Thursday 15 January 2015

El Capitan

In my far-off younger days, the only sport in which I demonstrated a modicum of ability was rock climbing.  I used regularly to take Scouts to some of this country's most difficult climbs - which, surprisingly, are found locally in Sussex.  Those rocks weren't high - and they still aren't - being no more than 60 feet at their highest.  But some of the climbs were extremely tricky.  That said, both the height and the scale of difficulty pale into complete insignificance against the climb completed yesterday, the first free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan.  (Read about it here.)

The world's highest granite monolith, El Capitan is to be found in Yosemite National Park in California.

El Capitan
It brought back memories of my one and only visit to Yosemite, rather more than eight years ago now.  Absolutely stunning views, such as these:





2 comments:

The Broad said...

We went to Yosemite in 2008. It was an important place to me because way back in the 30's when my father was 15 he was fortunate enough to go with a teacher and a few school mates. It was a place he would often talk about -- and especially El Capitan. There is a famous family picture of him taken standing on a protruding rock out over the valley and directly across from the famous Granite Dawn Face. Now the place where he stood is fenced off -- but it was still a moving experience for me to be there with memories of him in my heart.

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

I haven't been to Yosemite in more than 60 years.
But three things stand out in my memory: Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and El Capitan.
El Capitan is foremost because it is one of the first sights as one enters the Yosemite Valley.

There's another place to which I want to return.