Freerider, the Boulder Problem

Grade: 5.13a (V7)
Style: Trad route, bolted pitch
Where: El Capitan, Yosemite, California, USA
First ascent: Pitch: Alexander Huber, 1995. Free solo: Alex Honnold, 3 June 2017

The Boulder Problem is pitch 23 of Freerider, about 700 m up El Capitan. It is the hardest climbing on the route, and the film Free Solo shows Alex Honnold climbing it without a rope. Its hard part is only about 3 m long.

History

Alexander Huber climbed this pitch in 1995 as a variation to the Teflon Corner, at 5.12d. A hold has broken since, and it is now 5.13a (V7). The pitch is 20 m long with three bolts, and it traverses left into a corner.

Honnold practised it more than 60 times with a rope before his free solo of El Capitan on 3 June 2017.

Alex Honnold’s beta

This is the sequence as Honnold climbed it on the solo.

The start. The right hand is on a small down-pulling crimp and the left on a sidepull, with the right foot toed hard into a dimple.
The thumb press. The left hand palms low on the wall so the left foot can come up into a small dish. Then he drives up into the thumb press, which he calls the worst hold on the route. Half the thumb goes on it, and two fingers roll over the thumb.
Switching. He switches feet, stems the left foot out to a very bad sloping foothold, and switches thumbs, with the right hand upside down on the press.
The bread loaf. The left hand reaches out to a big, grainy, sloping hold. The right hand goes back to the crimp, then up to the top of the loaf.
The karate kick. The right foot steps in under the loaf, and the left foot kicks across to the opposite wall, above waist height, into a stem. Honnold says it always feels like falling into the other wall.
Into the corner. The left hand crosses to an edge on the opposite wall, the right hand flips to press on the loaf, and the left hand goes up to a jug in the corner.

The other way through is a double dyno from the loaf to the edge on the opposite wall. Honnold considered it and chose the kick, as Babsi Zangerl did on her flash.

Open it in the app

Open it in the web app with the button below, or download the file and import it into Broken Crimp. Either way, step through the beta move by move and slow it down.

Open it in the web app Download the .beta file

Sources

An unofficial reconstruction, put together from the public sources above. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the climbers or sources named, and it is no substitute for your own judgement on the rock. See the Terms of Use.