Behind The Scenes In The Ennedi Desert

Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold spent Saturday romping up big walls in Yosemite.  The pair free climbed Freerider on El Cap (6:45 climbing), the South Face of Mt. Watkins (2:40 climbing) and the Regular Northwest Face on Half Dome (5 climbing) in just over 21 hours.  More at Climbing.com.  So…how was your weekend??

Ethan Pringle is back at Mt. Clark, home to that one route first done by that one guy:

Projecting a route like this requires all of your attention, and having to devote all of your attention to a route like this can get really tiring really fast. At some point, you just want to get it over with. Of course, afterward you feel a mix of relief and loss. Relief that you’re done and the epic is over, and loss that this magnificent line doesn’t require your presence anymore. But for me, I think I’ll have to take a nice long break from serious route projects for a little while after this. Like Randy Levitt said, “It’s like a limestone El Cap.” Obviously, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it does sort of convey the amount of work required to complete a project of this caliber.

Pringle is no stranger to Jumbo Love, having tried it even before its FA back in 2008. You can see some footage of those attempts here.

I don’t know about you, but I always try my best to climb close to an actual bathroom.  In case you don’t, the Access Fund has a nice refresher on what to do when nature calls.