On Saturday, Alex Honnold, one of the world’s most high-profile climbers, scaled the side of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan in just under four hours using his bare hands and a bag of chalk on Saturday.
“So stoked to realize a life dream today,’ Honnold, 31, wrote on Facebook after he completed the steep vertical climb, which some have described in the past as a suicide mission.
Honnold, who has been climbing since he was 11, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he has dreamt about conquering El Capitan free style for eight years.
“The hardest part was 2,300 feet off the ground,” Honnold reportedly said.
Others have not dared conquer El Capitan without ropes or safety backups. The feat Honnold accomplished was so bold that Alpinist magazine wrote on its Facebook page, “This is indisputably the greatest free solo of all time. Congratulations, Alex!”
While likely his most dangerous, this is not Honnold’s first risky climb. According to the Chronicle, in 2008, he climbed the Moonlight Buttress in Utah’s Zion National Park, and the northwest face of Yosemite’s Half Dome, without rope.
Just one moment of distraction could have cost him his life.
In 2015, two men reached the peak of El Capitan after climbing the face of the granite Dawn Wall for 17 days using only safety ropes and their hands and feet.
This March, a mountain climber fell 1,500-feet off a mountain in Colorado, but survived. He was discovered by a jogger after he was reported missing for several days.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
This post has been updated.
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