Jorg Verhoeven claims first repeat of Dihedral Wall in Yosemite

Twelve years after the first free ascent at the hands of Tommy Caldwell, the Dihedral Wall route on El Capitan has now been climbed free a second time thanks to Jorg Verhoeven. First ascended in 1962 by Ed Cooper, Jim Baldwin and Glen Denny, the enormous route takes a line to the left of The Nose. The Dutchman first spent some time studying the pitches earlier this autumn, and after an initial failed attempt he has now made an "exhausting 5 day push" to get to grips with "this beast" graded 5.14a (8b+).

Apart from the heinous maximum difficulties, what is particular about this climb is that 10 of its 25 pitches are graded harder than 8a, offering "two 5.13d’s, three 5.13c’s, three 5.13b’s, a 12+ off width and the rest filled with 5.12 climbing. All slabs and pin scarred dihedrals…"

Verhoeven's climbing partner and wife Katharina Saurwein told planetmountain.com "After having sent the first 5.14a pitch on his second day, climbing the remaining pitches was only a question of physical endurance and keeping it together. Yesterday, our fifth day on the route, we set off from pitch 9 where we had pitched our portaledge. It was a long and tough day - we started at 6:00 am, reached the summit at midnight and returned to the car at 3:00 am. More than 20 hours on the go, with just a few energy bars and 2.5 liters of water between us. I don’t need to explain how incredibly spent (Jorg due to the climbing, me because of the jumaring) we both were."

RELAETD NEWS
07/11/2014 - Jorg Verhoeven repeats The Nose, Yosemite
11/06/2004 - Caldwell frees Dihedral Wall