Zodiac 5.13d

Zodiac climbs the southeast face of El Capitan in 16 pitches, six of them at 5.13, mixing sustained face and crack climbing on one of the wall's harder free lines. It follows an old aid route up a feature so blank in places that establishing it originally required extensive hook and hardware placement, and freeing all of it later meant piecing together thin, technical sequences through sections with almost no natural protection or rest. At 5.13d overall, it concentrates some of the hardest moves on El Capitan into a single, wall-length objective and had seen only a handful of complete free ascents in the years after it was first freed.

History

Charlie Porter made the first ascent solo in November 1972, one of five new El Capitan routes he put up over two seasons, rating it VI 5.7 A3 at the time; he named it for the Zodiac Killer, who claimed victims in the Bay Area during his attempts. Thomas and Alexander Huber made the first free ascent in 2003, and Tommy Caldwell, climbing with Topher Donahue soon after, completed what is counted as the second free ascent that November, with Donahue freeing all but three pitches. Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher spent five days on the route in the autumn of 2016 for what is generally reckoned the third free ascent, with each of them leading every pitch harder than 5.12+.

On film

Babsi Zangerl & Jacopo Larcher vs Zodiac documents their 2016 free ascent, framing Zodiac's reputation as one of El Capitan's toughest free routes and following the pair through the five days it took them to climb all 16 pitches clean, with Zangerl and Larcher trading leads on the hardest sections.