Jorg Verhoeven Free Climbs The Nose | Full Documentary
2023 · 25 min · Trad, Big Wall, Documentary · Louder Than Eleven
In October 2014 Jorg Verhoeven spent roughly 30 days in Yosemite Valley pursuing a free ascent of The Nose on El Capitan (listed in the film as 5.14). The film follows his preparations, repeated attempts on the line, and the negotiation of the route's sustained difficulties until what the filmmakers describe as the fifth free ascent of The Nose. Tommy Caldwell and Lynn Hill provide commentary, and Verhoeven narrates his decision-making and the physical investment behind the push. The documentary is valuable as a candid account of chasing a single, iconic big-wall free goal rather than a highlight reel. It shows the repetition, route-reading and incremental progress needed to link many hard pitches on a long wall, and it foregrounds why The Nose remains a benchmark test for free climbing El Capitan. For viewers who climb, the film is a clear record of one athlete's approach to a technically and mentally demanding ascent rather than a broad history of the route.
Review
The most complete film about the most famous route on El Capitan, and Lynn Hill's presence is why. In October 2014 Jorg Verhoeven spends roughly thirty days in Yosemite working toward a free ascent of The Nose, graded 5.14a with the difficulty in the Great Roof at 5.13c and Changing Corners at 5.14a, and makes what the film calls the fifth free ascent. Tommy Caldwell and Hill provide commentary.
This is for climbers who want a candid account of chasing one big wall free goal rather than a highlight reel. The repetition, the route reading and the incremental progress on the two crux pitches are all here at length. Skip it if you want the speed record or the aid history. Warren Harding's 1958 siege and the Honnold and Caldwell time are context, not subject.
What works is the two cruxes. The Great Roof's pin-scarred underclings and Changing Corners' delicate sequence are shown as separate problems that must be solved in one day, and the film makes the difference between them clear. Hill, who freed the route in 1993 and again in under 24 hours in 1994, watching a European try it twenty years later is the best framing the film could have. What it gets wrong is that thirty days become twenty-five minutes, and the doubt in the middle is thin.
Yosemite Experience is Nicolas Favresse and Sean Villanueva freeing Freerider next door after three weeks of trad. That film is a memory. This is a chronicle, and if you only watch one El Cap free ascent film, this is the one.
