King of climbers
Daredevil is the first to conquer famous 3,000ft vertical granite peak without ropes
A DAREDEVIL climber has made history by scaling the famous 3,000ft El Capitan rock formation in yosemite national park without a single piece of safety equipment.
Alex Honnold took less than four hours to become the first man to conquer the notoriously difficult peak in California without ropes or a harness – known as ‘free-soloing’.
the 31-year-old American was also the first to free-climb Mexico’s El sendero luminoso route and is the only person to have climbed the yosemite triple Crown, the three hardest climbs, without a rope.
the professional climber, who reportedly lives out of his van so he can focus on climbing, began his ascent at 5.32am local time on saturday with nothing more than a small bag of chalk for his hands and specialist shoes.
the route he used, known as Freerider, took him up a vertical face including two areas of rock polished smooth over the millennia by receding glaciers. He clambered over the lip of the face at 9.28am to stand on the summit, which spans just a few feet across. ‘it’s like walking up glass,’ Honnold said.
‘With free-soloing, obviously i know that i’m in danger, but feeling fearful while i’m up there is not helping me in any way. it’s only hindering my performance, so i just set it aside.’
Honnold has spent more than a year training for the climb at locations across the globe, from China to Morocco, as well as around the Us.
He also trains every day, practising hanging by his fingertips and doing pull-ups, as well as memorising every inch of the climb – remembering where to place his hands and feet.
He carried out a trial run a week ago – with ropes – to prepare for saturday’s climb.
Most ‘solo’ climbers have never even considered the death-defying feat. John Bachar, one of the pioneers of the sport who died in 2009 during a free solo climb, did not attempt El Capitan, which one expert has called the ‘moon-landing of free-soloing’.
Honnold’s climb was filmed for a National Geographic documentary, entitled solo.