page_title: The Nose (El Capitan)
section_title: Free climbing
hierarchical_section_title: The Nose (El Capitan) / Free climbing
caption_attribution_description: English: View_from_Camp_IV_El_Cap
context_page_description: The Nose is one of the original technical climbing routes up El Capitan. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.
  "El Cap" has two main faces, the Southwest and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a massive prow. While today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose, which follows the massive prow.
context_section_description: As it became clear that any face could be conquered with sufficient perseverance and bolt-hole drilling, some climbers began searching for El Cap routes that could be climbed either free or with minimal aid. The "West Face" route was free climbed in 1979 by Ray Jardine and Bill Price; but despite numerous efforts by Jardine and others, The Nose resisted free attempts for another fourteen years.
  The first free ascent of a main El Cap route, though, was not The Nose, but The Salathe Wall. Todd Skinner and Paul Piana made the first free ascent over 9 days in 1988, after 30 days of working the route (graded 5.13b by the Yosemite Decimal System).
caption: View down the face of El Capitan from the belay stance at the top of pitch 20 (also known as Camp IV). The vertical drop from this point to the valley floor is about 2,000 feet (610 m).
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