Sam Stroh Frees El Cap’s ‘El Corazón’ In a Day

On Monday, November 13, 2023, Sam Stroh climbed El Capitan’s El Corazón (5.13b, 32 pitches) in 22 hours. Stroh is only the fourth person to climb the 3,000-foot route in a day, after Tommy Caldwell, Alex Honnold, and Brad Gobright. 

Like many El Cap routes, El Corazón starts on Freeblast (5.11; 950ft). The route then follows various aid lines before sharing a finish with Golden Gate (5.13b). Of the 32 pitches, there are five 5.13s: The Beak Flake is low on the route. The Coffee Corner, The Roof Traverse, The Golden Desert, and The A5 Traverse are all back to back, about 20 pitches up. Corazón also features “very real” 5.12+ climbing on bird beaks, loose, runout 5.11 traversing, tenuous slab climbing, and 5.12 chimneying. “This climb has everything,” Stroh explained. “So many different styles. That’s the coolest thing. Also, it is extremely hard to follow, because it traverses so much. Major props to Will [Vidler, Stroh’s partner for the ascent].” 

It was the 23-year-old’s third free route on El Cap (after Golden Gate and Freerider [in a day]), and, no, ECIAD doesn’t roll off the tongue like NIAD, or FRIAD. Alas, the Valley noticed this too, and coined the ascent CORAZIAD. Well played. 

But what does free climbing El Cap in a day actually look like? Climbing eagerly sat down with Stroh to hear stories from his CORAZIAD. Below are snippets of that conversation. Sam Stroh. El Corazón in a day, in his words.

On climbing in Yosemite Valley

For one reason or another, everything kind of revolves around climbing in Yosemite Valley for myself and a bunch of my friends. You’ll be at the Buttermilks and think Oh, if I can do this hard boulder at the end of the day, I’ll be more prepared for doing a hard boulder at the end of the day on a hard El Cap route. If I do that one extra hard pitch, that’ll translate to the Freerider. There’s a certain weight, a certain history, and definitely a challenge to Valley climbing. El Cap isn’t easy. You aren’t just happy and cozy. It is a big challenge and it seems to matter a lot more—and weigh on us more. 

Regarding Corazón, Adrian [Vanoni] and I had been working toward it for awhile. We did Freerider [both in a day, separately]. We did Golden Gate. One day Adrian said, “We should do Corazón.” And I was like “Maybe we should do it in a day. Why not?” 

On the in-a-day style

We had done the ground-up, multi-day style, and we enjoyed that style. Trying to do Corazón in a day was a new way to explore free climbing on El Cap. Since we had already done the upper cruxes of Golden Gate, and the Freeblast, it seemed like a good one to not go ground up on.

We drew a ton of inspiration from Brad Gobright rapping in, rehearing routes on El Cap, and just doing them all in a day. We thought that was visionary: He did three El Cap routes in a day in one season (El Niño, Muir Wall, Golden Gate). The season before that he had done CORAZIAD and said it was the most challenging thing he’d ever done. We thought that was so rad. Brad was the man.

Plus, it is just so much better to not sleep on the wall. Prepping for an in-a-day ascent is such a joy. You climb a lot, but still sleep in your van. You can wake up, hangout with your friends, and have a longer morning. You do way more climbing; no stopping and faffing with ropes and bags. In-a-day ascents are still a lot of work, but just in a different way.

Previous attempts on El Corazón

We tried last fall [2022] but the Valley season was really short. It’s funny, I think we always talk about how rapping in is the easier style, but nobody ever talks about how hard it can be to rap into El Cap! I think on the first day I accidentally rapped into Magic Mushroom, or some random route [laughs].

It was kind of epic getting over to Tower to the People [prominent ledge between upper cruxes of El Corazón, shared with Golden Gate]. I had to swing out for like 30 feet, and then reverse-aid the crux roof, while on my GriGri, of Corazón. It was nauseatingly exposed. I was like God, this is so full value. We are not doing this correctly! 

Anyway, we sorted it out, checked out the upper cruxes, and rapped all the way down to around pitch 15 or so: there’s an engaging (runout, above beaks) 5.12+ pitch, probably the most real 12+ I’ve done on El Cap. It’d be a proper onsight.

