Watch: Massive Rock Flake Breaks Off El Capitan as Climber Swings Into Position
A tense moment was caught on camera high on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park when a climber triggered a massive rockfall while navigating one of the route’s toughest sections.
The video, captured by climber Oliver Tippett, shows him attempting a pendulum swing on the final hard pitch of the Native Son route — a section known ominously as “The Golden Nipple.” During the maneuver, he hooks onto a rock flake, only to have it break off and plummet 2,000 feet to the Yosemite Valley floor.
Check it out:
“One bigger swing in the middle of the pitch to a hook resulted in a large obvious hooking flake taking a large obvious 2000’ ride to the ground,” Tippett wrote.
From spring to fall, climbers from around the world head to El Capitan to take on its legendary granite face, which rises nearly 3,000 feet from the valley floor. The monolith gained worldwide attention in 2017 when Alex Honnold free soloed it in under four hours — a feat unmatched to this day.
Fortunately, Tippett was unharmed in the incident, but the video serves as a wild reminder of just how unpredictable and intense climbing on El Capitan can be.
