Climbing
How Sasha DiGiulian fought through storms to free her first El Cap route
A nine-day storm, stacked pitches of 5.12 and 5.13, and back-to-back wet cruxes at the top - what Sasha DiGiulian overcame to climb, and free, the Platinum Wall: her first El Capitan route.
“It’s really scary right now, I can’t text right now, I’m sorry. It’s windy, and ice is falling,” Sasha DiGiulian messaged me on day 10 of what would become her 23-day free ascent of the Direct Line (5.13d, 39 pitches) on El Capitan. “I hope my portaledge doesn’t break,” she added, before radio silence until the next day.
Day 10 marked the start of an unusually long storm cycle. Over the next week and a half, Sasha and her climbing partner, Elliot Faber, remained on the wall as atmospheric rivers moved through Yosemite with heavy snow, rain, and gusts that Sasha estimates exceeded 50mph (80kph). Even with ropes fixed to the summit and ground, and a support team at the ready, trying to bail - either up or down - would have meant getting soaked, risking hypothermia and possibly worse. They stayed put, waiting for the weather to improve. For Sasha, watching her chance to free the Direct Line, (aka the Platinum Wall) a steep crack and glacier-polish test piece where she’d get the sixth free ascent and first female ascent, slowly slip away was agonising.
An outsider intent on pushing boundaries
Despite her stacked climbing CV, DiGiulian was a relative Yosemite novice
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
She has a legendary background in competitions - including being a World Champion - and has climbed over 50 routes rated 5.14, as well as alpine sport climbs, including two 2,000-plus foot (600m+) routes in Madagascar: Bravos Les Filles (Great Job, Girls!), rated 5.13d, and Mora Mora (Slowly, Slowly), rated 5.14b. And the 5.14b Rayu in Picos de Europa, northern Spain. Despite this, Sasha admits that when she started projecting the route in 2023, her Yosemite-specific skills were limited.
Starting in 2021, she made several trips to the Valley to learn its unique styles: offwidths, chimneys, hand- and finger-cracks, and the glacier-polished granite slabs Yosemite is known for. She even completed the challenging stemming route Book of Hate (5.13d) at Elephant’s Graveyard.
I don’t have a big past of Yosemite experience, but I do have 26 years of rock climbing
Yosemite also became her training ground after hip-reconstruction surgeries in 2021, with her first route being the 750ft (228m) 5.11c North Face of the Rostrum (I led; she followed to familiarise herself with the route and technique). To rehab, she even competed in an Ironman.
Despite her résumé - and her athlete profile stating she’s “without question, one of the most decorated female climbers in the world” - she told me, “I didn’t have the track record in Yosemite to justify trying something so hard - I felt like an impostor talking about it. I didn’t necessarily feel like I belonged.”
Continuing, she says, “I don’t have a big past of Yosemite experience, but I do have 26 years of rock climbing, and I think that intuition of moving on rock and understanding new skills comes pretty quickly because of that.”
The ascent begins
'Direct Line' was named somewhat ironically
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Sasha started up the wall on November 3 and topped out on November 26, partnered with Faber, who helped Rob 'Platinum' Miller establish much of the line between 2013 and 2015. Miller spent seven years, from 2010 to 2017, mapping, bolting and cleaning the route by hand. His final partner, Swiss slab master Roby Rudolf, eventually sent the whole climb during their 14-day push; Miller came within a few moves of a clean send.
The name, Direct Line, is, as Miller admits, his dry humour. Although the route runs parallel to the Nose on the west and starts and finishes roughly along a vertical straight line, the actual free-climbing path meanders left, right, up, and down - even completing a large circle halfway up to avoid impossible terrain. 'Platinum' is his longtime handle.
I asked, ‘Can I give it a try?’ We pulled the rope and I sent it
Sasha continues: “We left the ground and Elliot led the first two pitches, and then I led the next two. He tried the fifth, a roof pitch (5.12), and fell. I asked, ‘Can I give it a try?’ We pulled the rope and I sent it.”
This rhythm continued for thousands of feet, with Sasha doing most of the leading and surprising herself with fast sends. Faber led through 5.12+ terrain but wasn’t able to complete the cruxes cleanly. The six 5.13s - ranging from 5.13a to 5.13d - were the only pitches that took her more than one try.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in Elliot,” she said. “He was so supportive and positive, even when I was sending and he wasn’t.”
El Cap bites back
Tackling El Cap as night falls
© Pablo Durana/Red Bull Content Pool
Sixteen pitches up, on the final moves of the 5.13c face pitch White Wizard, she nearly fell, meaning she would have to re-lead the route’s longest, most sustained pitch. “My fingertips are bleeding at this point from every single finger,” she said. In pitch-black darkness with her headlamp on, she had just a few moves left when her foot slipped.
“My finger is oozing out, and I’m like, ‘Oh no,’ I can’t use this foothold because it’s too wet from all my blood.” She improvised a new sequence on nearly invisible crimps. “And then I got to the anchor, and I was like, ‘Oh my God - that was the fight of my life.’”
I’m like, ‘Oh no,’ I can’t use this foothold because it’s too wet from all my blood
That set the tone for what followed, an absolute battle to the finish: the 5.13c Doghead roof crack - where she repeatedly fell on the last move before finally sticking the toss; a soaking-wet 5.13a fingertips crack called Platinum; the Boulder Problem (5.13d/V9), luckily dry; and the final crux, a drenched 5.13a roof traverse called Teahupo'o followed by a slippery, slabby downclimb.
