Climb El Capitan in Yosemite

“We topped out at around 1am, 26 hours, and two days after we had started. I always though about what this moment would be like. I always thought it would be emotional, my goal, El Cap for the first time, complete. It was not emotional, I did not feel great, El Cap was much tougher than I was. I was mentally exhausted from hours of intense technical climbing, physically wrecked, hallucinating from sleep deprivation, and ready for bed. Bed was a long way away still.”

“I looked up the rope to the anchor above that I was lowering myself away from. I was out of rope and still far from being directly under the piece of gear above. Alex had climbed nearly the entire pitch without any gear, a typical situation. He glanced down and saw me hesitate. “The swing is clean, just go for it!” he shouted. I immediately let go of the rope, a guttural yell escaped my throat as I swung along the wall covering nearly 100 feet from side to side. My feet touched the stone and I ran like I was in a Flinstone car. Hitting the apex of the swing, turning and running the other way until the momentum died and I could begin jumaring upwards. I let out a loud whoop of excitement. Despite being exhausted, we were still having fun up here.”