Gripped Magazine
Connor Herson Makes First Free Ascent of Triple Direct on El Capitan
Connor Herson has made the first free ascent of Triple Direct on El Capitan in Yosemite. The 30-pitch route was first climbed by Jim Bridwell and Kim Schmitz in 1969. The grade consensus as an aid route is 5.9 A2.
Herson freed Triple Direct over three days, and noted that it now has a few 5.12 and 5.13 pitches shared with the Muir Wall. Herson is not a stranger to free-climbing El Capitan. In 2024, he freed the Heart Route with Tommy Caldwell – story here. And back in 2018, at age 15, Herson freed The Nose 5.14-.
“Although it’s just a linkup (effectively a much harder start to The Nose, with Changing Corners still the crux pitch), this climb has been on my mind more than most other Valley climbs,” said Herson on Instagram after his ascent. “In fall 2019, I came painfully close to freeing the route (twice!), unsending Changing Corners by falling off an “easy” exit move. I missed the next three years of valley seasons for various reasons (Covid, wildfires, school, etc), and Triple Direct fell to the backburner. Still, I never forgot about the route, and I knew I needed to return to it at some point.
“Coming back to Changing Corners this year was intimidating. It was going to be an entirely different pitch, given that I’m about six inches taller than when I last did it and no longer have a kid’s build. I was scared I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore. I had to re-learn the pitch with a completely new method, climbing no move the same way as when I was younger. It was wildly different: certain sections felt much easier than I remembered while other moves felt harder. On a three-day send push a few weeks ago, I linked the pitch together for the first time since I was fifteen years old and finally finished Triple Direct! This ascent means a lot to me.”
Herson has racked up an unprecedented tick list of classic and cutting-edge trad climbs in the U.S.A. and Canada. His list of accomplishments is already too long to list but highlights include repeats of Stranger Than Fiction 5.14-, Meltdown 5.14c, Magic Line 5.14c, Blackbeard’s Tears 5.14c, Cobra Crack 5.14b, and Crack of Destiny 5.14b, among many others.
While in Squamish last summer, he made first ascents of the stunning crack The Shark 5.14b as well as one of Canada’s hardest sport climbs, Midnight Way 5.15a. In 2022, he made the first all-gear ascent of Carlo Traversi’s Empath 5.14d. Be sure to follow Herson on Instagram below for more climbing.
Connor Herson sending the Changing Corners pitch as a teenager
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