Climbing
Hot Flashes News

Astroman and Rostrum Free-Solo

By Dougald MacDonald


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The East face of Washingtom Column.
Photo by Rob Pizem.

Alex Honnold has free-soloed Astroman (5.11c, 10 pitches) and the Rostrum (5.11c, 8 pitches) in Yosemite Valley in a single day. Honnold climbed all of the harder variations on Astroman, including the 5.11c Boulder Problem and the 5.11b pitch above the Harding Slot, according to James Lucas, a friend from the Valley. 

Honnold is likely the third person to free-solo Astroman, after Peter Croft and Dean Potter. Croft was the first person to solo both Astroman and the Rostrum in a day, in 1987. 

In May, Honnold led a one-day free ascent of Freerider (5.12d, 37 pitches) on El Capitan, with Brian Kimball following every pitch free. 

In other Yosemite news, Australian Lee Cossey made a ground-up free ascent of El Niño (5.13c, 30 pitches) on El Capitan, onsighting or flashing all but three pitches, including four of the seven 5.13 pitches. He freed the remaining 5.13 leads on his second go. The ascent took six days. The previous week, Cossey and Lawrence Dermody completed Freerider, with both climbers freeing every pitch. 

Dates of Ascents: September 2007 

Sources: James Lucas, stanford.edu/~clint/yos/longhf.htm, thenorthface.com/na/athletes/athletes-PC.html, Amanda Watts

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