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General Climbing Discussion

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Wings of Steel, El Cap 23-Aug-2011 At 6:00:49 PM Fish Boy

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I was wondering if anyone has heard about this route or has been following the saga on supertopo for years?

This aid route ascends a long blank slab, was put up by two outsiders in what was a very closed circle of climbers over 39 days, was never repeated but often slandered and has now seen an ascent after 29 years.

Many claimed it was manufactured, chipped, riveted etc...but no one really knew. It was graded A5.

Ammon McNeely and his Mrs finished it after 13 days of effort and logging 60 footers on the endless hooking sections and are now being tight lipped while making a film.

No other route on El Cap has had so much discussion....the likes of John Middendorf, Steve Grossman, Scott Cosgrove, Werner Braun, the original FA team, etc etc have all weighed in, as well as everyone else...

http://jensenconsultations.com/climbing/wos/wos.html is the FA's home page listing all the threads which must have over 20k posts or more...the current one is flying along nicely too!

The interesting stuff, or most boring depending on your take, is the discussions between Middendorf who defends/references the great wall climbers/climbs such as Walt Shipley, Xavier Bongard, Jim Bridwell, Sea of Dreams, Jolly Rodger, Zenyatta Mondatta etc....

Anyone have a clue to what I am talking about?