16 pitches of slab climbing joy/misery, questing up some of the glassiest, most glacier-polished granite out there. By modern standards the grade of 5.12c R might seem modest, but the route has seen only a handful of ascents in its near-50 year history.
The history of the Hall of Mirrors is now fairly well known. Between 1976 and September 1980, the route grew by a process of accretion, countless attempts by different teams involving various and often enough conflicting personalities. However, for the sake of convenience, the growth of the route may be divided into three distinct stages, dominated, in succession, by the skills and philosophies of three different prime motivators, Mark Wilford, Dave Austin, and Chris Cantwell. Every advance up the wall was likewise preceded by some major change in equipment, technique, or strategy. These include siege climbing from portaledges, the provisional use of aid chains, and the appearance of the Galibier “Contact” shoe, with its softer, more malleable, and adhesive rubber.
During the drought of 1976-77, Mark Wilford of Colorado Springs established the route’s first two pitches, titling his effort The Opening of Misty Beethoven, after a highly overrated, though somewhat programmatic, pornographic film. After such an ambitious beginning, it is not clear why he stopped so soon. But the route is highly tempermental at best, and its conditions were undoubtedly at their greasiest after a scorching, bone- dry summer. By self-admission, Wilford had never friction climbed before either. He had no way of knowing in advance that using chalk would increase the rating of the second pitch several additional grades. So, the hypothetical third pitch must have appeared impossible, although it was to be rated finally only 5.10a.
It was at this point that Dave Austin decided to administer a salutory dose of technical hygiene. Backed by experience he had gained on A Mother’s Lament, Austin realized the use of chalk was anathema to advanced foonting* because the particles that fell down from his hands destroyed adhesion between shoe rubber and the smooth rock surface. After recruiting Chris Cantwell and me from the Lodge parking lot, Austin now added pitches three through eight to a route renamed the Hall of Mirrors. Even with the aid of fixed ropes and siege tactics, however, we were unable to complete the Unfinished Ninth, a pitch that was eventually to be rated 5.12b.
Accompanied at one time or another by either Scott Cole or Scott Burk, Cantwell took over the lead. In the fall of 1979 he had obtained a prototype pair of “Contacts,” a new softer rubber shoe by Galibier that permitted better friction on higher-angle stone. He finished the Ninth and, over the next year, undaunted by storms and earthquakes, pushed the route up to the base of the 13th pitch. Here he decided, after drilling a few miraculous bolts up a nearly vertical prow, that a bolt ladder was finally necessary.
However, when Austin accompanied Cantwell up the fixed lines to this new high point, there was disagreement. Austin believed that following a ramp a few feet to the right would have eliminated the need for a ladder. Drilling could have been accomplished from all-natural stances, Austin argued. But in order to make the line harder for the sake of difficulty as an end in itself, Cantwell had refused to compromise with the natural rock environment and, instead, had deliberately chosen to construct a pre-placed “free ladder” up what he referred to as the “line of strength.” Feeling such tactics were unconscionable, Austin elected to drop out. Still, Cantwell persevered. After freeing the 13th, at a tentative 5.13 standard, he went on to add two more hard pitches before intercepting the Coonyard to Rim route. On this final push, in September 1980, Scott Burke was his partner.
Before they were freed, Half Dome and the west face of El Capitan had been conventional aid routes for over twenty years. The rationale behind freeing the northwest face of Half Dome was based on the fact that it was America’s first grade six. But Hall of Mirrors was the first time a Yosemite grade six had been conceived of as a free climb from its inception. However, it is especially significant that the Cantwell-Austin break underscores the conflicting face-climbing traditions that were introduced at the start of this article. Cantwell wished to maximize difficulty by constructing a well-protected free line, while Austin wished to preserve boldness by following the natural line of greatest weakness.
- Foonting is a technical Yosemite term used in friction climbing. It involves “smearing” on high-angle slabs while rapidly “padding” upward; moving up, in essence, faster than moving back down.