Big Canadian-first El Cap Route Free Climbed

European crushers Jacopo Larcher and Barbara Zangerl free-climbed Magic Mushroom 5.14a on El Cap in Yosemite for the route’s third free ascent. It was f irst climbed by Canadians Hugh Burton and Steve Sutton of the Squamish Hardcore crew at VI 5.7 A3 in 1973. It was f irst freed by Tommy Caldwell and Justen Sjong in 2008 and repeated shortly after by Caldwell in a faster time. “We had to invest a lot of energy in this one,” said Larcher. “We had to clean a lot of pitches, f igure out how to climb all those crazy corners, haul a lot of gear and spend a lot of days on the wall. At the beginning, we were just contemplating those pitches, wondering how it could even be possible to climb them. We had to be really creative and use every single part of our body to work our way up those corners.”—