We got off of that recon mission all psyched and then it snowed about two feet. So we left. We went to Vegas, climbed some stuff, and went to the Cosmopolitan one night and played a bunch of roulette [laughs].

I went back to the Valley a few weeks later. I didn’t really feel ready, after three weeks away, but thought that I should have a go on Corazón while I was there, so I recruited bonecrusher Nik Berry. Long story short, we bonked below the Neitsche Chimney (19~ pitches up, right below the four 5.13s at the top). It was a Hail Mary attempt that only made it to the 50 yard line; I’m from Texas, as you can tell [laughs].

Then we went and lived our lives and came back this fall. 

Leading up to El Corazón this year

From a climbing-as-an-athletic-pursuit standpoint, I didn’t have the most successful summer; things weren’t quite clicking. Adrian showed up climbing damn well after doing a 5.14 first ascent and Cobra Crack. And you could see it in his eyes. He was so psyched I had doubts he was sleeping. I’d been sick before going to the Valley and was like Dude, I just need to go hand jam. I reconsidered even trying Corazón. For the first while I didn’t feel at home on El Cap. The Freeblast felt slippery. The exposure felt intense. I had to start slow.

We would usually either jug fixed lines to Mammoth Terrace (9~ pitches up), or climb the Freeblast, and try the Beak Flake (5.13b). That pitch starts with a dynamic V7 boulder on diorite knobs to a full rest, and then mostly 12- climbing to a V5 boulder at the end. We sessioned that quite a few times. I wanted to get to the Beak Flake feeling like I hadn’t climbed at all.

Adrian and I would simul the Freeblast in two pitches in two-and-a-half hours. Then we would simul the next four pitches in an hour and try the Beak Flake once or twice. We’d be back on the ground by 1:30. It was so fun. 

This was also the first season I had support from a shoe company, La Sportiva. Usually when I’m in the valley I have one pair of TC Pros and I have to make it work. That was different this year which was so nice. I blew through a pair of TCs in like two weeks from climbing the Freeblast so much. 

We also did a four-day prep mission from the top, to dial in the 5.13s up there. Our friend, and brilliant photographer, Victoria [Kohner-Flanagan] came with us to take photos. After the recon mission, I stashed food and water on the route. A storm was looming in the forecast. So I rested for two days and went for it.

I was fully focused on CORAZIAD for three weeks. There’s so many people that come together for something like this to happen; you’re affecting people’s lives and asking them to accommodate you. That commitment and involvement of others increased the stress levels.  Then I would forget beta when trying to visualize and just be in my van totally overwhelmed; There’s too much beta! 

[Also read: Adrian Vanoni Frees Alpine 5.14 Crack on Prusik Peak]

The day of the ascent

Those nerves carried into the day I tried to do it. On the Beak Flake (the first crux pitch), physically I felt amazing, but I was so nervous that the feet felt small, and I was sort of shaking my way through it. I definitely relaxed a little after sending the Beak Flake and the next .12d R pitch.

I was worried about not giving myself a chance. I thought, If either of those pitches takes me multiple tries, I’d be too tired or slow for the upper cruxes. It would be over before it started. If I failed on the roof, or the A5, I would’ve thought that’s progress. This is a fucking hard, big goal, and that’s progress. I just wanted a chance.

Throughout the day, the biggest battles were just hanging out at belays while Will was cleaning. Many of the pitches are traversing and steep, and you’re unable to see your partner. I would go in and out of trying to get myself psyched up, and then the sun would bake me, and I’d get sleepy. Then I would go through a bunch of bad scenarios in my head.

But every time Will would get back to the belay, we would turn on some bitchin’ Lorde song, and he would psyche me up. It was so nice to give each other a hug, exchange some energy, and every time I started climbing again all the stress would go away. You know what, I’m climbing. I know how to do this shit. I was climbing well—faster than usual—and with way more confidence. No overreacting. 

I had some mantras going through my mind: You owe it to yourself not to get scared right now. If I wasn’t trusting the gear I’d think You owe it to yourself to just place this piece and fire this. This is the day. It really helped. 

The turning point on the ascent—when we got our second wind—(which, upon reflection, we realized lined up with when we took caffeine pills and ibuprofen) was at this stance below the Kierkegaard Chimney (5.12). I asked Will to remind me to stay relaxed. I tied in, and I don’t know what happened, but I just started chimneying like mad. It was crazy. I’ve never flowed up a chimney like that.

