Sendero Luminoso

Thirty meters out from the belay, I find myself standing on two down sloping granite smears. I readjust back and forth to get my shoe rubber to bite. The rubber feels surprisingly warm and goey for the 50-something degree air temp and gusty winds. Maybe, it is because of my elevated body temperature as I overworked to execute the 13- slab section at 12,000’ feet above sea level, which starts this pitch. I try to put these sensations out of my mind and just execute the sequence, a difficult V7 slab boulder leaving this great rest. But, at the last hard move, I lean a bit too far outward and slide off the miniscule dimple being used as a hand hold.

I hang on the rope in frustration for a moment. Woe is me! The fixed line was interfering with that difficult clip, my sweatshirt had raised my skin temp too much, a better handhold broke a few days before, and so on… There is always an excuse to find. I had made it to this part of the route, pitch 8, with no falls that day, even through the difficult 5.13d tech layback pitch below. This is the last of three 5.13 pitches - just a brief and executable 5.12d afterwards, and then rambly terrain to the summit (topo link here). I look back to the foot stance where I was just resting on lead. The stance is so good - it really could have been a belay, if the first free ascensionists chose to put in the bolts and engineer it as such. Should I just restart from that point to free climb this segment, and then continue upwards? What are my personal standards for claiming success?

The game of redpointing on multipitch routes and bigwalls is less cut-and-dry than the same game at the sport crag. We are trying to “cumulatively free climb the route”. The consensus rules to do so are to redpoint each pitch, in order. But, it is okay to rest on the rope at belays, or to make up for falling on a given pitch by re-climbing it without falling.

In the simplest sense, it is the same game as stacking multiple sport-crag-style redpoints on top of each other. However, multipitch routes often have some discretion in where one builds the belay. If the pitch has a great rest ledge in the middle, is it okay to split the pitch and redpoint each portion separately, even if it wasn’t done in that manner during the first free ascent? It is surely easier to chunk down the difficulties into smaller segments. It is simply less exertion to be repeating portions of the pitch separately than trying for the whole thing at once. Or another variation in this theme, is top roping some of the pitches cleanly good enough for a route redpoint? These personal discretion points, which may dilute an ascent’s style, are known in the community as an “asterisk” to the ascent. Unpacking the asterisk help understand what was actually done to climb the route, but are also easy to conveniently not mention when publishing the headline of success.

This moment of standing on these two slippery smears was one of deja-vu. I was in this exact position four years earlier, fell on the exact same move, and faced the same predicament in deciding what style of ascent to commit to. At that time, I did indeed pull over to the previous foot ledge, freed the bouldery segment from that “virtual belay”, and continued to the summit. My tally that day was clean redpoints on the 5.13d crux pitch and all of the 5.12 and under. But, I split both 5.13- pitches into segments from ledges (you may or may not call them ledges... even what defines a “stance” is personal discretion at the moment). A heavy asterisk to my ascent. I was confident that I had a peak experience on the route and felt great about doing hard climbing. But, once out of the wilderness, I did not feel confident in sharing the story as success in the “cumulatively free climb the route” game we are playing.

In 2024, I came into this trip with excitement to reclimb on this same route primarily in support of my climbing partner Amity Warme in her process of redpointing the route. Sendero had been one of my favorite routes I had climbed on over the years. It made sense as great practice for a technical granite seam climb that I am working towards this fall in Yosemite. In the back of my mind, though, I was playing with the idea of doing the route in a better style.

Amity and I hiked the 15 miles out to Mt Hooker with supplies to camp below and work on the route for 14 days. We aided up the route the day after hiking in and fixed ropes for toprope rehearsal. The holds on the whole route are so subtle that they are almost impossible to climb without chalk and memorization. I thoroughly enjoyed the flow of practice climbing the route, and even had a no falls top rope outing one day. We decided to try for an in-a-day redpoint attempt together after about 8 days out there. It is worth noting, I was climbing only one day on, one day off to Amity’s three days on, one day off! 

That day this year, when I slipped on this slab section, I lowered all 30 meters back down to the established belay. This was my moment to be the climber I also wanted to be. I took a breather, then strapped my Miuras back on. The start of that pitch is not easy, yet I found even more flow in the face of fatigue. I got back up to that final mid-pitch rest stance and reflected on this symbolic moment. I know that I am a better climber these four years later. And, I am proud to say that my personal threshold for success has only become more strict. I knew exactly how to do these moves. I executed that insecure V7 sequence with precision and immense focus. Amity followed up selflessly on top rope, having just barely not redpointed the crux pitch herself that day. We topped out Mt Hooker by sunset, with me redpointing the whole route for its third free ascent.

Amity is my favorite partner for these difficult and long ascents. I am blown away by her stamina every time we team up. And, I deeply respect her strong personal values. I think we both rise to the occasion and become better climbers when together. Amity redpointed the route in-a-day for her own asterisk free ascent just a handful of days later. Her ascent was completed through sheer determination - putting in three attempts on the 13d pitch, plus multiple attempts on other hard 12+/13- pitches. Her tally of difficult climbing moves during the redpoint day was essentially double that of mine! An insane feat for an already long, taxing, and high elevation route.

Both my 2020 and 2024 trips to Mt Hooker came at serious moments in life. The wilderness retreat aspect of backcountry climbing is wonderful for rest day reflection. In the face of those tense thoughts, rock climbing movement can feel freeing, but the “game” of sending can feel pointless... However, I like to mutter to myself a favorite quote: “how we live our days, is how we live our lives”. As a rock climber, and hopefully in all other aspects of life, I want to live out my days in big, audacious stories that I am proud to share. I am so proud to share this arc of a great friend and I both sending Sendero Luminso, asterisk free.