El Capitan

In my far-off younger days, the only sport in which I demonstrated a modicum of ability was rock climbing.  I used regularly to take Scouts to some of this country's most difficult climbs - which, surprisingly, are found locally in Sussex.  Those rocks weren't high - and they still aren't - being no more than 60 feet at their highest.  But some of the climbs were extremely tricky.  That said, both the height and the scale of difficulty pale into complete insignificance against the climb completed yesterday, the first free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan.  (Read about it here.)

The world's highest granite monolith, El Capitan is to be found in Yosemite National Park in California.

El Capitan

It brought back memories of my one and only visit to Yosemite, rather more than eight years ago now.  Absolutely stunning views, such as these: