If six months ago I was told that I would climb El Capitan within the year I would not have believed it

First sentence of a blog post I read a few months ago. Had I been told I would write the same myself soon, I would not have believed it either.

The last year and a half has certainly been intense. Roughly: I stopped working, converted a van, drove to Spain, and climbed loads: adventure trad in Costa Blanca, sport in El Chorro, slabs and off-widths in La Pedriza, granite corner cracks in Galayos and Torozo, monstrous alpine classics in the Pyrenees, amazing limestone canalizos in the Picos de Europa.

And then finally Yosemite, confronting Lurking Fear VI 5.7 C2+ on the Captain. Stating this as a goal always felt somewhat ridiculous, almost like a joke. But in hindsight, all we did was to start climbing, and follow Andy Kirkpatrick’s advice: When things get hard don’t come down.

It is hard to summarise all these experiences in words — many firsts, many achievements, many failures and many I-will-never-climb-again-moments — so I will not. Below are some pictures.

Building the van

Costa Blanca and El Chorro in southern Spain

La Pedriza <3, Galayos, and Torozo in central Spain

Pyrenees and Asturias

Yosemite