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| Kevin Jorgeson, bottom left, raises his arms beside Tommy Caldwell after both reached the summit of El Capitan, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, as seen from the valley floor in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Caldwell and Jorgeson became the first to free-climb the rock formation's Dawn Wall. They used ropes and safety harnesses to catch them 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. |
YOSEMITE NATIONAL
PARK, Calif. (AP) -- 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 3,000-foot 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 constant falls and injuries.
But their success completes a yearslong dream that bordered on obsession
for the men.
Caldwell was the first to finish
Wednesday afternoon. He waited on a ledge for Jorgeson, who caught up
minutes later. The two embraced before 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 Caldwell's wife and Jorgeson's girlfriend, who welcomed
them to the top with hugs and kisses. It will take the pair two to three
hours to hike down the mountain.
In the meadow far below, another crowd broke into cheers. Relatives of the men watched on telescopic monitors.
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.
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 Dec. 27. Caldwell
and 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.
Both men needed to take rest
days to heal. They used tape and even superglue to help protect their
raw skin. At one point, Caldwell set an alarm to wake him every few
hours to apply a special lotion to his throbbing hands.
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.
Caldwell,
36, and Jorgeson, 30, had help from a team of supporters who brought
food and supplies and shot video of the adventure.
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.
There
are about 100 routes up the rock known among climbers as "El Cap," and
many have made it to the top, the first in 1958. Even the Dawn Wall had
been scaled. Warren Harding and Dean Caldwell (no relation to Tommy)
made it up in 1970, using climbing ropes and countless rivets over 27
days.
No one, however, had ever made it to the summit in one continuous free-climb - until now.
"He doesn't understand the magnitude of the accomplishment and the excitement generated," said Caldwell's father, Mike Caldwell.
The
pioneering ascent comes after five years of training and failed
attempts for both men. They only got about a third of the way up in 2010
when they were turned back by storms. A year later, Jorgeson fell and
broke an ankle in another attempt. Since then, each has spent time on
the rock practicing and mapping out strategy.
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.
"As disappointing as this is, I'm
learning new levels of patience, perseverance and desire," Jorgeson
posted online. "I'm not giving up. I will rest. I will try again. I will
succeed."
Caldwell, of Estes Park, Colorado,
is no stranger to El Cap. He has free-climbed 11 different routes and
was the first to make such ascents of the Dihedral Wall and West
Buttress. He was the third to free-climb the Nose on El Cap. 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.
Jorgeson,
of Santa Rosa, California, has an impressive list of climbs in the
U.S., Europe and South Africa. He works as a climbing instructor and
co-founded an advocacy group for climbers.
John
Long, the first person to climb up El Capitan in one day in 1975, said
it was almost inconceivable that anyone could do something as
"continuously difficult" as Caldwell and Jorgeson's free-climb.
