free ascent

As plumes of spray from the roiling Yosemite Falls cascaded to their left, Sasha DiGiulian, Jon Cardwell and Marcus Garcia completed the first continuous free ascent of Yosemite National Park’s 1,700-foot Misty Wall.

Mr Lama was part of a duo that carried out the first free ascent of Cerro Torre's Compressor route in Southern Patagonia.

Lama, the son of a Nepalese mountain guide and an Austrian woman, was feted for achieving the first free ascent of the Compressor Route of the Cerro Torre, one of the most striking peaks in the Andes.

In 2012, he managed the first free ascent of the famous, or in some respects infamous, so-called “compressor route” on the Cerro Torre peak in Patagonia, which had been controversially bolted to aid an ascent several decades before.

As Honnold researches and rehearses the route he is assisted by Tommy Caldwell who, in 2015, together with Kevin Jorgeson, achieved the first free ascent – roped – of Yosemite’s Dawn Wall.