On June 26, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden completed the first free ascent of Lurking Fear, a Grade VI aid route on the west side of Yosemite's El Capitan. Valley local Steve Schneider and Colorado climber Alan Lester freed much of the route, normally rated 5.10 A3, a few years ago but were unable to free the hard slab pitches that guard the start of the route.

Caldwell had intended to work on freeing El Cap's Muir Wall (largely freed by Scott Cosgrove and Kurt Smith in 1996) but could not find a partner with time for the extended project. Fortunately, Caldwell was able to hook up with Rodden and Valley speedster Dean Potter.

"I started climbing with Beth a little bit," said Caldwell, "and she's like 'Why don't we go up and do Lurking Fear?' and so that's what we decided to do." Potter moved on to other projects shortly into the ascent, but Caldwell and Rodden pushed on in the summer heat.

"It was pretty hot, so we had to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning," recalled Caldwell, "and we'd usually be done by noon. It'd get too hot." Despite the heat, the duo was able to free the extremely hard second pitch, which went at 5.13c and involved dynoing between desperate crimps. The thin climbing was right up Rodden's alley and she freed the pitch before Caldwell.

"There's holds up there that she could hold on to that I could not even imagine holding on to really," said Caldwell. "Like the lower crux, there's big holds every once in a while, but they're really far apart. So, I'd have to do one or two moves to get from one to the next and she'd have to do eight or nine or more, tic-tacking up these tiny little things. It was crazy and really cool."

Rodden got her first taste of big wall free climbing in July of 1999, when she established a new route with Lynn Hill, Nancy Feagin and Kath Pyke on the Tsaranoro Massif in Madagascar. Since then, she's firmly established her gear-placing skills, making quick ascents of hard cracks like Ruby's Café (5.13a) and the first free ascent of Disco Gun Machine (5.13), both in Utah's Indian Creek Canyon.

"It's like a whole new adventure. I sport climbed for four or five years and it was kind of like just the same thing, go to the crag and do some pitches," said Rodden. "It was a lot more adventurous when I was in Madagascar, that got me super psyched for it. It's just a different new challenge, I think. I think the attitude's a lot more healthy. People aren't as competitive, which I'm psyched on."

Caldwell is, of course, no stranger to the big wall free climbing scene, having freed El Cap's Salathe Wall in 1999. The free climbing duo is currently on an expedition to Kyrgyzstan with Jason "Singer" Smith, seeking more big stone to be freed. They've also vowed to return for more El Cap free climbing. Caldwell still wants to tackle the Muir Wall, while Rodden is considering The Nose.

In total, Lurking Fear now offers some of the most continually difficult free climbing on El Cap. The first seven pitches go at 5.12c, 5.13c, 5.12d, 5.12d, 5.12a, 5.12c, and 5.13c.

— Matt Stanley, MountainZone.com staff