Two men summit ‘impossible’ rock face
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK: A pair of Americans completed what had long been considered the world’s most difficult rock climb Wednesday, using only their hands and feet to scale a 900m vertical wall on El Capitan, the forbidding granite pedestal in Yosemite National Park that has beckoned adventurers for more than half a century.
Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson became the first to free-climb the rock formation’s Dawn Wall, a feat that many had considered impossible. 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.
The effort took 19 days as the two dealt with repeated falls and injuries. But their success completes a years-long dream that bordered on obsession for the men.
Mr Caldwell was the first to finish Wednesday afternoon. He waited on a ledge for Mr Jorgeson, who caught up minutes later. The two embraced before Mr Jorgeson pumped his arms in the air and clapped his hands above his head. Then they sat down for a few moments, gathered their gear, changed clothes and hiked to the nearby summit.
About 200 people were waiting for them, including Mr Caldwell’s wife and Mr Jorgeson’s girlfriend, who welcomed them to the top with hugs and kisses. In the meadow far below, another crowd broke into cheers. Relatives of the men watched on telescopic monitors.
Mr Caldwell’s mother, Terry, said her son could have reached the top several days ago, but he waited for his friend to make sure they got there together.
“That’s a deep, abiding, lifelong friendship, built over suffering on the wall together over six years,” she said.
US President Barack Obama sent his congratulations from the White House Twitter account, saying the men “remind us that anything is possible”.
The trek up the world’s largest granite monolith began on Dec 27. Mr Caldwell and Mr Jorgeson lived on the wall itself, eating and sleeping in tents fastened to the rock thousands of feet above the ground and battling painful cuts to their fingertips much of the way.
Free-climbers do not pull themselves up with cables or use chisels to carve out handholds. Instead, they climb inch by inch, wedging their fingers and feet into tiny crevices or gripping sharp, thin projections of rock. In photographs, the two appeared at times like Spider-Man, with arms and legs splayed across the pale stone that has been described as smooth as a bedroom wall.
They also endured physical punishment whenever their grip slipped, pitching them into long, swinging falls that left them bouncing off the rock face. The tumbles, which they called “taking a whipper”, ended with startling jolts from their safety ropes.
Mr Caldwell, 36, and MR Jorgeson, 30, had help from a team of supporters who brought food and supplies and shot video.
The pair ate canned peaches and occasionally sipped whiskey. They watched their urine evaporate into the thin, dry air and handed toilet sacks, called “wag bags”, to helpers who disposed of them.
The pioneering ascent comes after five years of training and failed attempts for both men. On this try, as the world watched and followed on Facebook and Twitter, Jorgeson was stalled in a lower section that took 11 attempts over seven days.
“I’m not giving up. I will rest. I will try again. I will succeed,” Mr Jorgeson posted online.