Connor Herson couldn’t legally drive when he freed the Nose in 2018, competently navigating up his way up a route only Lynn Hill and Tommy Caldwell had freed. The climbing world wondered where this prodigy would take traditional climbing. In the years that followed, Connor was busy with regular teenage life – finishing up high school and heading for college. In 2025, the climbing world stopped wondering and watched as the 22-year-old put together the single greatest year of trad climbing.

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