All that water came from the storm cycle that stopped her and Faber on pitch 32 for the next week and a half - just 600ft (180m) from the summit. Above them lay the hardest climbing of the entire route.
Life on a ledge
Storms trapped DiGiulian in her portaledge for nine days
© Pablo Durana/Red Bull Content Pool
Nine days passed as they waited out conditions so severe that Outside ran a story titled: “Sasha DiGiulian Is Waiting Out a Storm 2,600 Feet in the Air in a Tiny Tent." "Holed up in a portaledge on El Cap for four days and counting," the piece continued, "the climbing pro talks pee jugs, wind gusts and why she still refuses to bail.”
During this time, she had two vivid dreams about retreating. “The first was that we had bailed, and I walked into my house in Boulder. It felt all comfortable and I was out of this pain, but I felt sad that we had left and I hadn't given it my all. I had another dream, and in it, I was really regretful that I had given up.”
The dreams, she says, are what convinced her to stay on the wall until the weather broke.
I just tried to ride it out… take deep breaths… control your fear because you’re in it
If she gave up, she’d have to re-climb the entire route from the ground to earn a continuous free ascent. And the final crux, Teahupo'o - named for the massive wave in Tahiti - would be seasonally wet in spring, likely forcing her to wait a year or more to try again.
Marooned in her portaledge, soaked, cold and developing frostnip in her right big toe, she had no idea what to expect. “I hope this storm breaks soon,” she texted. “Mentally, it’s challenging not knowing [what’s to come].”
Her fingers took the brunt of 23 days on the wall
© Pablo Durana/Red Bull
She added about what contributed to her frostnip. “I have Raynaud’s in my fingers and my toes, and I think that’s why I was susceptible to getting the frostnip that I did. I just don’t have good circulation.”
Continuing, she says, “There were times when I got really scared because the wind was whipping so intensely, making the portaledge fly-tent pole come all the way down to my chest when I was lying down… I just tried to ride it out… take deep breaths… control your fear because you’re in it.”
With the support crew, Ryan Sheridan and Clayton Koob, unable to reach them for days, she rationed food and fuel and spent hours drying clothes against her skin inside a hanging tent she couldn’t fully stretch out in. “It was hard to ever be comfortable… half of it was wet… I was focused on using dry things to mop up the puddles.”
The final push
DiGiulian was encouraged by messages from Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold
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When the storms finally broke - marking the wettest November in Yosemite since 1973, as Newsweek reported - she found that the crux above her camp was out of condition. “Platinum was like a waterfall.”
“Elliot said to me, ‘What are you going to do if the route doesn’t dry?’ And I was like, ‘I’m going to do it wet. He said, ‘Maybe you should work the Platinum pitch on top rope,’ and I said, I’m just going to go for it on lead. And then I sent it.”
Messages from Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold also encouraged her - both told her climbing wet rock was possible, since they had succeeded on the route earlier in the season.
I said, I’m just going to go for it on lead. And then I sent it
Proper nutrition and keeping regular, she said, also mattered - specifically mowing down piles of SEND Bars, the company she founded in 2022. “The fact that I was getting greens while on the wall - it's like a full-circle experience. I got to really enjoy it and see the efficacy of eating well.”
She also credited Rob Miller for supporting her, who spoke with her at length before the climb, and later told me, “I’ve always been rooting for her and wanting her to succeed.”
Because she lost feeling in her big toe during the storm, she reduced her right shoe by one full size - hoping the tighter fit would give her more support. It worked, and she sent Platinum despite her sopping wet hands and climbing shoes.
She had to reduce her right shoe size after losing feeling in a toe
© Pablo Durana/Red Bull Content Pool
Two pitches higher, on the Hanging Slab (5.12c), her right handhold snapped a whisper from the chains, causing a fall. With shredded fingers, she poured superglue into the splits and sent it on the next try.
Then came Teahupo'o - running like a sieve. She jammed the wet crack, committed fully, and held it together through the drenched downclimb. “It was a big effort!” she says.
At the anchor, with just two easier pitches left, she finally let herself feel it. Tears turned into hysterical laughter.
Her only regret is that Elliot wasn’t there for the final stretch. The day before, he had to leave due to a family emergency, jumaring fixed lines to the top. Ryan Sheridan stepped in to belay her to the summit.
Discover more on Sasha DiGiulian
Job done
Approaching the finish line
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Mission: accomplished
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
On top, waiting for her, were her husband Erik Esterholm, Clayton Koob and her film crew. Wiping tears from her eyes, Sasha remembers thinking:
“What an odyssey. What a journey. How bizarre is it that this is done.”
When I asked if anything wasn’t captured on camera for an upcoming film, she said: “Basically, the entire climb is captured, but during the storm, we were alone, so I did a lot of self-filming.”
As for what’s next: “I think I’m going to need some time to process every moment because when I was in it, I wasn’t processing - I was just going. Every pitch mattered. I haven’t really had a moment to decompress.”
“I could use a rest day.”
To learn more about Sasha DiGiulian, watch the film Here to Climb and read her autobiography Take the Lead: Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life’s Hardest Climbs.
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