What made the expedition unique was that the duo used only their hands and feet to pull themselves up the granite face — a challenge long considered impossible. They had ropes, but these were merely used as safety devices to break the occasional fall.
Even though the summit of the granite monolith is only slightly over 2,300 meters from its base, the expedition was far from simple.
Its height is that of three Empire State Buildings stacked atop one another, and the granite wall features only a few small things to hold onto on the way up.
They did it! Climbers reach top of El Capitan using only their hands & feet: http://t.co/zFtloZ5Xdn #5Things pic.twitter.com/JuFz3K1BU0
— New Day (@NewDay) 15 января 2015
The climb was executed without any special equipment. The distance was divided into 31 pitches, or sections.
When one pitch was successfully navigated, the climbers stopped and prepared for the next, without returning to the ground.
During the climb, the pair slept in tents suspended from the mountain face, according to BBC.
Throughout the whole of the 19-day climb, anyone who wanted had the chance to watch the climbers with binoculars or long camera lenses while standing in a nearby meadow.
"I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall, if you will. We’ve been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day, and maybe they can put this project in their own context," The New York Times quotes Kevin Jorgeson as saying.
Wow, very impressive! El Capitan: Yosemite duo complete world's toughest climb http://t.co/2H6Ljzi5Ea
— Daan Jansonius (@Daan83) 15 января 2015
"I think the larger audience’s conception is that we’re thrill seekers out there for an adrenaline rush," Tommy Caldwell is quoted as saying. "We really aren’t at all. It’s about spending our lives in these beautiful places and forming these incredible bonds."
Two of the 31 pitches were rated 5.14d on the commonly accepted scale of difficulty for rock climbing, making them among the hardest sections of rock ever climbed. Nearly all were rated at least 5.12. To many rock climbers, completing one such pitch would be a career highlight, says the newspaper.
In its previous report on the issue, The New York Times posted a story detailing Tommy Caldwell's dramatic escape from captivity.
In doing so, however, the newspaper misnamed the location of the events and invented a new country.
Yay! It's Friday in @kyrzbekistan pic.twitter.com/H9TiUWtwUI
— DrLes Sloss (@DrLes) 9 января 2015
The name of the alleged setting, Kyrzbekistan, they apparently derived from combining the names of two countries: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; the geographic gaffe prompted a flurry of parody tweets.
