Golden Gate 5.13b

Golden Gate follows the first 20 pitches of the Salathe Wall up El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, then breaks onto its own line: a 5.12c downclimb, a 5.13a pitch, the 5.12 Golden Desert pitch, an aid traverse turned free, and the Razorblades pitch, before rejoining easier terrain to the summit. At roughly 900 meters and somewhere between 36 and 41 pitches depending on how it is broken up, it demands both single-pitch technical face and crack climbing near 5.13 and the stamina and rope systems of a multi-day wall.

History

Alexander and Thomas Huber made the first free ascent in a single push on October 13 and 14, 2000, establishing Golden Gate as one of the first genuinely free variations on El Capitan's Salathe-area terrain. Yuji Hirayama made an early repeat going free over two days with three falls. Since then the route has become a benchmark objective for one-day free ascents of El Capitan, completed by a short list of climbers that includes Tommy Caldwell, Alex Honnold and Brad Gobright.

On film

Emily Harrington's free climb of Golden Gate, filmed by Louder Than Eleven, follows her push to join that short list of climbers who have freed the route car-to-car in a day, climbing alongside Alex Honnold. The film centers on the mechanics of moving fast and efficiently through sustained 5.13 pitches on a wall where a single fall can cost hours, after an earlier attempt had ended when she fell and was injured.