Yosemite Blog

Category: Climbing

  • Paralyzed Iraq War Vet Climbing El Capitan to Help Other Injured Soldiers

    A British Major paralyzed from injuries sustained in the Iraq War is climbing El Capitan to raise money and awareness for other veterans injured in the conflict. KSBW: Major Phil Packer of the Royal Military Police has raised more than $1.6 million for the charity Help for Heroes, which assists injured service members. He is…

  • Twitter Breaks the News of Climber Rescued from Half Dome

    While you all may have been scrambling to refresh CNN.com to find out more news about the South Korean climber rescued from Half Dome, Twitter was alive and buzzing with the news. It all started around 9:25AM when Theresa Ho posted first news of the rescue. @SimplyTheresa posted: Rescue has started for Korean climber caught…

  • YOSAR’s John Dill Honored for Achievements

    If you’ve ever wanted to meet a true hero I’d tell you to go to Yosemite and find John Dill. Dill has been THE face behind Yosemite’s Search and Rescue for over 38 years now. He’s taken part in almost every major rescue, he was there at the beginning when the original wall rats were…

  • Something Cool Happened on the Way Up

    Brian and his friend, Nick, were climbing El Cap when the rock slide happened. Interestingly enough the park geologist, needed to survey the situation, was on a route very close to theirs. Here’s what Brian had to say and his video from Flickr as the SAR helicopter came to extract the park geologist. Brianz: At…

  • Chongo

    The legend lives on: He was known as the king of the Yosemite lifers, that proud band of rock climbers, tightrope walkers and seekers who made camp on the margins of the law, sleeping under the black oaks and sequoias and California stars. On his shoulders he carried an 80-pound constellation of canvas stowage, books…

  • Half Dome in 2.5 Hours

    Got a couple hours to spare? Been hanging out at the climbing gym and looking for a little more excitement? Maybe you should do what Alex Honnold did, free-soloed the 23 pitch Regular Northwest Face up Half Dome in a mere 2 hours and 50 minutes. Alex scrambled up to the base of the 5.12a…

  • Interview with Kelly Perkins

    Authors Note: You may remember about a week ago we posted an article about the unstoppable Kelly Perkins who, with the help of husband Craig and Scott Stowe of the Yosemite Mountaineering School climbed the face of Half Dome. This was quite an inspirational feat as Kelly was the recipient of a heart transplant in…

  • Third Time a Charm for Florine and Hirayama

    There’s a new speed record tonight for climbing the nose route up El Capitan this time the record his held by Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama who made it to the top in 2 hours and 43 minutes breaking a record set last year by two German brothers. SF Gate: “A Lafayette rock climber and…

  • Heart Transplant Recipient Scales Half Dome

    Looks like the unstoppable Kelly Perkins has recently made another ascent in Yosemite, with the help of Yosemite Mountaineering School guide, Scott Stowe. Since getting a heart transplant in 1995, Kelly has been traveling the world, climbing significant peaks in an effort to promote organ donation. She’s a great inspiration, not only for organ transplant…

  • Yosemite Speed: Half Dome Running and Nose Climbing Records

    There are some newsworthy happenings on the speedclimbing and running fronts happening right now in Yosemite. To back up a bit for those who don’t know about these obscure domains of human endeavour, some folks like to compete against a clock (you’ve perhaps heard of the Boston Marathon or the Iditarod?) and some of those…