El Capitan: Historic Feats and Radical Routes

By Daniel Duane

Book Overview

An unforgettable faceall 3,000 granite feet of it. El Capitan towers above California's Yosemite Valley, a sheer rock wall, seemingly insurmountable, and by far the most coveted rock climb on earth. El Capitan traces the mountain's unique history and recounts the vertical adventures had therefrom Warren Harding's 45-day siege in 1958 up through the recent speed climbs of under 5 hours. Critically acclaimed author Daniel Duane articulates how this massive wall can totally consume a person. Duane profiles the legends who have devoted themselves to El Capitan, including Royal Robbins, Warren Harding, and John Middendorf. Accompanied by 36 moody duotones, El Capitan captures the essence of big wall climbing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811824845
• ISBN13: 9780811824842
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Musings about the Holy Grail

El Capitan is the Holy Grail of Big Wall Climbing and Duane does a very good job providing background history of the Walls and the Legends who made their mark on them. Yes, I've read the other reviews concerned with minor inaccuracies and lack of mention of significant climbers. But, hey, I'm a novice and have never been to Yosemite although I hope to go in the next year. Duane is best in interviewing the legends and telling their background stories and trying to translate the reasons they climb. It's a fascinating story. My favorite being the men stuck on the wall when a storm comes and their bivouc tents are virtually destroyed. Also, it's nice to read about the free spirits whose goal in life have nothing to do with money and all to do with the Wall. Overall, I found this book informative, very concise, and filled with great pictures. It may not however, satisfy the experienced climbers who follow climbing history or have significant experience in Yosemite. But for people fascinated with climbing and the personalities involved, it was a great quick, informative read.

A gem

This is truly a splendid book, capturing personalities of Valley climbers better than anything I've read. Beautifully written, thoughtful, insightful. Great pics also. But Duane is sometimes a sloppy researcher. Misspelled names galore (Scott Burk throughout, e.g.) Wrong dates. Wrong first-ascent names. Screwed-up captions. Bad geography (Palms Springs lies under the Tehachipi Mountains?). These are minor flaws but irritating to see in such a brilliant writer.

Excellent, but somehow insufficient

This book deserves 4 stars rather than 5 not for what's in it, but for what isn't. This is really a musing, a meditation on El Cap, not the definitive history which it purports to be. Duane examines the Big Stone through the experiences of some of its ascentionists: Harding, Robbins, Corbett, Middendorf, Burke, and so on. But others are strangely absent. Where is Piana and Skinner's controversial Salathe Wall first free ascent? What about the Wings of Steel incident? Where, for heaven's sake, is Lynn Hill? Duane is perhaps at his best when he interviews climbers, drawing intense, personal statements from them. Perhaps his tone is a little depressing, a little inclined to see climbing as pointless, but this is still a worthwhile, intelligently written book. For me, though, Duane's reductionist approach is, ultimately, not enough.