![]() This past November, Honnold made his first attempt at the free solo, but backed off after less than an hour of climbing because conditions did not feel right. A small circle of friends and fellow climbers who knew about the project had been sworn to secrecy.Ī team of filmmakers, led by Jimmy Chin, one of Honnold’s longtime climbing partners, and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, captured the ascent for an upcoming National Geographic Documentary Films feature. There, he pulled on a pair of sticky soled climbing shoes, fastened a small bag of chalk around his waist to keep his hands dry, found his first toehold, and began inching his way up toward climbing history.įor more than a year, Honnold has been training for the climb at locations in the United States, China, Europe, and Morocco. He parked the van and hiked up the boulder-strewn path to the base of the cliff. ![]() He had spent the night in the customized van that serves as his mobile base camp, risen in the dark, dressed in his favorite red t-shirt and cutoff nylon pants, and eaten his standard breakfast of oats, flax, chia seeds, and blueberries, before driving to El Capitan Meadow. Honnold began his historic rope-less climb-a style known as “free soloing”-in the pink light of dawn at 5:32 a.m. For perspective, a monolith is a geological feature that consists of a single rock or rock type.Watch the trailer for Free Solo, a stunning, intimate, and vertigo-inducing film about rock climber Alex Honnold's journey to climbing the world’s most famous rock wall-El Capitan in Yosemite National Park-without a rope or safety gear. Another notable highlight of El Capitan is that it’s one of the highest monoliths in the world. From its base, climbers up above look small like ants. In describing El Capitan, and to an extent, the whole Yosemite Valley and Park, language comes out as woefully deficient. To stand at the top of El Capitan and peer down is to die inside. The truth is that El Capitan cliffs are huge and, at more than 3,000 feet from base to top, completely dwarf the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, and even the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on the planet. Related: Enjoy This 3-Day Camping Adventure In Yosemite On A Road Trip From San Francisco ![]() While all cliffs are known to be high and steep, to call El Capitan high looks almost like an understatement. Together with Half Dome, a granite dome-like rock formation at the eastern extremity of Yosemite Valley, El Capitan is the most recognizable as well. Many will agree that of all the rock formations and other features that make Yosemite Valley world-famous, El Capitan is hands-down the most sublime. What Makes El Capitan Special To Yosemite Valley Related: Thanksgiving In Yosemite? As It Turns Out, It's Not As Crazy As It Sounds He would subsequently publish his writings, telling the world about the incredible beauty of Yosemite Valley. This group, in their bid to uproot and transplant the native Indians, described a scenic valley with a waterfall “nearly a thousand feet high.” But the proof of the pudding is in the eating-and when Englishman James Mason Hutchings heard about these descriptions-he set out to prove to himself. But this just occasioned a more organized assault on the native Indians when a group known as the Mariposa Battalion was formed by settlers in 1851 to defeat the Ahwahnechee and Chowchilla. As is human nature, the native Indians tried to counter and pay back in the same coin. The settlers' first entry into the area around Yosemite Valley was marked by brutal mistreatment of the native Indians: Burning of houses, forceful relocations, and even murder. Here’s How El Capitan Got Its Unique Name But how did El Capitan get its odd name, and what makes it so special to Yosemite? We take a look. John Muir, America’s celebrated naturalist whose writings helped the federal government protect Yosemite, described it as a place “full of God's thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur.”Īmong the main Yosemite Valley attractions is the El Capitan, a high, blood-curdling cliff that is awesome and scary in almost equal measure. Without a doubt, Yosemite Valley is one of the most beautiful places on earth. With its spectacular rock formations, lofty sequoias, and amazing scenery that will give any traveler goosebumps, anyone who’s been to Yosemite Valley will admit that it falls in the latter category. In the world of travel and adventure, there are places that are hyped up for no real reason, and there are places that are not hyped up enough.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |