A man has successfully scaled the 3,000 foot wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without the help of ropes or safety equipment. The practice is referred to as “free soloing” and 31-year-old Alex Honnold was the first to accomplish it at this location.
Photographer Jimmy Chin captured the whole thing on tape.
“(Honnold) composed and casual free soloing (sans cord) 2000ft above the deck on the Enduro Pitch of Freerider yesterday. Alex’s process to prepare for his dream of free soloing El Cap has been an incredible, and sometimes stressful, journey to witness and be a part of over the last two years while filming him for a feature documentary (co-directed by @mochinyc).
“In some ways I expected (and prayed for) nothing less on his big day but it was still mind-bending to see how relaxed he was in the final days leading up to the climb and of course during the climb – as seen here locked off reaching full extension with mere finger tips in contact to granite, feet smeared on nothing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BU7HGGaDS9c/
