Yosemite’s Midnight Lightning
September 12, 2008
National Geographic: Adventure is currently running an amazing piece on Yosemite’s Midnight Lightning. Midnight Lightning is thought to be the iconic place that helped jumpstart the sport of rock climbing. When Midnight Lightning was first climbed, it represented the hardest route in the world, and today it has become a cultural right for those that share the rock climbing passion.
Midnight Lightning may not be the hardest route in the world at this time (it rates at a V8 climb) but that doesn;t mean that it has lost it’s luster. Most of the top pros have ascended this icon–including Lynn Hill, who in 1998 became the first woman to top out on the 40 foot granite wall.
National Geographic: Adventure’s feature takes a 360° look at Midnight Lightning. First they give you some history of the boulder, then they follow it up with a guided tour by world climbing legend Tommy Caldwell. If that isn’t enough, you can view a retrospective of over 500 different images of the boulder, put together by some new Microsoft technology called Photosynth. Photosynth allows you to travel up and down the boulder, see the major holds, zoom in, out, and around every inch, and, if your a rock climber, you could even use this to scope out your next problem. It is some pretty amazing technology.
On the other hand, if you are already one of the very few people that have topped out on this masterpiece of granite, you may be interested in discovering what other adventures Yosemite National Park has to offer. National Geographic: Adventure has you covered there, as well. Check out their Best of the Parks 2008: Yosemite feature to get some ideas for your next visit.
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Written by Jason A. Hendricks · Filed Under Midnight Lightning, Yosemite |
Touching rock like this is touching the history of our sport…
It is a great place to sit and muse over all those who have climbed there…
DSD
Good stuff, but Midnight Lightning was NOT EVEN CLOSE to the hardest boulder problem in the world in 1978 …
Trice V12 was established in 1975 and that point in time, it was the hardest rock climb in terms of pure difficulty in the world.
Those stats were coming from the NG: Adventure article. I am not sure where they got that information. Thanks for the info on Trice, though. I may have to look into that.
Chuffer - as you are well aware, boulder problems at Flagstaff are in a constant state of change due to the poor quality of rock. As a result, I can guaruntee that Trice has changed over the years to become harder now than it was when it was first established (not to mention with the ground 2 feet higher than it is today).
Also, for the climbing community, there are plenty of very strong climbers today that do not feel the need to spray about their accomplishments (men and women alike). I can also guaruntee there are more women that have sent MF that you are not aware of.
[...] to think that I don’t miss many of the more interesting things out there, but thanks to a post on The Adventurist I found while perusing the FRB Message Board I now realize I missed something really, really cool. [...]
Jim - Trice is not thought to have broken. All of the holds are still there and are composed of really solid rock. Trice was considered to be at the top of the Vscale, all by itself, when Verm conceived of it in the 1980’s.