At around 1:34 AM on election night, Emily Harrington began her free climb of El Capitan’s Golden Gate route. Her goal: to finish the whole climb within a day. Was she able to achieve her goal? Yes, she was, and it was nothing short of amazing.
Of course, Harrington knew that it was going to be difficult, as she already attempted this route twice last year. But this time, she just knew that she could do it, and her intuition was correct.
Over the course of the next 21 hours, 13 minutes, and 51 seconds, Harrington motored up the 3,000-foot line, becoming the first woman to achieve this feat, as well as only the fourth woman ever to free-climb El Capitan in a day, on any route. (In 1994, Lynn Hill became the first person to free-climb the Nose in under 24 hours. Steph Davis and Mayan Smith-Gobat have each climbed Freerider, in 2004 and 2011, respectively, in a day.)
More details about her climb over at Outside Online.
(Image Credit: Jon Glassberg/ Wikimedia Commons)