Fellow climber attests to difficulty of El Capitan climb

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Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Fellow climber attests to difficulty of El Capitan climb
Two men who are attempting a historic climb at El Capitan's Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park will have a friendly face greet them when they reach top.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- Alex Honnlove has climbed with Tommy Caldwell for years, one of the climbers attempting to free climb El Capitan, and he has also climbed parts of El Capitan and he knows how difficult of an undertaking it is to reach the top.

"What makes it hard is the footholds are very small they are very far apart," Honnlove said. "It's just hard to hold on."

It's the biggest and blankest part of the wall and Jorgeson and Caldwell have woven an impossible passage across the wall, Honnlove said.

Honnlove said he's watched them train at El Capitan for the past seven years, and it's nice to finally see that hard work pay off.

On Wednesday, Honnlove and Caldwell's wife Rebecca and baby Fritz are planning to hike the top of El Capitan to meet the climbers when they reach the top.