Gripped Magazine
Will Moss Frees The Nose on El Cap in a Day
Will Moss has become the fourth climber to free The Nose on El Cap in a day. The first was Lynn Hill, then Tommy Caldwell, then recently Connor Herson. Moss has steadily been completing difficult trad routes around the U.S.A. since he began climbing during the pandemic.
As he told us in January 2024, “My first lead was a 5.3, then a 5.6, then I think, a 5.12, a well protected one.” He sent Ozone 5.14 in three working attempts that fall and worked Brozone for another three sessions, sending it the following spring. He then made the first ascent of Best Things in Life Are Free at 5.14dR at the Gunks. It was the world’s first mixed (bolts and trad) 9a in the world.
Moss is also the first climber to flash El Cap in a day, which he did this spring, in 22 hours, via the 5.13a Freerider. The first person to flash El Cap was Babsi Zangerl, also via Freerider. And this summer, Moss made the hardest ever rope-solo of a 5.14 trad route, which he did with China Doll in Colorado.
About her first one-day free ascent of The Nose, Hill wrote in the American Alpine Journal, “The drama and excitement before executing this final move was certainly a fitting way to conclude such a monumental climb. When I arrived at the summit after 23 hours, it seemed as if I had achieved a surreal state of consciousness.” Read more about some of Moss’s difficult sends here.
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