Four Days of Terror on the Wall of El Capitan

In October, Tom Andrews set out for a five-day climb up Yosemite’s mile-high El Capitan. With him was a 22-year-old college student from Mexico City.  Andrews, a serious climber for 25 years and a professional moutain guide for 10 years, expected a challenging trek up what he calls “the baddest wall in North America.” What he didn’t expect was the arrival of a  winter storm that dumped torrential rain, sleet, and snow for four days, while a howling wind tossed his portaledge “like ping-pong balls in the ocean.”  For the first time, Andrews writes in this harrowing report, he thought he would die. Every climber should read this piece, twice.