Hannes Puman first to free The Nose via the Schnaz Variation

Hannes Puman, #8 in the European Combined Championship in September, has during his first visit to Yosemite Valley, become the first person to free The Nose on El Capitan via the Schnaz Variation (8b). This pitch bypasses the famous Changing Corners pitch, often considered the climb's crux, by traversing left on small, reachy crimps before rejoining the main line.

Brooke Sandahl and Dave Schultz bolted the Schnaz Variation in 1992 during their attempts to free The Nose, but Lynn Hill abandoned it because it was too reachy. Later, Scott Burke added a bolt in 1998, and then in 2005, Ivo Ninov put up another one and did the FA of the Schnaz pitch. At the same time, Thomas Huber and Matt Wilder repeated the pitch, but Puman did not know this during his ascent.

Puman, climbing with Jamie Lowther from Scotland, spent 6 days on the wall for the ascent. Before this, he had completed a 5-day free ascent of Freerider with Jakob Östman, resting just 2 days in between.

Can you describe the route, your process and how hard it is?
The difficulty of this pitch is resolved around a short section of intense climbing on small and sharp holds. I used a method with big reaches in between the crimps. I went in from the top one time and tried changing corners and this variation. It took a few hours to solve the moves and do some links on Changing Corners. Matilda [Söderlund] tried this variation meanwhile and to finish of the session I went up one time and felt the holds. I learned that if you have the reach and level it’s possible to do it safely and its also easy to do many tries, skin is the limiting factor.

When I came from the ground I checked out the moves 1 time properly, fell on the last hard move and did it on the third try.

For me it’s easier to do because its more simple. It’s possible to work out the moves quick but it’s more reachy and powerful so maybe not for everyone. Changing Corners is very technical so if you perfect it it will be easier, but to perfect it is difficult and takes time.