Monkey M[e]n

Climbing has been making headlines over the last week.  Two very well known climbers in the climbing world accomplished something that was thought to be impossible.  Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell free climbed the Dawn Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite.  It took them 19 days to reach the summit and is likely the hardest big wall to be free climbed in the world.

While it's great to see climbing get more attention, the way media has been sharing this story has been a bit flawed so I thought I'd clear a few things up.

Firstly, Caldwell and Jorgeson are by no means the first people to ever free climb El Cap.  People have been doing this for years, but they are the first to free climb that section of El Cap.  For example, The Nose route had its first free climbing ascent by Lynn Hill in 1993 but free climbing El Cap goes back even earlier than that.

News outlets also haven't done the best job of saying what the pair actually did.  Free climbing does not mean they weren't using ropes.  Free climbing means each person climbed each pitch (roughly one length of rope) from the start of the pitch to the top without falling.  If they did fall, a rope was there to catch them but they would have to lower back down to the start of the pitch and try again.  Free climbing also means Caldwell and Jorgeson only used the features in/on the rock to make upward progression.  The Dawn Wall has been climbed before but with the use of gear to aide in moving up (called aide climbing).  Relying only on the rock is what makes this ascent unique.  

After completing the climb, the climbers were even interviewed by Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show.  Although it was funny, it is slightly frustrating to hear climbing called "extremely dangerous."  Yes, if someone messes up, climbing is obviously going to have more severe consequences.  However, if things are done the proper way, climbing is safer than the more traditional sports.  An article from Sports Medicine said "overall, climbing sports had a lower injury incidence and severity score than many popular sports, including basketball, sailing or soccer..." 

Just wanted to shed some light on a few things.  Once again, this really was an amazing achievement for climbing and has brought more attention to the sport which is always a good thing.  Hopefully this is another step in getting climbing into the Olympics.

That's all for now.  Bye.