Climbing
Connor Herson, 15, just free climbed the nose of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. With support from his father Jim Herson, Connor made an unexpected and revolutionary push on the most famous route on the worlds most awe inspiring rock face. He also did it on a weekend off from school! He is only the 6th person to accomplish this massive feat, and by far the youngest.
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While most kids were catching up on homework, Connor was rappelling into El Capitan. Connor and his father spent many weekends in the valley, rappelling down the 3,000 ft face of El Capitan and working the hardest parts of the route until he had them dialed. On November 17th, Connor and Jim started up the Nose. 3 days later Connor completed a completely free ascent of the nose, making all of the individual moves on lead.
“Dear Connor, Your climbing is only surpassed by the joy and tenacity with which you attack the audacious. Congratulations on redpointing the Nose of El Capitan in perfect weekender style!”
-Jim Herson on Facebook.
Here’s video of the 2 crux pitches.
When I learned to climb, my mentor told me “there are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but there are no OLD BOLD CLIMBERS”, be careful young man!