Aid climbing makes a comeback: a new generation of young crushers is dusting off the big wall gear and rewriting speed records in Yosemite
Aid climbing — long considered the province of seasoned veterans with hooks, beaks, and haul bags — is drawing a new wave of young practitioners. In 2025, climbers pushed the style to speeds that left the record books looking slow, with a trio completing one of El Capitan’s hardest aid routes in under 22 hours — a wall that once took most teams longer than a week.
What Aid Climbing Actually Is
Aid climbing is among the most demanding disciplines in the sport. Climbers use hooks, beaks, and pitons as sequential steps, working upward on placements that often support only body weight.
A single pitch on El Capitan’s hardest routes can take several hours. Climbing far above gear that may not hold a real fall has historically kept the style’s practitioners few.
The Reticent Wall Speed Record
On May 24, 2025, Lance Colley, Oliver Tippett, and Brandon Adams completed El Capitan’s Reticent Wall (A4+; 2,700 feet) in 21 hours and 57 minutes, setting a new speed record.
The previous record, set by Ammon McNeely, Ivo Ninov, and Dean Potter in 2006, had stood at 34 hours and 57 minutes — more than 13 hours slower.
Who These Climbers Are
Brandon Adams, a Yosemite climbing ranger, holds more El Cap speed records than any other climber and has made first ascents of two A4 aid routes on the wall.
Oliver Tippett, a British climber based in London, began big wall climbing only three years before the Reticent record. He had previously soloed the same route over seven days in 2024.
The Route That Defined the Challenge
The Reticent Wall was first established in 1995 by Scott Stowe, Laurie Reddel, and Steve Gerberding, and was then considered the hardest route on El Capitan. One pitch, the Natural, was rated A5 by Gerberding — historically associated with falls likely to result in death.
The route has around fifty repeats, with most teams taking over a week.
A Broader Trend Across the Valley
The Reticent record was not the only sign of aid climbing’s renewed momentum in 2025. Taylor Martin established her third new big wall aid route on El Capitan.
Climbing magazine identified the surge in young practitioners as a defining trend, citing new gear from engineer Brent Barghahn as a factor in making rope-solo aid ascents more accessible.