That whole corner system is so overhanging, and I remember getting into the steepness and just feeling like I had so much in my arms—below was mostly slab climbing! The next pitch is this epic hand crack, I just chainsawed up it! I was having so much fun. 

Babsi [Zangerl] and Lara [Neumeier] had their portaledge below the Coffee Corner (5.13b). I hopped in their portaledge. I was buzzing stoked; straight wired. And then all of a sudden I got a massive cramp in my leg. I was mid-sentence and then went immediately into the fetal position [laughs]. They gave me some magnesium pills, Will rocked up and we had a big lunch, I had more caffeine pills, and it did the trick.

After the intermission, I tied in, put on “Perfect Places” by Lorde, and just fired the corner. I had these really specific ticked footholds for the crux chimneying sequence, but then I got there I didn’t care about the tick marks. I thought I’ve climbed 2,000 feet of granite to get here and my foot hasn’t popped off a single foothold. It isn’t going to now. I’m usually not like that.

I climbed it at sunset, with Babsi, Lara, and Will cheering me on. It was all-time. 

It was totally dark when I set off for the roof crux pitch. I had never climbed it in the dark and was a bit concerned about seeing footholds. But Babsi and Lara took their headlamps and lit up the pitch with their headlamps. I also had friends on The Tower to the People, at the top of the pitch: my friends Tim [Greenwood] and Miška [Izakovičová] and their partners. They were watching me and cheering me on. 

It was the crux, I needed a good song. Will put on “Make Me Feel”—the song from the Groove Train video. It hit the spot. I did the roof first try. My friends were cheering me on from either side and I just thought, Oh my god, I’m peaking! 

I got into the Tower, hopped into Miška’s portaledge, where they had a cup of tea waiting for me! All of the support was amazing. Me and Will are both really into tea, so I made him a cup of tea when he got to the belay too. Eventually I tied in. Miška had her gear in the next pitch, Golden Desert (5.13a), and it just didn’t make sense for her to take it out, so I climbed it with her gear in. It ended up being quite a bit harder this way; Adrian and I use some straight-in jamming beta where most people layback, so the gear was in the foot jams. I barely stuck the jug at the end of the crux.

Then, I was sitting at the hanging belay below the A5 Traverse, and that was the heaviest moment. I was thinking about all the people that had been stopped by this pitch on their attempts on Golden Gate or Corazón. I know Brad [Gobright] fell there on an early Golden Gate attempt. And, I don’t know, I didn’t feel like I was on the level of people like Brad; I didn’t feel I was meant to be able to do it.

 We were 19 hours in. Getting pretty tired. I changed my vibe a bit and put on “One Day More” from Les Miserables. I texted my girlfriend Madeleine and told her: One more crux. The A5. Pretty nervous. We love Ted Lasso; she just hit me with: Believe.

I pulled onto the A5. Because I couldn’t see my feet in the dark, I ended up campusing the start of the traverse basically, and got pumped. [We hope “One Day More” is playing for you, dear reader.] I did the exit sequence, which has this cool karate kick to a toe hook, and was thinking This is so cool. 

My moment wasn’t on top, it was on this really large ledge below the last pitch. I laid down on this recliner-shaped feature in the rock, listened to “Into Your Arms” by Nick Cave looked at the stars, and was like Wow, that was so fucking cool. That’s the part you can’t really articulate, it’d be like asking someone to talk about their ego dissolving on psychedelics. Yeah, that part is really hard to think back on.

But you know what moments aren’t as fleeting? Hanging out in Babsi’s portaledge. Having a cup of tea on the tower with Miška. Interacting with Will throughout the day. I feel like those moments happened yesterday. But sitting on top of the summit feels like it was years ago. 

I’m super proud of what I’ve done. Us climbers that are really trying to push ourselves just aren’t impressed easily; we’re so critical of our performance. But in that moment, I wasn’t thinking about next season at all, I was really psyched. 

There’s also a sense of relief. There’s a lot that goes into the in-a-day style. And a lot of people supporting us; that adds pressure. You’ve had so many days of stashing, rehearsing, trying. I think it’s hard not to feel a sense of relief that it’s done.

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