2 Americans become the first to free climb Yosemite’s Dawn Wall

The movie "Mission Impossible II" begins with a scene where lead actor Tom Cruise climbs on high steep cliff. This is the essence of free-climbing, in which a climber does not rely on other equipment but use bare hands holding razor-sharp edges of rock to reach the top. One of the rock-climbing’s attractions is to enjoy extreme adventure in the nature, but now there are many indoor rock-climbing gyms in the city making it easy to enjoy the sport. Rock-climbing is also effective to throw distracting thoughts, improve concentration and build up a firm body by evenly using all muscles.

In the El Capitan (2,308 meters above sea level) rock formation in Yosemite National Park, there is a high-rising cliff that many experts named the most challenging route. The "Dawn Wall," the park`s legendary granite monolith, is 914 meters in height. It is higher by 86 meters than Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest man-made building in the world. Two free-climbers draw attention around the world as they became first-ever to reach the top of the granite wall which was regarded as a mission impossible. Tommy Caldwell (36) and Kevin Jorgeson (30), two American free-climbers, reached the summit in 19 days by eating and sleeping in a small tent hanging on to the steep cliff.

Caldwell lost his left index finger in an accident in 2001, which was a critical injury for a rock climber. In 2000, he was held captive by Al-Qaeda in Kyrgyzstan, during his visit for rock-climbing. Despite such various challenges, Caldwell never gave up on his goal to become the first to free-climb the Dawn Wall. In 2010 when Jorgeson who share the dream joined as a pair, the two free-climbing duo made the first attempt but gave up in the middle due to bad weather. In the next year, Jorgeson tried alone but failed after getting injured in his ankle. After three previous failed attempts, the pair achieved their dream by pushing the limits of themselves on last Wednesday. Tom Evans, a mountain climber who conquered the summit of El Capitan in 1970, praised it as “the most important achievement in mountain climbing history of the early 21st century.”

While passing through the most challenging section on this journey, Jorgeson failed 11 times over seven days but never gave up. The strong-willed free-climber said on the summit, “I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall. We`ve been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day.” This may be words of wisdom to remember when facing a daunting wall to climb in life.