6 days on the wall, 13/30+ wet pitches, snow on our bivy ledges, waning hours of daylight, a post-covid lingering cough and Mike Holmes was still able to send and free climb Freerider! What a beast.

It was late November, a huge snowstorm blanketed the valley, but Mike Holmes, Kyle Higby and I saw a weather window and decided to make an attempt on Freerider, a route on El Capitan (the one Alex Honnold soloed). Mike's goal was to free climb the route and I was in need of a vacation from my 9-5, so when he asked if I'd be interested in supporting his attempt, I was in.

We were the first ones to blast up after the prolonged snow, so much of the chalk was washed away, obscuring the path forward, creating a cool experience discovering the climbing moves. The descent off the top down the East Ledges in thigh-deep snow, with over a hundred pounds of gear on our backs, proved to be one of the more terrifying parts of the whole climb!

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