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Bolted and named by Céüse pioneer and Alpine legend Jean-Christophe Lafaille in 1988, Arnaud Petit climbed the pitch to a half-height anchor in 1996 at a grade of 8c+. Chris Sharma climbed the the full pitch in 2001, after working it on-and-off for a few years and taking over 30 falls from the crux. In keeping with his style at the time, he did not grade the route [4], but it became widely credited as the first 9a+ in the world for a period; Open Air from 1996 was later upgraded to 9a+ to take that title.

The full line was initially named Realization by Sharma, to differentiate it from the half-height version. However, in line with the French custom of routes being named by their equipper, it is now known as Biographie, and the half-height version's lower-offs have been removed.

The route became famous as one of Chris Sharma's first big new routes. His extended efforts were documented in the film Dosage Volume 1.

Josh Lowell:

At one point Chris wanted to call it Get a Life, thankfully he changed his mind! [3]

The route is entirely natural and considered to be one of the best hard sport climbs in the world. [5]

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suVH2BuFEh0

[3] https://open.spotify.com/episode/14eXBiZUrV7LetCF132iNS?

[4] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/chris-sharma-climbs-biographie-at-ceuse.html

[5] https://www.camptocamp.org/routes/943937/fr/ceuse-biographie-biographie

Originally 8A, upgraded to 8A+ after holds were chipped off in June 2001.

Has also been done as a static stand start: Karma (départ statique).

Sleepwalker is a boulder problem in Red Rocks in the USA. Nalle Hukkataival first cleaned and tried the line, and was then joined by Jimmy Webb and Daniel Woods in trying it. Jimmy Webb made the first ascent, shortly followed by Daniel Woods. After a prolonged battle with skin and conditions Nalle was able to make the third ascent.

It has become one of the most popular hard boulders in the world, in part due to relatively reliable conditions, ease of access and celebrated status.

Ravioli Biceps:

I was at Wet Dream and Dave Graham was there, and he was walking around trying some stuff and I'd walked by Sleepwalker hundreds of times. He walks by, he looks at it a bit, some chalk real quick… he looks at it and he's like "This is the next 8C in America."...It's great that it came to fruition in a big way. [1]

Originally put up at 8C+, opinion is now moving closer to 8C. There is some speculation that holds, particularly the slot, may have improved over time due to erosion of the rock.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DNJG0LNOKZb/

Originally climbed as an easier variation of Salathé Wall, avoiding the hard crack pitches on the headwall, Freerider is now one of the most popular free routes on the main face of El Capitan.

In 2017, Alex Honnold made history with an audacious free solo of the route after extensive preperation. His solo was filmed for the 2018 feature film Free Solo.

In November 2024 Barbara Zangerl flashed the route, making her the first person to flash a free route on El Capitan. Cédric Lachat and Pete Whittaker both made ascents which could be considered flashes by some definitions but both ascents came with caveats.

The route's origins stem from Todd Skinner and Paul Piana's ascent of the Salathé, where they considered bypassing some of the hardest climbing via parts of what was to become Freerider, but opted to follow the original aid line as closely as they were able to. The full line was conceived by Alex Huber whilst working on his free ascent of the Salathé Wall in 1995. He rope-soloed the four-pitch variation to the headwall that year but waited three years before climbing the whole route with his brother Thomas in 1998.

There are two common variations that make up the crux of the route, The Boulder Problem at around 7c+ sport or 7B/+ boulder or The Teflon Corner at around 7c sport. The boulder problem is short and dynamic, while the teflon corner features extremely technical and insecure smearing. While the rest of the route is seldom easy, the other notable hard pitches are The Monster Offwidth and The Enduro Corner.

Dan McManus on The Monster Offwidth:

Left side in! The first time I climbed this pitch I had been told that it was crucial to climb it with a specific side in the crack, but I couldn’t remember which side. I guessed right side, I was wrong, but I did miraculously manage to chicken-wing my way up by the skin of my teeth. In doing so I removed the skin on my tricep which oozed for the next few days and made further offwidths very painful. [1]

References

[1] https://danmcmanus.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-guide-to-freerider.html

[2] https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199901800