Leo Houlding Completes New Route On El Cap!

British rock climber Leo Houlding has put up a new free climbing route on Yosemite's El Capitan after spending more than a decade studying and preparing for the climb.

According to this article at DeadPointMag.com, the new route has been named The Prophet and begins by following the first five pitches of the famous  Bad to the Bone line. From there, Houlding used three new, independent pitches to cross over to Secret Passage, which he followed for a short time before crossing over to the Eagle's Way route. The final four pitches of that climb delivered him to the top.

Of this new route Leo had this to say:

"The Prophet has been almost 10 years in the making. I originally attempted it from the ground up with Jason Pickles; no aid, no fixed ropes, no drill, in-a-day. It's quite harrowing - hardest climbing I've done ground up; shitty belays, shitty bolts, hard moves."

The article also mentions that there has been no grade given to the route but that it is at least "5.Hard" and makes a great addition to the already numerous rock climbing challenges on El Cap. 

Thanks to the Outside Blog for the heads up on this story.