Category: California

Back in my younger days, I used to be crazy. Well, maybe I still am. I came across this video from which brings two of my outdoor passions together: Climbing and Frisbee

Yes, that is the famous Alcove Swing on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, with a Frisbee!

Now, before some of you ask, yes, we did hike down and recover the frisbee. #LeaveNoTrace!

El Capitán in Yosemite has been in the national spotlight this past year as two amazing documentaries have been released about climbers epic struggles to the top. While similar, the films show two very disctinct climbing styles.

First, The Dawn Wall came out. That film followed Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson up the hardest route on the face of El Cap. They fell thousands of times, slept on a portaledge for 19 nights, and, well, no spoilers. Their journey involved ropes, and sheer will and energy.

Maybe more famous, after taking home the Oscar for Best Documentary, is Free Solo. Free Solo follows Alex Honnold’s epic free solo climb of El Cap. Honnold goes up a different, easier, route up the granite monolith. Yes, easier is a relative term here. What he did is unthinkable. He went up without any ropes or protection, just his shoes, his chalk bag, and his body. Absolutely nuts.

Both feats are impressive in their own right, and it really is hard to say which one is more impressive. In the end, I’d have to go with what Honnold did. Caldwell’s life was relying on his equipment to work as expected. Sure, he still could have died, but that would have required an equipment malfunction, or human error when placing the pieces. One slip, one unexpected bird flying out of a crack, one hold breaking, or one little slip, and Honnold’s a gonner.