free-climbing
El Cap is the very definition of hard
rock lime
and you're up there climbing super hard
moves 2,000 feet off the ground
sleeping on the wall having this great
adventure and it's its historic it's
what people have been doing for decades
it's a benchmark achievement and I want
to have that for myself I've put a lot
of energy in the last three years into
learning how to trad climb I've always
had it in my mind that I would try to
climb El Cap that was something that I
wanted to do someday
and since sort of delving more into
traditional climbing and climbing on
granite that idea became more realistic
and I finally feel like I'm ready to at
least attempt to free climb El Cap I
just had it in my head that I wanted to
try Golden Gate I really wanted to just
experience El Cap and really give myself
a good shot of sending I'm choosing to
free every pitch because I want to say
that I've climbed every single move
we're going to start from the ground and
stay up there and just try to send
hopefully in one push adrian is my
boyfriend and he is also going to be my
partner Adrian's ready had to do this
right here Emily had this dream of
freeing El Cap and wanted a partner
needed a partner and he has a lot of
experience with climbing and in the
mountains I love thinking about every
tea bag we're gonna bring every battery
how everything's gonna work Louis case
scenarios aside from climbing it's a
massive amount of effort you have to
have a lot of experience and a lot of
knowledge we're gonna practice hauling
now
we don't know how to hold Adrienne's
never climbed a big wall before either
he's never hauled we're trying to figure
this out together we spent the first day
hauling all of our stuff so we ascended
some fixed ropes and hauled it all up
with us we're dealing with really heavy
loads we won't have to like rely on
anyone else on the ground to bring us
anything we are going to start tomorrow
and try to go from the ground to the top
in one big push my goal is to free climb
every pitch cleanly we just spent the
whole day on Oh cap
this is day one of six I feel like I put
so much energy into this and I don't
wanna blow it I don't want to disappoint
myself and I won't be disappointed in
myself unless I totally choked
I've never done this before but I think
that's sort of the nature of climbing on
El Cap is that so much uncertainty and
you just have to go try like it comes to
a point where you you can't just keep
wrapping down it and working the moves
you just have to go try
I kind of feel like I might have
forgotten how to climb but I'm sure
that's not true
I was pretty anxious and nervous just
the entire project felt like it was
finally happening
that was a actually a really big day for
us I think we'd climb 15 pitches on that
first day
we were just getting up and getting
things ready today I'm really not
looking forward to climbing the monster
I'm feeling a little bit more nervous
and scared and anxious the monster off
with is something that's so scary and
intimidating to me you have to kind of
wedge your body into this crack
watching Emily struggle on the monster
two and a half hours on the pitch I
didn't know if she could get through it
and I really didn't think she could try
it again
and it was a complete epic battle I had
to fight so hard every single second I
was on that pitch and mentally
physically everything it was completely
and utterly draining I kept having to
remind myself to not panic I honestly I
don't think I've ever exerted myself so
hard on a single pitch of rock climbing
I felt like I fought super hard on it
and it made me determined for the rest
of the room I did not escape the monster
unscathed I had two huge holes in my
left elbow some blood there's some
scrapes there's some bruises that look
like she's just been like beaten Anne's
mental strength I think is once Gardner
so far already and I think she'll be
able to push through sort of like the
suffering that I think is to come I'm
glad it's over today took a lot out of
me
I just really hope I can do the down
climb the style really changes after
today and I just can't wait to see her
start throwing down
well the biggest question for me is the
512 down climb it's rated 12 C it's a
slab felt super perplexing that pitch
had been haunting me just because I felt
like it might be impossible for me and I
didn't know if I could do it
oh I had a meltdown on the downclimb
for sure God then usually when I get
really upset I tend to let things go and
then when I try again for whatever
reason maybe I'm a little more relaxed
things fall into place
in the end I managed to figure it out
anyway I guess it was a little bit
surprising because in my head deep down
I really didn't know if it was possible
miracle after pulling off the down climb
I felt a lot more confident because that
was the one thing that I didn't know if
I could do once again it was go time
turning towards the next pitches it was
a super exhausting and epic day where
else do you boil so much just with
surviving then you get to climb five
thirteen twenty two hundred feet off the
ground it's just massive challenge
mentally and physically and emotion
two years ago I probably couldn't have
