Pete Whittaker recently became the first person to rope solo--all free--El Capitan's Freerider (VI 5.12d) in a day. In 2014 he was credited as the first person to flash the route in a single push over three days. On his rope-solo ascent, he left the ground at 3:02 p.m. November 11 and finished at 11:02 a.m. November 12, for an elapsed time of 20 hours, 6 minutes, on the thirty-seven-pitch route (Freerider is reported as having anywhere from thirty-two to thirty-seven pitches, depending on the number of alternate belays that are used).
In reality, those "thirty-seven" pitches were more like seventy-four, because with rope soloing a climber essentially climbs every pitch twice out of technical necessity, to lead and then clean each pitch. A rope-soloist will lead with a self-belay, paying out slack as they lead. When they reach the end of a pitch, they fix the rope, rappel to the previous belay, and then clean the pitch, usually ascending the fixed rope with ascenders. There are a variety of devices and methods for rope soloing. Whittaker said he used a Silent Partner and a Wild Country Ropeman as a "rope grab" to help manage the spare rope below him.
Of his afternoon departure, he said, "I started at this time to avoid the hottest part of the day. By starting at 3 p.m. I was hoping to miss that window...where it is still scorching on the wall. When you're working hard, the heat can affect you massively and drain your energy. The conditions of the rock were also slightly better through the night, obviously.... The hardest challenges were just keeping going when you're tired. It's easy to give in when you're by yourself. I just focused on one pitch at a time, and before you know it, you're closer than you think. I had a low point at the top of The Monster Offwidth [a notorious rope length of 5.11 offwidth/squeeze chimney] in The Alcove [at the base of El Cap Spire about halfway up the wall]. I think it was a mixture of not climbing it that well, along with the fact that my body wanted to be sleeping at that point. I had to fight on the Endurance Corner [a 5.12 dihedral high on the route below the Salathe headwall].... I just pulled myself a massive loop of slack and gunned it for the jug. It would have been a good fall, if I'd come off there."
Whittaker only recently learned how to rope solo.
"I think my first rope solo climb was in March this year," he said. "It was a single-pitch route on the gritstone [in the UK]. My first multipitch climb was in the summer in Squamish and my first big wall was Freerider on El Cap." Gripped Magazine reported that in August he climbed three Squamish routes in an 18-hour push.
With all that behind him he's now heading back home to Sheffield, England.
"I'll definitely rest a bit, let the body recover," he said. "Then I'll probably boulder over the winter, to try and build a base."
Freerider history and more Yosemite news
Brothers Alexander and Thomas Huber first climbed Freerider in 1998. Steph Davis achieved the first female free ascent in 2004.
Stephane Perron was the first to free Freerider as a rope soloist over seven days in 2007, onsighting most of the pitches on the upper half of the route. Jorg Verhoeven did it next in 2013. He finished the route in four days while the U.S. National Parks were closed for sixteen days as a result of government gridlock over the national budget. Verhoeven later wrote in a blog that he "didn't do it in the best style" because he toproped one pitch and pinkpointed other sections.
Verhoeven also freed The Nose (VI 5.14a) of El Cap in 2014 (first freed by Lynn Hill in 1993; she became the first to free it in a day in 1994), and recently made the second ascent of the Dihedral Wall (VI 5.14a) on El Cap. The Dihedral Wall was first freed by Tommy Caldwell in 2004.
Whittaker and Verhoeven's November ascents happened as Adam Ondra--more known for sending 5.15c sport climbs--makes an impressive bid for the second free ascent of the Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d), which was first climbed by Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson in the winter of 2015 to international acclaim as the hardest big wall free climb on Earth.