Did Connor Herson Just Have the Best 3 Days in Yosemite Climbing History?

When you work in climbing media, you learn a few rules: A double-digit boulder is always proposed until it’s confirmed. Always get the photographer’s email. And every time Connor Herson gets out of school, the sport of climbing takes a massive step forward.

This fall is no exception. From October 6-8, the 22-year-old Stanford student made the first free ascent of Triple Direct (5.14a), supported by his dad, Jim Herson. For those who haven’t memorized the Yosemite Big Walls guidebook, Triple Direct is a 3,000-foot El Cap aid route that splices together pieces of Salathé (5.9 C2 or 5.13b), Muir Wall (5.10 C3), and the Nose (5.9 C2 or 5.14a). It also shares both of the Nose’s infamous cruxes: the Great Roof and Changing Corners.

Connor Herson, who exploded onto the climbing scene by freeing the Nose (5.14a) at age 15, calls Triple Direct a harder approach to the Nose—and the toughest of the seven El Cap routes that he’s freed so far.

But Herson didn’t stop there. Just three days after topping out Triple Direct, on October 11, Herson freed the Nose in just nine-and-a-half hours, with his dad belaying each pitch.

While a handful of strong climbers have freed the Nose—including, most recently, young British duo Alex Waterhouse and Billy Ridal—it takes a once-in-a-generation talent to send the 31-pitch classic in a single day. This October, Herson became only the third person in history to pull it off, after Lynn Hill in 1994 and Tommy Caldwell in 2005. Herson also set the speed record for a free ascent, beating Caldwell’s 11-hour push by about 90 minutes. He took zero falls on the 3,000-foot route, sending every pitch in one try.

Back in 2005, the second time that Caldwell sent the Nose in a day, also known as the NIAD, he upped the ante by free climbing both the Nose and Freerider in the same 24 hours. At the summit of the Nose, Herson admits that he was struck by the thought of freeing El Cap twice in a day, too. He texted a host of friends from the summit to ask for last-minute belays. After descending, he and his dad quickly re-climbed the 10 pitches of Freeblast. But none of Herson’s belayers came though, and he confesses that he and his dad weren’t ready for a 24-hour epic.

I called Connor Herson to hear about his battle with Changing Corners, why he chased a free NIAD just three days after Triple Direct, and how he moved past his fear of peaking at 15.

A Conversation with Connor Herson

The following interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Sam MacIlwaine: You wrote on Instagram that you had a “six-year saga” with Triple Direct. When did you first get motivated to climb it?

Connor Herson: I first decided to try it in 2019 after I freed the Nose in 2018. Triple Direct was this climb that was a step up from the Nose and hadn’t been freed yet. I’d sent both of the crux pitches, so that was the original motivation. The motivation did shift over time after I put a lot of time in the route. In 2019, I had two full send pushes, about two weeks apart or so, and fell off Changing Corners twice.

MacIlwaine: Specifically, what about Changing Corners felt different in 2019 after trying it a year earlier?

Herson: A lot of it was mental. The pitch was a bit different because I’d grown a little bit since 2018. At the time, I was growing and I wasn’t familiar with the dimensions of my body. I think that’s a phenomenon a lot of climbers have when they hit puberty, where their climbing level actually goes down a little bit.

I did get really, really close though. On a different day, I could have done it back then. At the same time, when I did the Nose in 2018, Changing Corners was pretty desperate. I just as well could have not done it in 2018. So it was a tiny margin of difference between those two years.

MacIlwaine: Walk us through the crux of Changing Corners. How exactly did your movement change from 2019 to now?

Herson: Changing Corners is a very strange pitch. There are lots of different ways to do it. I think no two ascensionists have done it the same. Depending on what method you use, it can be reachy or it can be a small box. I don’t think there’s one body size that it suits more than others.

The method I was doing back in 2018 and 2019 was so different to what I had to do now. In particular, I was crimping the pin scars quite hard. I had my feet crossed, and I was doing a lot of right hip scums in the corner. Now that I’ve grown, it’s harder to fit in that box.

What I’m doing now is move into the corner about a little over a body length higher than I used to, because I can reach a bit more. For my box now, the easiest way is to have a right hand in the pin scar, left hand gaston in the arête, left foot in the crack in the back by the pin scars, and right foot on some really bad foot holds on the right wall. Then I’m getting a left hip scum in the corner.

At the end of the pitch, with my new beta, I did an arm bar like Lynn Hill. I’d worked it out and shaved skin off my elbows. I’d get up to the end of the pitch, place the arm bar, and open that wound, sliding around in my own blood. Each attempt was worse than the last. Eventually, I found new beta that didn’t involve the arm bar and sent the next go.

MacIlwaine: Wow—sliding around in your own blood! Did you try to tape your arms?

Herson: I tried to tape, but it slid right off.

MacIlwaine: Did any of your summer climbing help you warm up for Changing Corners?

Herson: I spent a little over a month in Norway climbing for fun, but the style didn’t compare at all. Before that, I was in Squamish for a month. That translates a little bit, but Changing Corners is just a different style of climbing. There’s just no way to train for it.

MacIlwaine: Besides Changing Corners, were there any cruxes that concerned you on Triple Direct?

Herson: I was definitely the most worried about Changing Corners, but I was a little bit concerned about the Great Roof because I hadn’t really dialed it in this year. On the first day of the push, we got up to Camp IV around noon and then waited a few hours for the sun to go down. When the wall was still in the sun, I did go up and have a working attempt, which was definitely really, really necessary to learn that crux.

