An ongoing attempt by rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson to free climb the Dawn Wall of 3,000-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park has been drawing attention from around the globe.
It’s considered possibly the most difficult multipitch free climb in the world.
Caldwell called it “the steepest, blankest big wall, maybe in the world” in a bonus clip from the Yosemite climbing documentary “Valley Uprising.”
The wall has been ascended before, and has even been the site of global media attention when it was first aid-climbed by Warren Harding in over 28 days 1970. But the current attempt would mark the first free climb, meaning the climbers will complete every pitch using their own skills, without the aid of equipment in ascent. Ropes and harnesses are used only to protect them from injury in a fall.
Caldwell and his partner Jorgeson have been trying to complete the climb for eight seasons and have collectively spent some 800 days on the wall, Southern California climbing legend John Long told KTLA. After beginning the current effort on Dec. 27, the duo have bloodied, split fingertips.
“It’s not just a climb, it’s a sporting accomplishment,” Long said. “We’re looking at sporting history unfold right before our eyes.”
Himself a Yosemite climbing legend, Long discussed the Dawn Wall attempt on the KTLA 5 News at 2 on Jan. 7, 2015.
“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”