Ed and Henry Meeting Women in Love

On September 16, 1978, Ed Webster and Henry Barber, both New England climbing legends, made the first complete all-free ascent of the elegant Cathedral Ledge classic Women in Love (5.11d) All of the pitches had previously been free climbed except the fourth and final pitch. Henry and Ed made several tries at the crux climbing, but fell off. Finally Henry Barber made all the moves, but dislocated his shoulder on the very last move to the cliff-top! A scant 15 minutes later, the hot California climbers Mark Hudon and Max Jones repeated the crux pitch. Now that's timing. In this historic photograph, Ed and Henry hang at the last belay stance and prepare for the final hard climbing.