I had a holiday in the USA last month and spent some time in Yosemite national park and while there did some rock climbing with my kids (nothing too dramatic); for us even small achievements felt thrilling. However, whilst out one day we spotted some "proper" climbers on "El Capitan" (see above image) which is a famous climb in the park. Photographs can't do it justice but I snapped a couple of shots in an attempt to show the true scale of the feat being accomplished.
There are three pictures at different levels of zoom showing a climber about two thirds of the way up the 3000 foot face. It takes around 3-4 days to complete the entire climb meaning this person probably has at least a day and a night left to do and will sleep (anchored by ropes) whilst clinging to the vertical granite face. The physical exertion required to do this is off the charts, not only is the climbing very physically challenging a climber has to drag up all of the equipment, food and water required for the entire duration of the climb (that's about 80kg of water alone!); having struggled (pathetically) up a few hundred feet of a much simpler face I'm left with a deep respect for the people that attempt this and a feeling of real awe at the majesty of nature.
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