Longs Peak, East Face, The Casual Route, First Solo, and Other Activity, Previously Unreported. I soloed (what is now called) the Casual Route on Longs Peak on July 14, 1980, all free; it took me two hours something. My girlfriend walked up and met me on top. I always assumed it had been done before until I read the guidebook recently, which credits the first solo to Charlie Fowler in 1984.I also soloed the Regular Route on the northwest face of Half Dome that same summer on September 27 in six hours something—which is not quite as fast as Dean Potter’s ascent last year, but was done almost 20 years before! My ascent was mostly free but with a backrope on two bolt-ladder pitches down low and on the pitches above Big Sandy. I met up with Steve Bell (and Roger Mear, I think) on Big Sandy.

Steve Monks, United Kingdom