The process of working on, attempting, and eventually being successful on Golden Gate truly was a dream come true. Free climbing El Capitan was always this lofty goal I had in my head and it felt pretty surreal to finally realize it. The entire process taught me a lot about myself as a climber and where I want to take my climbing in the future. I learned that I really thrive off of the stress, pressure, and exposure associated with big wall free climbing and more “adventurous” climbing I guess. I managed to surprise myself several times on the route and really perform beyond my perceived capabilities, and that felt incredible. I definitely want to continue to explore more routes on El Cap in the future, as well as big walls elsewhere and even bigger more alpine objectives.
The work put into organizing and pulling off a ground up attempt is a massive effort aside from the actual climbing, and adds an entirely different element and skill set to the project. Understanding how to haul, being confident in my gear placements and anchor building, working efficiently within a team, and managing my own health and safety up there was all stuff I had gained experience with in the past few years, but this was a true test of all of it, in a fairly serious setting. I found that to be a pretty cool aspect as well because I came away from it feeling more competent and efficient on the logistical side of things as well.
The journey also helped me realize that being a good all-around climber encompasses not only knowing how to free climb, but knowing how to organize and be efficient, how to manage your gear in the vertical world, and how to take responsibility for your own safety and that of your team. Those skills require lots of practice and experience and I hope to continue to develop those skills throughout my climbing life.
The attempt helped me understand how vast and wonderfully versatile the climbing life can be. I’ve been climbing for 19 years and I still feel like there’s an enormous amount of new skills and experiences to gain. There is a lifetime of climbing for me on El Cap alone, but I want to continue to explore all the different aspects that climbing has to offer.
I’ve been lucky to have many talented and passionate mentors share their knowledge and experiences with me over the years, I hope to continue to learn from them on my own path forward and hopefully inspire the younger generation in the same way.
Climbing is such a gift, I’m so grateful I found it, and I hope to keep sharing it with others.
From Jon Glassberg, Filmmaker: As a climber and filmmaker, I have spent years shooting video with some of the best rock stars making hard ascents from Bouldering V15 to Sport Climbing 5.15. Emily’s ascent of Golden Gate was nothing short of inspiring and truly one of the most impressive sends I have ever witnessed. Her drive and determination on El Cap was unparalleled in any other form of climbing I have filmed! I really wanted to tell the real story of Emily’s El Capitan free climb. I wanted to follow her from the ground to the summit, documenting her ascent in the purest way possible capturing genuine, heartfelt emotion as she struggled with the climbing and logistics of ascending a big wall for the first time. No BS, just the true story of an inspiration and hard free ascent. What was most impressive to me is that Emily truly started trad climbing only a couple years ago and to progress from being terrified on 5.9 granite to being comfortable enough to free 5.13, 2000+ feet off the deck on gear is super rad. Emily also has a very strict climbing ethic that is rarely seen on El Cap. She lead every pitch, she hauled half of the time, and she climbed the route in great style.
For more from Emily Harrington, head on over to her website. And don’t forget to Like her on Facebook as well as follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
For more from Jon Glassberg, head on over to Louder Than Eleven (www.lt11.com), where the adventure filmmaker from Boulder, Colorado, is a co-owner.
