Two climbing teams were scaling El Captain the day we arrived. Or at least, I was told they were. I couldn’t see anyone at all with the naked eye.
We were standing underneath the seemingly glass-smooth granite, 900-metre monolith. The scale is unimaginable. El Captian in Yosemite Valley is the spiritual home of big wall climbing.
For merely world-class climbers, it can take up to a week to climb from the valley floor to the top. Superhuman climbers such as Dean Potter, Sean Leary, and Tommy Caldwell can do it in less time than it takes to watch a movie. Alex Honnold climbed it without a rope.
Not the photos, not the films, not the words, and not even the poetry written about Yosemite Valley—about El Capitan, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls—can prepare you for the view as you crest the hill and see it before you. READ ALSO: Watch “Yosemite”By Travis Scott Featuring Nav And Gunna It’s been called one of the most beautiful sights in the world, and I wouldn’t, couldn’t argue. But with fame and beauty come crowds.
In the summer, the locals call Yosemite Valley ‘Disneyland’. Our Guardian Life guide shows Yosemite in the slower seasons, exploring the trails that leave the crowds behind, the parts of this 1,100-square-mile park where the locals go. With a little planning, you don’t need to travel far in Yosemite, in any direction, to find a true wilderness, particularly backpacking on the longer trails.
Away from the roads and visitors’ centres, you’ll find ab.