On November 11-12, 2016, Pete Whittaker became the first person to rope solo and free climb every pitch of a route on El Capitan in a day. Pete chose Freerider (5.13a) … finishing the entire route in just 20 hours and six minutes.
For those who aren’t exactly sure of the difficulty that entails, this process means that on your own you must,
- Free climb each pitch
- Rappel each pitch
- Jumar and clean each pitch
… or in other words, essentially covering the distance of El Capitan three separate times, in a day.
This week’s Friday Flick Pick gives us a glimpse into Pete’s journey to the top.
It does make a difference doing it with someone else; it makes it easier. When you’re feeling tired or you feel like, this is epic and I’m not going to finish, the other person is always there … but when you’re by yourself, you have to keep pushing yourself on.
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