How climbers conquered El Capitan's hardest route
- Published
Adventurers Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell have completed their record breaking climb up El Capitan. Here they are back on 27 December preparing to set off.
This is El Capitan and right in the middle is the Dawn Face. It's the world's largest granite monolith - a straight, vertical slab of rock so smooth that it's very difficult to climb.
El Capitan is located in Yosemite National Park, California. It's an area of natural beauty on the west coast of the USA.
The two men were free-climbing the Dawn Face. That means they used just their hands and feet to climb without using a rope to haul themselves up. They did wear a safety rope though, to prevent them falling down the rock face.
Free-climbing the Dawn Face is very tough on the fingers as there aren't many places to hold on. The climbers had to take regular breaks to let their skin heal.
The climbers slept in tents hanging from the rock face. A team of helpers hoisted up supplies and equipment on ropes.
Dinner was served hanging from the rock face. Here's Tommy enjoying pasta, veg and meat. Looks tasty...!
Often the men would climb through the night, to avoid the daytime heat. Cool conditions are best for free-climbing because your hands sweat less.
You may be wondering how climbers go to the toilet while suspended from the rock face. Turns out you can just wee whenever you like, as it evaporates in the daytime heat. For everything else the climbers carried plastic bags which were collected from them by brave volunteers!
Lots of people came to watch the men climb the Dawn Face. The world's newspapers and TV broadcasters turned up too, to capture the historic climb.
There were cheers when the two adventurers reached the top of the cliff face. Kevin Jorgeson's mum Gaelena, in the red coat, raised her arms in celebration.
The climbers were greeted with a spectacular view when they reached the top of El Capitan. So far, they haven't done any interviews with news reporters, so we'll have to wait to find out what they have to say about their world record climb.