Published March 16, 2026 02:31PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s an annoyance that many wunderkind<\/em> athletes must navigate: having a pesky journalist compare you to an older, more accomplished star. Every awesome up-and-coming American skier is the next Lindsey Vonn, every basketball prodigy is the next LeBron.<\/p>\n Rock climber Connor Herson has dealt with this since he was a child.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard the comparison to Tommy Caldwell once or twice,\u201d Herson, 22, told me on a recent call. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be compared to someone like that, even if I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m at his level yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The likeness to Caldwell is, of course, an easy way for extremely casual climbing fans (yours truly included) to understand Herson\u2019s importance in a sport known for its opaque language and minutiae. Like Caldwell, Herson is among the very few to have free climbed the hardest routes on El Capitan in Yosemite. Herson freed The Nose back in 2018 when he was just 15 years old and still wearing braces. In 2024, Herson teamed up with Caldwell to free climb The Heart, another punishing route up the cliff.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to the climbs I do, I don\u2019t want to compare it to what anyone else is doing,\u201d Herson added. \u201cComparing yourself to others isn\u2019t productive.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m inclined to agree. After his latest climbing feat, Herson no longer seems like the sport\u2019s star of the future, a youngster who is poised to be\u00a0the next big thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n Herson is already a star for climbing\u2019s current era. His time is now.<\/p>\n This past summer, Herson recorded the first-ever ascent of a vertical slab of granite outside of Squamish, British Columbia, called Drifter\u2019s Escape<\/a>. The route is about halfway up a very famous 3,000-foot granite dome called Stawamus Chief, which, over the years, has been a proving ground for the world\u2019s best rock climbers.<\/p>\n How anyone ascended Drifter\u2019s Escape truly boggles the mind. The rock looks completely sheer with nary a hand or foothold in sight. Whatever bumps or rock flakes the cliff once had were buffed smooth by glacial erosion over the course of millions of years. And the route is a \u201ctrad\u201d climb, meaning Herson had to haul up all of his removable safety gear.<\/p>\n Yet he somehow climbed up it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s harder than anything I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Herson said the key to ascending the rock wall is two shallow vertical cracks running parallel up the length of the pitch. He crimped his fingers and pointed his toes into the two cracks to propel himself skyward. And midway up the ascent, Herson encountered an unbelievably challenging crux.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to move your right hand from a very low hold to a higher hold, but there\u2019s nowhere to put your right foot,\u201d Herson said. \u201cYou have to do something called a Pogo. You kick your right foot to build momentum, and get a few seconds where your body is in balance, and you can then move your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheesh. I sometimes lose my balance while walking my nine-pound Schnauzer.<\/p>\n Herson spent several weeks at the Stawamus Chief trying to complete Drifter\u2019s Escape alongside his friend and climbing partner Ethan Salo. They hung out on the narrow rock ledge at the route\u2019s base, scouting the rock, cooking food, and enjoying the views.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like a typical college-kid summer,\u201d Herson said. He would know\u2014Herson is a few months shy of\u00a0wrapping up his bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering at Stanford University.<\/p>\n Herson made multiple attempts on the route and, like most climbers, fell while mastering each challenging move. Prior to his successful ascent, he fell lower on the pitch and assumed it wouldn\u2019t be his day. On his next attempt, Herson\u2019s mind went blank as he pulled and pushed himself upward.<\/p>\n \u201cI started climbing and noticed I wasn\u2019t really thinking about anything, which was helpful,\u201d he said. \u201cIt allowed me to enter a flow state as I got higher on the rock. It allowed me to throw away all expectations and to take each move one at a time, which is what allowed me to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Herson celebrated the successful ascent that night with some laughs and high fives in the parking lot.<\/p>\n You might assume that a 22-year-old would immediately share news of their greatest sporting achievement on social media. Herson, however, is not your typical member of Generation Z.<\/p>\n For months, he kept mum about his ascent of Drifter\u2019s Escape. As the first person to complete it, Herson was charged with rating it on the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS), the grading system for rock climbing routes. And he wanted to make sure that the final number he gave Drifter\u2019s Escape was fair.<\/p>\n \u201cGiving things a number is always a little bit scary,\u201d he said. \u201cI did other hard climbs around the world and talked to other people before I was ready.\u201d<\/p>\n In late January, Herson finally unveiled his rating: 5.15a. For those who don\u2019t speak YDS, that translates to really super-duper flippin\u2019 hard.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s strange to quantify a climb because each one has its own movements,\u201d Herson said. \u201cIt takes a few iterations to settle on what a grade is.\u201d<\/p>\n You may have stumbled through YDS ratings in stories on Climbing.com<\/em><\/a> and wondered to yourself, how do you differentiate between a 5.13a and a 5.14b? <\/em>The numbers (5.11, 5.12, 5.13) and letters (a, b, c, d) tacked onto the grade denote differences in difficulty.<\/p>\n But this grade is subjective, and is reliant on the first successful climber to set the rating. After that, subsequent climbers can try to repeat the route and then either verify or dispute the original score.<\/p>\n Since Herson is one of the world\u2019s very best, very few peers will ever be good enough to critique his YDS rating of Drifter\u2019s Escape. Imagine if Claude Monet completed Woman with a Parasol<\/a><\/em>, only to allow other Impressionist painters to recreate every delicate brushstroke and then opine on whether\u00a0it is a masterpiece.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s challenging to propose something like that,\u201d Herson said. \u201cIf someone comes along and disagrees with me, that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\nA First Ascent of a Challenging Granite Wall<\/h2>\n
How to Classify a Crazy Hard Climb?<\/h2>\n
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