would have been a hard-to-beat aggregate age. Still mightily impressive of course.

Mark Hudon did a sub-24 Nose with Jordan Cannon in 2018 when he was 62 or 63 (Mark?). Seems young to be the oldest, are there other over 60s with a NIAD to their name out there?

duncan... wrote:

Shame Donini and Lowe didn't quite make the 24, that would have been a hard-to-beat aggregate age. Still mightily impressive of course.

Mark Hudon did a sub-24 Nose with Jordan Cannon in 2018 when he was 62 or 63 (Mark?). Seems young to be the oldest, are there other over 60s with a NIAD to their name out there?

IAD is impressive but even if it took 4 days, 70 is impressive.

I was 62 but I was really tired from having just gotten off of Aurora and led only 7 pitches. I didn’t contribute too much to the ascent.

I think Eric Perlman is the oldest, at 65, to have done the NIAD. As far as I know, no team with both members 60 or older have climbed El Cap in a day.
I supported Jordan when he did Freerider IAD, when he redpointed Golden Gate over 4 days and on his first Golden Gate IAD attempt. You couldn’t really say that I climbed the route but I was crucial to the success of the ascent. I call it a support ascent. (I’m probably the oldest guy to have jugged two El Cap IAD ascents!)

Jugging a free line up the whole thing is ascending El Cap but no where near climbing it, imho.

I’m not dead yet though so watch this space!   

Mark Hudon wrote:

As far as I know, no team with both members 60 or older have climbed El Cap in a day.

Does this include teams of 3 with two 60+ members?

Bird was still putting up routes on El Cap in his 50s.

Fail Falling wrote:

Does this include teams of 3 with two 60+ members?

Don’t know. Two people who are 60+ and someone younger would get an asterisk on their ascent.

I really wanted to be the oldest person to free climb El Cap but that didn’t happen.

Mark Hudon wrote:

Don’t know. Two people who are 60+ and someone younger would get an asterisk on their ascent.

Darn it, I was hoping to be a secret weapon for Bosque lol. 

June, 2021.  Solo Zodiac age 62. Pretty sure there are older than that.