After 19 days, duo completes ‘impossible’ El Capitan free climb

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — It was a magical moment years in the making: American rock climber Tommy Caldwell pulled himself atop the majestic 3,000-foot, or 914.4m, wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, joined minutes later on a narrow ledge by his climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson.

Knowing they had free-climbed the world’s biggest granite monolith, the two long-time friends embraced and then Mr Jorgeson pumped his arm in the air and clapped his hands above his head. Year after year of practice, failed attempts and the last 19 gruelling days scaling by their fingertips and feet rewarded them at last with success.

Dozens of family members and friends cheered the climbers when they reached the top at 3.25pm on Wednesday (7.25am yesterday, Singapore time) on a cloudless day. They used ropes and safety harnesses to catch themselves in case of a fall, but relied entirely on their own strength and dexterity to ascend by grasping cracks as thin as razor blades and as small as dimes.

“That’s a deep, abiding, lifelong friendship, built over suffering on the wall together for over six years,” said Mr Caldwell’s mother, Terry, who was among about 200 people who broke into cheers from the Yosemite Valley floor hundreds of metres below.

She said her son could have reached the top several days ago, but he waited for his friend to make sure they made it together.

The pair have completed what had long been considered the world’s most difficult rock climb, captivating the nation and the world through social media and live video coverage while documentary film-makers dangled from ropes capturing each move.

Mr Caldwell, 36, and Mr Jorgeson, 30, were the first to free-climb the rock formation’s Dawn Wall, a feat many had considered impossible.

United States President Barack Obama sent his congratulations from the White House Twitter account, saying the men “remind us that anything is possible”.

Since the trek began on Dec 27, Mr Caldwell and Mr Jorgeson lived on the wall, eating and sleeping in tents fastened to the rock hundreds of metres above the ground and battling painful cuts to their fingertips much of the way.

The two dealt with constant falls and injuries. Both men needed to take rest days to heal. They used tape and even superglue to help protect their raw skin. At one point, Mr Caldwell set an alarm to wake him up every few hours to apply a special lotion to his throbbing hands.

They had help from a team of supporters who brought food and supplies and shot video of the adventure.

The pioneering ascent comes after five years of training and failed attempts for both men. They got only about a third of the way up in 2010 when they turned back due to storms. A year later, Mr Jorgeson fell and broke an ankle in another attempt.

On this try, Mr Jorgeson was stalled in a lower section that took 11 attempts over seven days. “As disappointing as this is, I’m learning new levels of patience, perseverance and desire,” he posted online. “I’m not giving up. I will rest. I will try again. I will succeed.”

Mr Caldwell, of Estes Park, Colorado, is no stranger to El Capitan. He has free-climbed 11 different routes and was the first to make such ascents of El Capitan’s Dihedral Wall and Denali’s West Buttress. He also made his way up a challenging El Capitan route in fewer than 24 hours — becoming only the second person to do so — only months after accidentally severing his left index finger with a table saw in 2001. Free-climbing El Capitan was a goal he could not shake since he first seriously conjured the idea a decade ago. It became his life-bending quest, a personal Moby Dick.

“For me, I love to dream big and I love to find ways to be a bit of an explorer,” Mr Caldwell said. “These days, it seems like everything is padded and comes with warning labels. This just lights a fire under me, and that’s a really exciting way to live.”

Mr Jorgeson, of Santa Rosa, California, has an impressive list of climbs in the US, Europe and South Africa. He works as a climbing instructor and co-founded an advocacy group for climbers. He learned about Mr Caldwell’s vision in 2009 and asked if he wanted a partner. Each year since, the two have spent weeks and months, mostly in the fall and winter, attached to the Dawn Wall, scouting holds, practising pitches and imagining how to do it in one push from the valley floor.

Mr Jorgeson said of their feat: “I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall, if you will. We’ve been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day and maybe they can put this project in their own context.”

Mr John Long, the first person to climb El Capitan in one day in 1975, said it was almost inconceivable that anyone could do something as “continuously difficult” as Mr Caldwell’s and Mr Jorgeson’s free-climb. AGENCIES