Lost in Transletion 10 pitches about 1200ft. 5.12b/c R
On august 30th and September 1st / In a 27h push Ivo Ninov and Nicolas Favresse opened a new free climbing route on El capitain, Yosemite. After years of search by climbers for free climbing on El capitain, what were the odds for them to find a moderate free climb up on the big stone.
7 years ago I /Ivo Ninov/ was inspired by Leo Holding to try to find a line on El Cap,
And do it in a perfect alpine style from the ground to the top free in a day.
I had the chance to try many El Cap routes, with Tomas and Alex Huber, Leo Holding,
Time Amme, but we got shut down every time, on El capitain granite takes only 6ft of blank rock and 30 pitch rock climb turns to a aid line.
I have scooped Lost in Transletion for years and always wondered why people hadnt climbed it. Its not a big route like Salathe, El Corazon or the Nose, but it was a chance to
accomplish a dream to put up a new free line ground up free Something which was never done before on El Capitain.
I had met Nico in Yosemite a year ago, at that time he was working on one of the coolest free Route in Yosemite- Lappat 5.13 a/b R on Yosemite Falls wall-Nico climbed the route without putting any bolts. Since that time we talked a few times about new free
lines in Yosemite and a few weeks ago after a short phone call we decided to meet in Yosemite and go for it.
Nico > Since I put up lappat, all I had been thinking about is putting up new free lines in pure style rather than repeating stuff. The summer was hot and I had a hard time finding people with the same motivation as me. I knew Ivo from the valley. We had talked a few times and it didnt take long for me to notice his endless motivation for anything involving climbing in Yosemite. I had seen him part of different major projects and I knew that I could trust him to be a great partner. One day I received a call from Ivo and we shared a few words on different projects. Quickly the plan was made : try to free climb a new route on the right side of El Cap.
We talked and scooped the line for a while and one line stood out from the others a perfect corner. It looked from the ground that it would go free but we kept thinking there must be a reason why no one have free climbed this feature before. But our instinct kept us on the track so we just decided to have fun and see were we would get to ground up.
On the 30th of August 8 am we started climbing, we had big free rack and few pitons some cooper heads ,and a bolt kit .We didnt have any bivy gear only 3 gallons of water
and few power bars.
After 8 pitches and majority of them being around 5.10/5.10+R, we ended up at the base of the big corner, we were surprised everything had gone free until then, only 300ft of the climb were left to be discovered.
The corner was really grassy and we couldnt see what was under it. It looked like some people had attempted the corner before because there was a few lead bolts and rap anchors. As the light went down we decided to stay and wait for the morning to climb the corner. We spend the night on a small ledge dreaming of what could there be under the grass. We were only 2 pitches from the top.
On the 1st of September we started climbing and after 10 min of cleaning we knew the line would go! After cleaning the holds and freeing the moves we estimate the pitch to be a 5.12b/c stemming. After that the climbing eased up and allowed us to top out around 12 am.
The dream became reality
Cheers
From the monkeys.
P.s on 8th of September we climbed the route in 7h.
Ivo and Nico
