Alex honnold

Alex Honnold has become the first climber to free solo Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan wall

~SEE FIRST VIDEO OF MOST DANGEROUS ROPE-FREE CLIMB EVER (ALEX HONNOLD) June 6, 2017 - These hair-raising moments are the first video footage from renowned rock climber Alex Honnold's ascent of the 3,000-foot wall of El Capitan—without a rope. On June 3rd, Honnold became the first person ever to free solo climb this famous rock face at Yosemite National Park, California. The video was shot by Jimmy Chin (who also photographed the climb) for an upcoming documentary by National Geographic.

By Mark M. Synnott PUBLISHED JUNE 3, 2017YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA—Renowned rock climber Alex Honnold on Saturday became the first person to scale the iconic nearly 3,000-foot granite wall known as El Capitan without using ropes or other safety gear, completing what may be the greatest feat of pure rock climbing in the history of the sport.

He ascended the peak in 3 hours, 56 minutes, taking the final moderate pitch at a near run. At 9:28 a.m. PDT, under a blue sky and few wisps of cloud, he pulled his body over the rocky lip of summit and stood on a sandy ledge the size of a child’s bedroom.

Honnold began his historic rope-less climb—a style known as “free soloing”—in the pink light of dawn at 5:32 a.m. He had spent the night in the customized van that serves as his mobile base camp, risen in the dark, dressed in his favorite red t-shirt and cutoff nylon pants, and eaten his standard breakfast of oats, flax, chia seeds, and blueberries, before driving to El Capitan Meadow.