la ValerosaEl Capitan
We felt very lucky to be staying in Yosemite during the final week of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s historic free climb of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan, a smooth, steep rockface that is considered by many to be the longest and most difficult free climb anywhere. In fact, they finished on the final day of our visit.
El Cap’s 3000-ft face is a challenging favorite among climbers, though the smooth expanse of the eastern-facing Dawn Wall had never been successfully free climbed (utilizing only hands and feet, with ropes attached merely as a safety precaution in the event of a fall) until Caldwell and Jorgeson’s 19-day effort. It was fun to be in the Valley as it buzzed with excitement over the climb, and we enjoyed overhearing the climbing chatter everywhere from the Valley shuttle to the hiking paths, at dinner at the Alwahnee and over drinks at the Mountain Room Lounge, as well as seeing dozens of media trucks gathered in a meadow near El Cap on the final day of the climb. One afternoon, we hiked over to the base of El Capitan to get a closer view of the climbers camp halfway up the mountain and were thrilled to see the tiny figure of Tommy Caldwell working his way up the wall for that evening’s ascent (he is visible as a tiny yellow form in the left-center photo, two shots down.) Here are a couple of great articles from National Geographic, if you’d like to read more:
- Climbers Complete Historic Yosemite Climb
- Chasing History, Yosemite Climbers Sand and Superglue Their Fingers
- Five Reasons Why the Dawn Wall First Free Ascent Has Pushed Climbing Forward
- A chat with photographer, Corey Rich, one of the photographers who documented the climb and a breathtaking gallery of Rich and Brett Lowell’s photos from the Wall.
