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How Alex Honnold made ‘the ultimate climb’—without a rope
His stunning scramble up the 3,000-foot granite wall known as El Capitan, in less than 4 hours, came after meticulous planning and training.
With California’s Yosemite Valley far beneath him, Alex Honnold free solos— which means climbing without ropes or safety gear—up a crack on the 3,000-foot southwest face of El Capitan. Before he accomplished the feat on June 3, 2017, Honnold spent nearly a decade thinking about the climb and more than a year and a half plan- ning and training for it
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