Someone Just Climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan Without Ropes
An incredibly brave soul has just made history as the first person to ever climb Yosemite National Park‘s famous El Capitan without any safety gear whatsoever.
Some may say brave, others may say insane; regardless, California native Alex Honnold has nevertheless achieved something he’ll remember for the rest of his life.
The 31-year-old adventurer has apparently been dreaming of making the climb for at least eight years, and had been planning it for the last two years, practising his route with protective gear, committing each move, hole and rock to memory. He finally took the plunge (pardon the pun) this weekend, successfully scaling the 914-metre high granite without so much as a harness or ropes.
“I was pretty much elated,” he told The Associated Press after his climb. “I was probably the happiest I’ve ever been. It’s something that I thought about for so long and dreamed about and worked so hard for. I mean, it’s pretty satisfying.”
Though Honnold has been climbing summits across the globe for more than two decades, he had previously been too afraid to attempt El Capitan. “Each year I would show up and it would seem just much too daunting,” he said. “To walk up to the base of the climb without rope and harness, it just feels a little outrageous.”
“I could see how for a non-climber it might seem completely insane,” he said. “But I’ve devoted 20 years to climbing and probably six or seven to this particular project so, it’s not like I’m just some crazy kid who in the spur of the moment decided to do this crazy thing.”
Better him than us, we say!
(Lead image: Wikimedia)
