Alex Honnold, 31, made history on Saturday by becoming the first person to scale the iconic granite wall known as El Capitaine (in the Yosemite National Park, California) – which stands at nearly 3 000 feet – without using any ropes or safety equipment.
It took Honnold four hours to summit the wall, and complete what may be the greatest feat in the history of the sport of rock climbing.
The intrepid rock climber had been training for more than a year at locations in the United States, China, Europe and Morocco. He had sworn friends and fellow climbers to absolute secrecy about his plans, while a team of filmmakers, led by one of his longtime climbing partners Jimmy Chin, captured the ascent for an upcoming National Geographic Documentary Film feature.
Read more about this historic feat at National Geographic.