Emily Harrington Becomes The First Woman To Scale Yosemite’s El Capitan In Single Day

Emily Harrington became the first woman to free-climb the face of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan in a single day. She is the fourth person to achieve this feat. Harrington started climbing the wall on Wednesday, November 4, and reached the top 21 hours, 13 minutes, and 51 seconds later.

First Woman to Free Climb Yosemite’s El Capitan In Single Day

Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan is one of the world’s most famous climbing spots where some of the best climbers have proved their mettle. The park itself is widely considered to be the birthplace of modern rock climbing. Harrington had climbed the Golden Gate, one of the wall’s particular routes, on various previous occasions. However, she had never been able to do the same in a single day. Notably, she experienced a scary fall while on a climbing expedition nearly a year back and was seriously injured. Undeterred, she decided to try again and spent months training in her home gym in California.

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Harrington was assisted by her boyfriend Adrian Ballinger, a notable Mount Everest guide, and Alex Honnold, famous for his unprecedented free solo climb of El Capitan, during her historic climb. Even so, she faced a major challenge when her foot slipped at one of the wall’s toughest sections, causing her to fall sideways and hit her head on the 3000-foot sheer granite wall. Nonetheless, Harrington remained determined to continue and resumed her climb after bandaging her wound and an hour’s rest.

What You Should Know: 

• Emily Harrington recently became the first woman and the fourth person to free-climb the face of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan in a single day.
• She started climbing the wall on Wednesday, November 4, and reached the top 21 hours, 13 minutes, and 51 seconds later.
• The climber suffered a grave fall while scaling the wall, However, she remained undeterred and continued climbing, 
• Harrington admitted that the feat has made her feel more secure of her place as a woman in a male-dominated sport. 

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Emily Harrington: “You Owe It To Yourself To Try Again”

Talking about what motivated her to go on climbing after her deadly fall, Harrington told  San Francisco Chronicle, “There was a part of me that wanted to give up and quit. But this other part of me was like, this is why you’re here. It’s supposed to be hard. You owe it to yourself to try again.”

Emily Harrington also said that being a woman in a male-dominated sport often made her feel she “didn’t belong” and “ hadn’t earned” her place to be a Yosemite climber. Her recent achievement, however, has given her some valuable life lessons: “… Throughout this experience, I learned that there is no belonging or not belonging, no formula to achievement up there. I was creative and experimental and I found my own way.”

Picture Credits: npr.org

Tarini Gandhiok is an intern with SheThePeople.TV