A Debrief of The Nose on El Cap - Systems, Gear Beta, & What's Next

On May 12th, 2026, Bryce and I took our first steps onto the most iconic big wall route in the world—The Nose on El Capitan. Three days later we woke up on the summit of 3,000 feet of vertical granite after a clean, smooth, and successful ascent. This conversation is our debrief. Bryce has done the Nose twice now. I had never set foot on El Cap. The experience gap between us was real, and we talk openly about how that shaped the dynamic—how Bryce became my cheat code for this objective and how I showed up as prepared as I could be without ever having practiced the systems in a real setting. We cover where we each were in our lives leading into the climb, what preparation actually looked like with two weeks of limited communication. We get into the practical stuff; how much water and food we brought, portaledge decisions, hauling systems, and how we chose to break up the wall across three days. We walk through navigating other parties on route, the King Swing, Changing Corners, and the moments that tested us most. And we close out talking about how we are going to approach our NIAD (Nose in a Day) attempt in the fall of 2026. #rockclimbing #yosemite #climbing #climbingpodcast 00:00:00 - Life Now 00:08:31 - Life Leading Up To The Objective 00:17:02 - Gear Discussion 00:33:12 - Our Mentalities on the Wall 00:44:58 - Our Approach to the King Swing 00:49:40 - Changing Corners 00:56:16 - Looking Toward Our NIAD Thanks to our sponsors! LIVSN Designs Checkout Their Ecotrek Trail Pants HERE https://www.livsndesigns.com/?dt_id=2... Use Code "TCM15" At Checkout for an extra 15% OFF Your Order Help Support The Show & Unlock The Ad-Free Podcast   / membership