Alex Honnold is back with the free solo ascents of the East Buttress at Middle Cathedral (333m, 6b) and the East Buttress at El Capitan (364m, 6a+) in Yosemite Valley.
“A fun free solo day.” That sums it up Alex Honnold his most recent adventure in California's Yosemite Valley: the rope-free ascent of the East Buttress on Middle Cathedral (333m, 6b) and the East Buttress on El Capitan (364m, 6a+).

The only real challenge was the wet rock on the East Buttress of El Cap. It turns out that Horsetail Waterfall is absolutely raging.
Alex Honnold
Alex Honnold connected the two walls opposite each other in the valley with his bike and took just one and a half hours to get back to his bike for the first route (Middle Cathedral). The second free solo of the day (El Cap) took less than two and a half hours bike to bike.
Wet rock – No big deal
In his eyes, Honnold said, this linkup was the perfect reintroduction to the Yosemite granite. Alex Honnold took the fact that water was running down the route on the East Buttress of El Cap with his usual sporting spirit. The world-famous soloist saw this as simply the “only real challenge of the day”.
That might interest you
- Alex Honnold's latest mega linkup: HURT
- Alex Honnold takes Magnus Midtbo to free solo climbing
- Video: Alex Honnold free-climbs famous climbing routes in the US and Europe
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Credits: Cover picture Alex Honnold