El Capitan's Dawn Wall climbers describe amazing experience
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (KGO) -- The two climbers who made it to the top of Yosemite's El Capitan in a historic free climb spoke out on Thursday about the incredible experience.
By now the epic images of two men stretched across granite look familiar, but for the first time, we're hearing about the level of patience and resolve required.
"The limiting factor was really our fingers. So our bodies held up quite well actually," climber Tommy Caldwell said.
Caldwell lost his voice cheering on climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson.
The Santa Rosa native spent one week, and fell 11 times, trying to make it past the 15th pitch. His 3,000-foot quest came down to two fingers.
"It's dead vertical. It's about an 80-foot right to left traverse and the crux is extremely sharp. For my wingspan, you need to be able to hang on with just two fingers while you're fully extended like this and it just happened that these were the two fingers that had cuts in them," Jorgeson said.
Caldwell says the Dawn Wall dream wouldn't have been complete if he'd finished alone.
"Everything is better when it's shared," he said.
On Wednesday, the world shared in their accomplishment. Even President Obama sent his congratulations.
For Caldwell and Jorgeson, the moment remains surreal.
"At least for me, when you would grab that last hold, you could literally feel all the hope, desire, stress just drip off you. You're just hanging there in silence and relief and joy. It's like the coolest feeling," Jorgeson said.
"Although we were very dirty, quite smelly, all I wanted to do was wrap myself around my wife and hold my kid," he added.
VIDEO: Free climbers succeed in reaching top of El Capitan
The climbing partners never expected their journey would capture international attention. Now that it has, they issue a challenge.
"I hope that everyone that's been following along can take the Dawn Wall as an example of what's possible and find their own Dawn Wall," Jorgeson said.
Will you?
For full coverage on Jorgeson and Caldwell's historic climb, click here.
