One of my favorite authors, Jim Collins, talks a lot about the idea of “BHAGS;” big hairy audacious goals. Over the last year I’ve been uncovering a BHAG of mine. I first talked about the route in conversation about cool climbs to check out in the Spring of 2022 with my friends Brette and Elliott. Then I went to Rayu later that year and I felt recovered from my hip surgeries. I was heading to Yosemite next (2023) with Ben Rueck and we were planning to climb a new variation to El Niño— but it was pretty crowded, so we went to go check out this climb. What I ended up on was the longest route on El Cap, with some of the most incredible rock- and also stacked with hard pitches. I fell in love with the idea of it but it felt way beyond my ability: climbing nearly 40 pitches (39) of technical climbing, up to 5.13d. Though, I found myself still wanting to discover and learn more. While it still remains a “BHAG” for me, my intention this past trip to Yosemite was to learn and unlock more ...