Climbing to the top of El Capitan in Yosemite is a rite of passage for almost any serious rock climber. While most folks who attempt this are experienced adults, a very young girl recently broke the record for the world’s youngest person to ever to climb to the top of El Cap. According to Fox News (via The Hill), 10-year-old Selah Schneiter has just become the youngest person to climb the world famous “Nose route” of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. She made the 3,000-foot climb up the granite rock over about five days in June. She was joined by her father, an experienced Colorado climbing guide, along with a family friend.
Even though she is only ten years old, Selah had actually been planning on making the summit from an even younger age. According to a story in the Fresno Bee, she started planning this climb as early as six or seven years old. At the age most of us are content to just be playing with toys, Selah was already planning on doing something only a handful of people under a certain age had ever done. She started wearing her first first rock-climbing harness not long after she started walking.
In interviews given since she completed her journey, Selah seemed a little nonplussed by the whole experience. When asked what the hardest part of the climb was, she responded with “I don’t think there was necessarily a hardest time. It was all hard. There were a few times where I would be sore and tired and sunburned, and that would kind of get me going a little bonkers. But overall, it was just great to be up there away from the world.”
Images: National Geographic Films