Yosemite

I went to Yosemite for the first time last week and it really is as epic as everyone says it is. Just standing at the base of El Cap rendered me speechless. Well, almost. At some point my eyes couldn't stretch any wider and I sheepishly said, "Holy shit."

A co-worker and I had cruised out to the Valley to meet up with some REI employees from the surrounding area to take them out climbing and teach them a thing or two. Not a bad gig huh?

One evening we were all treated to a private viewing of an exhibition by Ken Yeager informally called The History of Climbing. Sitting in that smallish room littered with old gear and photos of climbing icons was strangely eerie and completely captivating. Ken told what seemed to be improbable stories of old school climbers and their ground breaking first ascents. All the while I couldn't stop noticing the ridiculous smile of the guy next to me on the wooden bench.

Alex Honnold had hooked up with us a few days earlier to give us a hand with the event and to do some climbing of his own. I'd never really hung out with him so I was psyched to get to know him a little and talk to him about his philosophies. At first he was very quiet, but he warmed up quickly and then later exploded...

Sitting there on the bench I knew the secret to his smile. Just the day before Alex had been the first person to ever free solo the Half Dome. (See one of the many recent articles.) True to his modest nature, Alex hadn't told anyone except Brad and me. That comic book smile must have been just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what he was feeling.

Surely this feat will go down in the climbing history books as one of the greatest of all time, and what an amazing experience for me to have been there and take it all in firsthand. Days later I'm still trying to wrap my head around and realize the gravity of what Alex did. Thinking back, not only was I hearing about climbing heroes in that Yosemite gallery, I was actually sitting next to one.