“I Wanted a Fight”: Will Moss Becomes First Person to Flash El Cap in a Day

Will Moss had one of the best days of climbing in American history on Tuesday, when he tied in at the base of El Capitan’s Free Rider (5.13a; 3,000ft) at 5 a.m. and topped out a little over 22 hours later. It was his first time on the route. He didn’t fall once.

The last time I spoke with Moss was in 2023, right after he’d put up one of the world’s hardest trad routes, Best Things in Life Are Free (5.14d R), on the Twilight Zone Buttress in the Shawangunks, NY. The former comp climber had begun trad climbing a mere three years prior, but quickly realized that the steep, pumpy roofs of the Gunks lent themselves to his sport climbing background. Evidently, he was also mentally strong enough to commit to feet-first V11+ boulder problems with ugly fall potential.

Moss moved to Boulder, Colorado, at the end of that year for a mechanical engineering degree and almost immediately went on a trad climbing tear. He quickly ticked the second ascent of Viceroy (5.14b R), lead rope-soloed China Doll (5.14a R), and sent both Cheating Reality (5.14a R) and Kill Switch (5.14a).

The whole time, Moss held a greater goal front of mind: flashing a route on El Cap. It was an audacious goal—Babsi Zangerl had yet to become the first person to flash El Cap via Free Rider—but he felt certain the route would suit him well. Moss traveled to Yosemite in early 2023 with his dad to try the flash, but the route was soaking wet. The next year, partners and weather never quite lined up. 

While Moss’s main goal still eluded him by the end of his second Yosemite season, he’d still sent a number of routes that boosted his confidence on the Valley’s notoriously techy stone: Wet Lycra Nightmare (5.13d; 9 pitches), Final Frontier (5.13b; 9 pitches), Nexus (5.13a/b; 10 pitches), Dream Team (5.13a; 10 pitches) onsight, Romulan Warbird (5.12c; 9 pitches) flash, Mahtah (5.12d; 16 pitches) onsight, and The Phoenix (5.13a).

Finally, this spring, after waiting for the right moment, Moss blasted off. I caught up with him the day he got down, while he was still recovering by the Merced River.

Interview

Climbing: You have been talking privately about wanting to flash El Cap for over two years now. How has that goal evolved?

Will Moss: I first came out to Yosemite to try to flash Free Rider two years ago with my dad. But the route ended up being totally soaked so we didn’t go for it. But I’m honestly happy we didn’t because I don’t think me or my dad were really prepared for it—we didn’t really know how to haul, and it might have been a little disastrous.

But I had done a lot of studying to prep for the route. I had all the Free Rider media I could find in an album on my phone, in order from the ground up, and I knew all this info wasn’t going to go to waste. So I came back the next year with a friend, but partners, weather, and being psyched never really lined up, and I knew I didn’t want to waste my only flash go when the weather was too warm.

Both of those years, had I done it, I would have been the first person to flash El Cap. Soon after, Babsi Zangerl flashed it, so then I had the idea that I wanted to do something even cooler, something that had never been done. Like flashing it while leading every pitch in a day.

Even so, when I finally went for it this year, we actually had supplies for three days with us. (Editor’s note: Moss and his partner pre-hauled to Heart Ledge; though Moss stopped short of the actual Heart Ledge in order to not stand on it.) I was very much 50-50. And it’s sort of a hard decision to make on Heart Ledge—you’re only on pitch 10, so it’s pretty easy to think, “Oh, I feel great!” But in two pitches, maybe you won’t be feeling that great.

But when I got to Heart Ledge I was feeling psyched, so I said, “Fuck it. Let’s go for it in a day.” And I’m so, so happy I made that decision.

Climbing: It’s cool to hear how your goal of the El Cap flash changed after Babsi did it last year, that her flash made you want to up the ante. I’m curious why you thought you could flash it in a day. It takes a lot of confidence to even dream that.

Moss: I think the route just seemed like my style. I’m 6’1” with a 6’5” wingspan, and it seemed like the Boulder Problem (5.13a) is really good for tall people. I’ve also done a lot of offwidthing, and it seems like most people who go up there find the Monster (5.11a) pretty hard. I’m also a decent slab climber. In a way, knowing that I had the flash goal two years ago, and seeing how I’ve progressed since then, was really encouraging. I’ve become a much better all-around rock climber since then.

I also knew that if I gave a flash attempt over multiple days, I’d still want to come back to free the route in a day. I kind of wanted to skip all that and do it all in a day. It was definitely a little risky to go for the flash in a day because there are so many things that could go wrong—I was on the Enduro Corner (5.12d) at night which was one of the hardest pitches for me—but I wanted a fight.

Climbing: Aside from the Enduro Corner, were there any other hairy moments?

Moss: The Freeblast slabs (5.11) were pretty hard. I took like 25 minutes on one pitch I think. After that, everything up to the Alcove felt really good. I felt pretty dialed on the Boulder Problem and did basically the beta I had envisioned I would do, except for one foothold I had to change on the fly. The karate kick felt really good to me.

Honestly, I really underestimated the first pitch of the Enduro Corner—I just thought I would do it easily. And it ended up being super weird and hard pin scars and I wasn’t expecting that at all. Especially because it was in the middle of the night. I also think I accidentally had my headlamp on the lowest setting. But I never felt too close to falling—it felt pretty secure.

Climbing: That’s what is so interesting about these big, more endurance-based objectives: at a crag, flashing any of those pitches is not particularly noteworthy. But it is noteworthy on El Cap, when the fatigue builds pitch after pitch, physically and mentally, and it can be difficult to not get inside your own head or make those simple mistakes.

Moss: Yeah. There’s 3,000 feet to fall on. I was pretty nervous the whole time. It’s been the main objective of my climbing life for the last two years. But more than anything, I knew I wanted to experience this epic 24-hour thing. I’d never experienced such a long day like that before.

Climbing: How long did the whole day take you?

Moss: From starting up the first pitch to my partner jumaring the last pitch, it was 22 hours, 16 minutes, and 34 seconds.

Climbing: I know it’s been less than 24 hours since you’ve come off of the wall, but do you already have ideas for the future?

Moss: Oh, there’s so much more climbing to do. And I’m just so happy. It was literally the most fun I’ve ever had while climbing: flashing 3,000 feet of rock. It felt like I’d been up there before because I’d studied it so much.

I also just love climbing in Yosemite and I have two more weeks out here, plus I’m taking next semester off school to climb here more. Up until now, I’ve done lots of flash goals because I’m a full-time student, not a professional climber. The really hard climbs on El Cap are cool but hard to fit into a school schedule because you’ve got to rap in and work it a bunch, which takes a lot of time. But the flash and onsight goals don’t take that much time. You just show up and do them. And I can train for them at home. But mainly I’m excited to not have any homework for nine months.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post “I Wanted a Fight”: Will Moss Becomes First Person to Flash El Cap in a Day appeared first on Climbing.