As for the pitches lower down, they were at a level where I could just climb without rehearsing them. I wasn’t cruising, but I hadn’t learned the beta, so that’s what I get for not learning those pitches. I had been on the Pre-Muir back in May, so it wasn’t like six-year-old memories; it was just a few months, but I didn’t remember much.

MacIlwaine: What was the hardest part of the Triple Direct ascent for you?

Herson: The mental aspect was the hardest because I knew I had so much history with the route. I was really in my head about it, especially on Changing Corners. Even after sending Changing Corners, I had to take two attempts on the exit pitch, even though I hadn’t hesitated on it before, just because I was so in my head.

MacIlwaine: Tell us more about the mental aspect of this climb. Why was it so challenging? Where did that pressure come from?

Herson: I had done the pitch [Changing Corners] so many years ago, you know? The Nose, by the numbers, was still the hardest El Cap route I’d done. Even though I’d freed five El Cap routes at that point, the hardest pitch on all those was still easier than the Nose, so I’d often joke lightheartedly, “Oh, I peaked at 15. Oh well.” There was definitely some insecurity with those jokes.

So with Changing Corners, it was partially that, and partially that I’d tried it so many times in 2019. On both send pushes, I probably had seven or eight redpoint tries and fell every single time. At some point, you just get used to falling on that pitch. That pitch is so technical that it doesn’t take much to fall. And so even if you’re 99% there mentally, it’s not enough. Part of what it was, maybe, were those things I mentioned earlier. But they bothered me a little bit. Not much, but it was enough to make a difference.

MacIlwaine: How did you get through that mental crux? Did you do anything in particular to get to 100%?

Herson: I felt like I just brute forced my way through. The send go was not pretty, but I had the beta so dialed at that point that I just pushed through regardless. Part of me wanted that three-day push to be super easy—to show that progression of my climbing, and send every pitch first or second go, and have it feel so explicitly easier than before. And that didn’t happen this push.

Then I had two rest days down in the Valley and freed the Nose in a day afterward. That was the perfect ascent I wanted Triple Direct to be. I had no falls that day and topped in nine-in-a-half hours. That was just the perfect day.

MacIlwaine: How did it feel to climb Changing Corners again, for your free NIAD, after just two days of rest?

Herson: It was the easiest Changing Corners had ever felt. I no longer had that monkey on my back from six years of effort. I’d broken through that. I’d done the pitch again and knew I could do it, and it just felt so much easier on the Nose. It does help that most of the pitches on the Nose are not that hard.

MacIlwaine: Why did you want to free the Nose in a day?

Herson: It was definitely something on my mind, honestly, because of Lynn Hill. I guarantee you that anyone who’s freed the Nose has thought about doing it in a day. It’s just one of those climbing achievements that’s always there. I knew I could do Changing Corners because I had it dialed. I had the gear dialed. My tick marks were still there. So I might as well go through with it.

The day after we got down from Triple Direct, I went up the first six pitches of the Nose just as a refresher. The next day I rested, and the next day, we went for it.

The goal of the day was just a free-as-can-be mission, just to see. I hadn’t freed it in seven years. It kind of snowballed as I sent each pitch. There was a distinct moment when I sent the Great Roof, and I was like, “It’s on right now.”

MacIlwaine: After you got to the summit, did you do anything to celebrate?

Herson: After the NIAD, because it was only nine-and-a-half hours in, I actually texted a few people and was like, “If you go up El Cap again today, I’ll try to do El Cap in a day.” I said, “I’ll buy you dinner right now.”

It didn’t quite work out. I still did climb the Freeblast with my dad, but we weren’t ready for a 24-hour epic.

MacIlwaine: Which was harder: Triple Direct or the free NIAD?

Herson: On the Nose, because the day went so well, Changing Corners was at least a number grade easier than it was on Triple Direct. It was, by far, the easiest that pitch had ever felt. Because that day went so smoothly, it’s really hard to compare.

Triple Direct was a battle. I had to try the Great Roof a few times—a working burn, then the next day, I did it. Then on Changing Corners, my send go was the seventh go of the push. Just hauling and being up on the wall for so long adds up. I actually felt as fresh, if not fresher, coming up from the ground. The adrenaline and the energy was different because I didn’t have that mental battle.

MacIlwaine: How did Triple Direct compare to the other El Cap routes you’ve freed?

Herson: It depends on how you quantify the difficulty. If you’re just talking about the hardest pitch, then Triple Direct and the Nose are tied, but Triple Direct is more sustained, so that’s definitely the hardest. I thought the Pre-Muir was up there, the Heart Route was up there, then the Salathé and El Corazón, then Golden Gate.

MacIlwaine: What advice do you have for strong young climbers as their bodies change through puberty? What would you say to someone who fears they’ve already peaked?

Herson: A lot of it is letting go of searching for progression because it’s not apples to apples anymore. If your body is changing, there’s no objective way to measure progression. It’s just going to feel so different. It’s not going to be easier; it’s not going to be harder; it’s just different. I don’t think Changing Corners is an easier pitch for me than it was back then because it’s just so different. It’s impossible to compare.

My advice would be to recognize that there’s no objective way to measure progress in climbing when your body is changing as well. So don’t worry about whether you’re better or worse as a climber. You’re just a different climber now. There will be certain climbs that are harder for you, and there will be many, many climbs that are easier for you. That’s just how it is.