Nine years before Skinner and Piana freed the Salathé Wall, two of the era’s top free climbers, Mark Hudon and Max Jones, put in a solid bid that freed all but 300 feet of the route. On P18 — the Double Cracks — freed at 5.13b by Skinner and fearsome enough to be mostly avoided to this day, Jones, lowering after each fall to a no-hands stance, linked all but the final four moves. Throughout, the second would follow each free-able pitch free, and the climbers added no new bolts or variations. Equally impressive, however, are the catching skills of Hudon, who batmanning (no belay, while “just f—king around”) the rope on P4 to clean, caught a haulbag full of ropes dropped by Jones; and higher, on P18, caught a nut and biner Jones accidentally bobbled from 50 feet above.

Here are Mark Hudon’s memories of his and Jones’ 1979 ascent, shared via email.  

Max and I went up on the Salathé in the spring of 1979. We hatched the idea with Jimmy Dunn when we were visiting New Hampshire in fall of ‘78. He mentioned it, and we ended up talking about it quite a bit. 

Both Max and I had already done the route individually, so we looked back at our slides and tried to think of all the parts we might free-climb and where we might be shut down. Simply given that it had no real bolt ladders meant it might go all free. The first real problem, we figured, would be the Double Cracks, above the Ear. There were bits and pieces of aid below that, but they didn't seem like they would be too bad and in fact turned out not to be. We each climbed with sewn 4"-wide waistband with 1" leg loops as harnesses. We bought two sets of Friends each (a full set was a #1, a #2 and a #3). We had one hammer and two aid slings. To jug fixed ropes, we used a couple of two-foot slings clipped together. 

My only regret is that we didn't do it at the end of 79. After the Salathé, we did the second free ascent of the West Face of El Cap; Astroman; free-climbed all but seven aid moves on the South Face of Mount Watkins; free-climbed Quarter Domes (Pegasus); did the NW face of Half Dome — strict free-climbing ethics, both climbers climbing the whole route, with aid only on the bolt ladders and pendulum — in 5.5 hours; free-climbed the Chouinard-Herbert; free-climbed all but four aid moves on the Crucifix; second ascent of Mother Earth; tried to free-climb all of the Rostrum; third ascent of D7 on the Diamond; third ascent of the Cruise in the Black Canyon. We had a shitload more experience in the fall than we did in the spring. 

I think if we had done it in the fall, after all those other routes, we would have worked it more. We had portaledges and our plan was to hang out and work pitches, but for some reason we just kept moving up. It was a mindset thing. The traditional thing was to keep moving up, not to camp — i.e., on the Spire and rap back down to the Double Cracks — to work on it (let alone work it on a toprope!). 

We had done the Salathé up to Mammoth twice before, so we didn't care too much about doing it again. We blasted up there, having a good time, jumping for bolts, simul-climbing easy pitches and generally f—king around. We were dragging a bag with ropes in it to fix down from Heart Ledges. I remember I was batmanning the pitch up to the traverse, fourth or fifth pitch. Yup, batmanning the rope, no belay, holding on with one hand to clean any gear Max had placed. We were just f—king around. The bag got stuck, and Max yelled down that it was stuck. I reached over to a trail line and gave it a jerk. He had had the rope just in his hand, and when I jerked it, he dropped it. The bag with the ropes in it was falling — no big deal, it was only stuffed with ropes — but I leaned over and caught it in my arms! All the while with no belay, just hanging onto the rope in Batman position! Max, freaked out: "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" he said, and hauled it up off my arms pretty quick. I didn't even blink an eye, just kept going. 

Ah, such is the wonder of youth, eh? 

I remember now that my camera was also in the pack — maybe that's why I wanted to catch it.