Free Climbing El Corazón on El Cap Over 8 Days (5.13b R)
2026 · 44 min · Trad, Big Wall · Tyler Karow
This is a field record of two ascents of El Corazón (5.13b R) on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley completed in May 2026 by Tyler Karow and Julian Kraus-Polk. The film follows the pair over eight days on the wall and shows the incremental nature of pushing a hard free route on big-wall terrain: working pitches, dealing with runouts (the “R” in the grade), and the logistics of spending extended time on a multi-pitch granite face. The route name, grade, place and the fact both climbers managed free ascents are stated in the filmmaker’s account. As a climbing film the value is documentary rather than celebratory. It records how modern free attempts on El Cap are staged and negotiated pitch by pitch — the failures, the small adjustments, and the eventual successes — without embellishment. For someone interested in big-wall free climbing, it’s useful to see how a 5.13b R line is approached over multiple days on El Capitan.
Review
A realistic picture of a long free push, and the runtime is the point. Tyler Karow and Julian Kraus-Polk free El Corazón, 31 pitches up El Capitan at 5.13b with an R rating for the runouts, over eight days in May 2026, and both climbers manage free ascents.
This is for anyone who wants to know how a modern El Cap free attempt is actually staged: working pitches, dealing with runouts, and the logistics of days on a granite face. Forty-four minutes is long enough to show the small adjustments and the failures, not just the sends. Skip it if you want polish or a big name. This is a self-made film by the climbers, and the value is documentary rather than cinematic.
What works is the R. The film shows what a runout at 5.13 looks like from the sharp end, and it is the best illustration of that letter on the site. Alexander Huber's 2001 free ascent, and the pitons and bird beaks left from his aid ascent, are the route's back story, and the film respects them. What it gets wrong is pace. Eight days on a wall is slow, and forty-four minutes of it is sometimes slow too.
Emily Harrington Free Climbs El Capitan's Golden Gate is a seventeen-minute Louder Than Eleven film about a comparable multi-day free push. That one is tight and produced. This one is loose and lived in. For understanding the work, I prefer this one.
