Watch a live feed of the climb.
Original Post:
When you're thinking about hair-raising danger, coming to work in a public media newsroom probably ranks right up there near the top of your list. Your Clipper Card could fail, you might meet someone rude on BART, and when you get to work it's possible that none of your co-workers will have brought in fresh baked goods.
But here's something that looks even hairier than surfing the Web, goofing around with HTML tags and applying the fine points of Associated Press style to public policy blog posts:
http://instagram.com/p/xkK2Z7pm0Y
Yeah. That's a photograph of climber Kevin Jorgeson about 1,200 feet up the granite face of Yosemite's El Capitan a couple nights ago. He posted the photo, by mountaineering photojournalist Corey Rich, as part of his online account of a historic climb of Yosemite's El Capitan.
Historic?
To anyone firmly earthbound, El Capitan is El Capitan, a landmark granite wall that rises more than 3,000 feet from the floor of Yosemite Valley. But Jorgeson and his climbing partner, Tommy Caldwell, are not just climbing El Capitan -- it's a climbing mecca that sees hundreds of ascents each year -- but doing a free climb up what Adventure Journal describes as "the steepest, blankest section" of the immense face.
I am not a climber -- stairs are more my thing (those ones outside the Burger King at 16th Street BART can be a real adventure) -- so I will turn to Adventure Journal for an explanation of "free climbing":
What’s free climbing?
Free climbing is climbing using only your hands and feet to pull you up the rock. You have a rope tied to your harness in case you fall.
Adventure Journal also addresses the question of the day:
If you’re not a climber, you might be wondering, why is it such a big deal? Don’t people do hard climbs all the time? Well, yes, but nothing this long and continuously difficult. Most people who focus on pure hard climbing usually set their sights on a route that’s around 100-150 feet long. The Dawn Wall is more than 3,000 feet long, with several long sections of very technically demanding climbing. Tommy Caldwell first envisioned, and has been working on sections of the climb, since 2007. He wasn’t even sure he could climb the hardest pitch of the climb until last November. Kevin Jorgeson joined Caldwell in 2009, and the two have been steadily working on the project since.
There's another, less tangible reason this adventure is a big deal: the fascination inherent in the spectacle of watching two people take on something so difficult. And make no mistake: Despite the years of preparation and the support they get as they make the climb, this is a punishing undertaking. Jorgeson, pictured above, has been unable so far to complete the 15th of the 30 pitches involved in the climb because the razor-sharp granite in that section has shredded his fingers. As Caldwell continues to move up the wall, Jorgeson has been forced to rest and let his skin recover.