even sent one pitch on this route but
you have to be an all-around climber in
order to succeed up here feeling a
little rough my body hurts really bad
that's okay this is what it's about
right we were right underneath the move
pitch which is the hardest pitch on the
route I have to try really hard and just
keep it together and be mentally strong
I didn't have it that day and decided to
take a rest day after that having some
doubts but I really want to do it but
I'm worried but I don't have what it
takes right now emotionally the tension
was just ratcheted so high oh I still
had 1200 feet of climbing ahead of me no
there was one move that was sort of my
barrier to sending 3000 feet of climbing
for me that's really really hard to deal
with mentally it was a huge struggle
I can't do this I can't do it up there
you're in a bubble that is just your
team and you're responsible for
yourselves and no one else really is any
clue what you're going through in terms
of suffering or success one of the most
important roles of a good partner is
having them there to support you in
those dark times when inevitably you're
going to say I can't do it I won't do it
I don't want to do it because just a
hard go those hard moves without any
warmup she gets really sad really bummed
and really questions whether she has it
in her I became very emotionally wrapped
up in the project I felt like it was the
hardest thing that I'd ever attempted to
do in my climbing and in my life I care
a lot about the things that I put my
time and energy into before she pulls
off some big audacious thing she gets
really sad really bummed and really
questions whether she has it in her that
was the only time I saw her say I can't
do this I don't want to do this anymore
I just can't seem to put it together
chi-chan is ruined I'm bleeding from
everywhere
I'm tired everything was wrong and yet
she still had to find a way to succeed
and that I think was a low point and I
really didn't know how to help her to
come back out of that you know all we
could really do is like we're here we're
not going anywhere you need to find one
more place that you can pull something
out of
you
Evan likes to bring us all to the
darkest deepest place and then just
throw down what happened to getting
today and I managed to send it at the
end of the day which was a huge relief
I sent the patch continued climbing up
through probably the last wide pitch
called the chicken wing chimney and it
was absolutely terrifying and awful just
like all of the wide climbing on El Cap
I feel super claustrophobic just even
thinking about it
that evening I sent the golden desert
pitch which is probably one of the most
beautiful pitches of rock climbing I've
ever done I knew I could do that and I'm
glad that I did and I didn't like
mentally fall apart like 40 more feet of
hard climbing going right there that's
all I have to do M Harrington another
little battle with an off with today's
and she took her little rug burn here
and brought it to a whole new level
it's called passion
today's our last day hopefully we will
be on top this afternoon when M tops out
she's gonna have owned every bit of it I
had to do the a5 traverse it's probably
pitch 35 and it's just a 13 a 40 foot
Traverse I woke up that morning and just
gave it hell I fell at the end right at
the anchors I'd learned at that point
that on El Cap nothing is for sure until
you're standing on the top
it just got in the zone and climbed the
way that I know how to climb so that
pitch was the very last difficult pitch
on the route
it was the barrier to the summit he sent
the last hard pitch on Golden Gate my
god I did tasted tequila I suddenly was
like it's done it's on like I started
talking about partying again and all our
friends were gonna meet us to celebrate
with us
reaching the summit was just this
complete emotional release
I can't really even explain what it felt
like to stand on the top it's a pretty
surreal experience to have started on
the bottom of the 3000 foot cliff and
spent six days on the wall giving it
absolutely
everything I had physically and mentally
and emotionally if you don't have a good
partnership there
there will be no success I was super
lucky to have someone who was willing to
go up there with me and not even free
fun but just jumar behind me and support
me and belay me
she needs big audacious things to keep
her motivated and psyched but there's
something about her that actually loves
totally on certain goals that are
completely outside of her scope of
knowledge every day you have to give it
your all there's no easy days there's no
relaxing
it's an incredibly taxing and hard style
of climbing this is by far the hardest
I've ever seen Emily suffer I was just
incredibly blown away by the depths of
like perseverance and emotional strength
she has in three years she's gone from
completely failing on five nine crack
lines to freeing a route on El Cap just
over a year ago I couldn't even fathom
free climbing El Cap and I'm really
really proud of what I did there's a lot
more that I want to learn and a lot more
that I want to do and I would love to go
back and and do it better but for right
now and really satisfied
you