Your window into the stories, history, and ongoing work to preserve Yosemite’s climbing legacy.

A Note from the Editor

More big news from Yosemite and specifically El Cap this week. Tom Herbert sent over the following texts:

April 30: “Sounds like an Italian climber just freed Lurking Fear—first time since Tommy and Beth.”

May 18: “Jordan Cannon just freed the Salathé—pitch 19 included. That’s only been done a handful of times.”

Both are major El Cap free ascents; I’ll dig into them in the feature story.

Park-Service Update: High  Sierra Camps Stay Closed

The High Sierra Camps won’t open again this summer. As Doris Alvarez reported in Men’s Journal (May 15):

“For the sixth consecutive year, Yosemite National Park’s iconic High Sierra Camps will stay closed, dashing hopes for the full return of one of the nation’s most beloved backcountry experiences.”

Ashley Harrell added in SF Gate (May 14):

“The five historic High Sierra Camps were slated for a full reopening for the first time since 2018. Instead—amid staffing shortages and funding cuts—they’ll remain shuttered.”

The concessioner, Yosemite Hospitality (an Aramark subsidiary), said:

“Utilities that support the camps—potable water and toilets—will not be available this summer. The decision was made in collaboration with the National Park Service.”

This Week’s Feature Story

Rather than spotlighting a single climber or route, this week’s feature will weave together both headline ascents: Pietro Vidi’s repeat of Lurking Fear and Jordan Cannon’s full free of the Salathé Wall with its notorious 5.13c pitch 19. See below.

Chris Van Leuven

Editor, Yosemite Climbing Association News Brief

YosemiteClimbing.Org

Photo: From Pietro Vidi’s Instagram page.

Lurking Fear and Salathé  Wall—Pitch 19 Included—Freed in the 2025 Season

Faber’s quest to juggle work, wedding plans, and make another run at his mega El Cap project

Yosemite’s 2025 climbing season is in full swing, and the park is buzzing with news: on El Cap, Pietro Vidi has logged the first free ascent of Lurking Fear in 25 years, and Jordan Cannon has freed the Salathé Wall—complete with its seldom-climbed 5.13c pitch 19.

Two Historic Lines

Both routes appear in the 2004 American Alpine Journal (AAJ).

Lurking  Fear
“A route that eluded [Yuji] Hirayama’s free attempts was Lurking Fear, whose crux slab pitches have baffled all but Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden.”

Salathé  Wall
Jim “Herson became the only person to lead the crux 5.13c 19th pitch in a single go. All other free ascents either broke up this pitch or avoided it via the Bermuda Dunes offwidths.”

Lurking  Fear Gets Its Third Free Ascent

On May 16, 2025, Gripped reported the line’s third free ascent (and first repeat of Caldwell & Rodden’s FFA):

“Pietro Vidi is a strong boulderer with sends of F the System V16, Flow State V15 FA, Dreamtime V15 and Captain Nemo V15. Earlier this year, he climbed the 5.14+ trad route Tribe.”

“In 1995, Steve Schneider, Alan Lester and Jeff Schoen had freed 95 percent of the route, leaving only pitches 2 and 7 undone.”

On Instagram, Vidi kept it brief:

“I climbed my first El Cap route ‘free lurking fear’—second ascent, 25 years after @tommycaldwell and @bethrodden. More in the next post.”

Pietro’s next post wrote:

Lurking Fear | The Process

“Ever since last fall trip i fell in love with this place and returned with the goal of free climbing one route on El cap.

The initial plan was to climb Salathe, but due to various logistical and weather reasons my focus shifted over to the west face, on lurking fear.

It looked like the perfect choice with the current warm conditions of the valley, hard pitches are all pretty low and stay in the shade till noon.

Lurking Fear revolves around 2 main cruxes: pitch 2 and 7.

Pitch 2 should be the main crux: 30 meters of seemingly blank wall, alternating delicate slab moves and two wild dynos! (at least all this years of comp climbing hasn’t been wasted).

It revealed to be a proper mental challenge, having to keep your sh*t together till the very end proved to be tough and took me three days to finally link it. Definitely one of the craziest pitches I’ve ever climbed!

Next pitch is only rated 12d but was also a proper challenge, with 3 meters of super thin face climbing that proved to be pretty tough.

After that, three cruiser beautiful 5.12 cracks lead to the second crux, the pitch 7 traverse: a brutal 2 meters final section kept me busy for 2 days: figuring out a sequence and promptly crumbling a foothold right after, many broken flakes later I finally figured out a sequence and somehow sent it right away!”

The rock is actually pretty bomber here, but the footholds were so tiny they just couldn’t hold my weight, hopefully all the fragile ones are now gone and the sequence won’t change more!

The main business of the route ends here, with only 3 5.12 and 1 5.13 to go things start to ease out and, apart from a couple falls on a tricky 12d and a wet offwidth it was smooth sailing to the top!

Still can’t quite wrap my head around this one, I just wanna thank Luca, Alessio and Mauro for the precious help on the route and Tommy and Beth for establishing such a mega line!”

Caldwell’s 2001 AAJ account recalls the crux pitches:

“The two most gruesome pitches were two and seven, the only two that had never been freed. Pitch two was relentless, and would lacerate our fingertips after just one try. After about seven days of work, we finally conquered the monster. However, the difficulties did not end there. The next four pitches offered some of the best climbing in the Valley. A pitch of tricky face climbing followed by three leads of beautiful 5.12 thin cracks led to the next crux pitch. A blank, slabby, traversing pitch, protected by rivets, finally yielded after three mornings of work.”

My View from an Earlier Era

Back in the day, I supported Yuji Hirayama during his free attempt and watched him get shut down on the hard slabs and tricky stemming. After a season of effort, he pivoted to speed, teaming with Nick Fowler to set a 3:04 record—a mark that held until 2024, when Jake Whisenant and Brant Hysell lowered it to 2:55 (Gripped).

Community reactions flooded Vidi’s feed:

Babsi Zangerl: “Soooo cool! Incredible… super inspiring!!! First repeat after the hold broke!!!”
Connor Herson: “Wow, congrats!! About time that one got repeated!!”

Jordan  Cannon Frees the Salathé  Wall—Including Pitch 19

Connor Herson (and his dad, Jim) know the Salathé well—they’ve both freed the full line, including pitch 19. As Connor put it in 2022:

“It’s not the Salathé if you do the monster offwidth instead! Eighteen years and 351 days ago—90 hours before I was born—my dad topped out the Salathé after free-climbing it. Yesterday, I did the same.”

I’ve asked Jordan Cannon for more about his free ascent; no word yet. What we do know: Mark Hudon was on support—no surprise if you know their backstory.

A Quick History Lesson

Late 1970s: Hudon and Max Jones nearly free the Salathé—missing only 300 ft—nine years before Todd Skinner and Paul Piana made the full FFA (1988).
Freerider (1998, Thomas & Alex Huber): A Salathé variation that most notably bypasses pitch 19 and the headwall, famous now thanks to Free Solo.

For more on the Cannon/Hudon partnership, check Samuel Crossley’s film Free As Can Be.

Yosemite Facelift® is ON - and registration is officially OPEN!

This is more than just a cleanup. Facelift is a full-on celebration of Yosemite and the community that cares for it.

Mornings are for giving back: grab a trash picker, join the crew, and help protect the park we all love.

Evenings? That’s when we rally! Mind blowing climbing films and inspiring speakers. Book signings, stories, and stoke... all while hanging out with your best friends in the middle of Yosemite Valley. What more could you ask for?!

Date: September 24-28, 2025

Two-step registration required (YCA + NPS)

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