The Big Stone.
The Big Stone. To some, it is too indomitable to comprehend, residing in the realm of the impossible. Only the insane would venture up there. To others, the draw is irresistible. The grandeur, the challenge of the incomprehensible, the impossible, the insane. Everything is intensified when you’re high up. Exposure is immense, even crippling. Survival instincts burst into overdrive, magnifying your falling screams with something raw and unhinged. Uncertainty permeates. Will we find the way, and if so, will we be able to climb it? Will we hear each other in this violent gale, or see each other under fire from these hail stones? How many hours will it take to rappel 25 times to get down if everything turns to custard? Most preciously, what if I lose my balance while hovering over the poo-bag?
The Meadow in Yosemite Valley is a haven for dreamers who gaze up at the daunting face of El Capitan, the most famous Big Wall in the world, and concoct plans to defeat it. It was first climbed in 1958, by the inimitable Warren Harding and his band of unmerry men; many of Harding’s climbing partners who helped siege the wall over 47 climbing days, spanning a year and a half, lost heart and dropped out. But Harding prevailed, pulling over the top rim of El Capitan one November dawn after pounding in 28 bolts through a marathon night of unprecedented endurance.
“However, as I hammered in the last bolt and staggered over the rim, it was not at all clear to me who was conqueror and who was conquered,” he later quipped. “I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was.”
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