Yosemite and the big walls.

Before the big walls

The National Park Service's climbing history (last updated 10 November 2021) lists early climbs in the park long before the big walls: John Muir's solo first ascent of Cathedral Peak in 1869, and Sally Dutcher as the first documented woman to climb Half Dome, in October 1875. It says rock climbing as such began to emerge in some national parks in the early 1930s.

The Lost Arrow Chimney, 1947

Allen Steck's 2002 piece in the American Alpine Journal says John Salathe and Anton Nelson climbed the Lost Arrow Chimney in early September 1947 over five and a half days. He calls it the most demanding Yosemite climb up to then and the first big wall climbed with several nights spent on the wall and with hard steel pitons. Steck also describes two solo attempts by Salathe in August 1946.

Salathe made his own pitons, which could be reused and kept their shape in granite where soft iron pitons failed. The steel he used is described three ways:

• Model A Ford axle steel (Steck, American Alpine Journal, 2002).
• High-carbon chrome-vanadium steel similar to Ford axles (Wikipedia).
• Chromoly steel (a Mountain Project route page).

Steck's article also says the 1947 climb saw the first use of bolts for upward progress in Yosemite. That "first" is his claim, and no other source in our research confirms it.

Half Dome, 1957

The NPS timeline marks the Northwest Face of Half Dome in 1957 as the start of the big wall era. Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick and Jerry Gallwas made the first ascent over five days in June 1957. Wikipedia calls it the first Grade VI climb in the United States, and says Gallwas made heat-treated chrome-molybdenum pitons for the climb that helped it succeed.

The start date of the successful attempt differs: Wikipedia gives 23 to 27 June, while PlanetMountain, seen as a search summary, gives 24 June for the start of the third and successful attempt.

The Nose of El Capitan, 1957 to 1958

Warren Harding's own account in the American Alpine Journal (1959) dates the start of work on the Nose to 4 July 1957, with Mark Powell and Bill Feuerer. Powell was injured in September 1957, and he and Feuerer later dropped out. Harding says that he, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore completed the climb, reaching the top at 6 a.m. on 12 November 1958. Rich Calderwood started the final push with them and is listed among the final team, but Harding writes that he had gone down before the end.

Harding's figures, as he published them: about 675 pitons and 125 expansion bolts, 90 percent of them used for direct aid, with 15 pitons and 28 bolts on the final pitch alone. He gives the face as about 2,900 feet high, with about 3,400 feet of climbing because of the pendulums. Wikipedia describes the method as siege tactics, with fixed ropes between camps in the manner of Himalayan expeditions.

How long it took depends on who is counting:

According to Wikipedia and the Yosemite Climbing Association's July 2026 newsletter, Royal Robbins, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost made the second ascent in 1960, in seven days, as the first continuous ascent without siege tactics. Wikipedia says John Long, Jim Bridwell and Billy Westbay made the first one-day ascent in 1975, using aid.

The Salathe Wall, 1961

Royal Robbins's account in the American Alpine Journal (1963) gives the first ascent of the Salathe Wall as 12 to 15 September 1961 for the first 900 feet, and 19 to 24 September 1961 to the top, by Tom Frost, Chuck Pratt and Robbins, nine and a half days of climbing in all. The team fixed ropes, went down, came back, removed the fixed ropes and pushed for the top. Robbins wrote that they wanted to avoid fixed ropes where they could to keep the climb uncertain, arguing that with enough bolts, fixed ropes and time any wall can be climbed. The route is named for John Salathe, as a pioneer of modern American rock climbing.

• Bolt count. Robbins's account gives 484 pitons and 13 bolts, and the American Alpine Club's obituary of Tom Frost also gives 13 bolts. Another source seen in a search summary gives 15.
• First or second ascent. The Yosemite Climbing Association's July 2026 newsletter calls the 1961 climb a "second ascent". Robbins's own 1963 account describes the 1961 climb as the first ascent, followed by another in 1962. We give the newsletter's wording as its claim against Robbins's account, which it appears to contradict in error.

A search summary of Wikipedia says Paul Piana and Todd Skinner made the first free ascent of the Salathe Wall in 1988, and Alexander Huber led every pitch free in 1995.

The North America Wall, 1964

Wikipedia, quoting Robbins's 1965 American Alpine Journal account, says Robbins, Pratt, Frost and Yvon Chouinard climbed the North America Wall on El Capitan from 22 to 31 October 1964. It describes this as the first El Capitan first ascent made in a single push with no fixed ropes.

The Wall of Early Morning Light and the bolt dispute

The Yosemite Climbing Association's newsletter (Edition 62, 6 July 2026) says Warren Harding and Dean Caldwell spent 27 days establishing the Wall of Early Morning Light on El Capitan in late autumn 1970, and turned down a rescue during a storm.

The route started an argument about bolts. In February 1971, according to the same newsletter and a search summary of National Parks Traveler, Royal Robbins and Don Lauria made the second ascent in five and a half days, chopping the bolts on the first 300 feet before they stopped chopping. The wider fight over bolts in the 1980s is on sport climbing and bolts.

The Dawn Wall, 2015

Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan on 14 January 2015, after starting on 27 December 2014: 19 days for 32 pitches, according to search summaries of Guinness World Records and National Geographic (January 2015). The name "Dawn Wall" is often linked to the 1970 Wall of Early Morning Light, but our sources did not confirm how much of the 2015 free line follows the 1970 aid route.

Camp 4

Camp 4, the Yosemite campground where climbers gathered, was listed on the US National Register of Historic Places on 21 February 2003 (reference 03000056). Wikipedia and a mirror of the register listing give the grounds as national significance in recreation, with a period of significance from 1947 to 1970 as a meeting place for climbers. Wikipedia says the site was officially called Sunnyside Walk-in Campground from 1971 to 1999 before being renamed Camp 4.

The listing was contested. An advocacy page by Tom Frost and Pat Ament, together with Wikipedia, says a 1997 NPS evaluation found the campground ineligible, and that climbers including Frost pressed the case, Frost suing the NPS over a proposed dormitory, before the listing was approved. The campaign also appears on access history.

Beyond Yosemite

The NPS timeline lists other big wall firsts in the national parks, including the first ascent of the Diamond on Longs Peak in 1960 and the first big wall climb in Zion, on the Great White Throne, in 1967. Women's first ascents of El Capitan, from 1973, are on women in climbing. How big wall climbing is organised today is described on multi-pitch and big wall.