Men's Journal

“You’re living on a vertical plane, so you’re constantly clipping everything in, even your spoon,” says photographer Jimmy Chin about climbing El Capitan, the 3,000-foot monolith that is a climber’s rite of passage. Over six days last October, Chin spidered up El Cap’s Pacific Ocean Wall route, capturing this shot of Bulgarian climber Ivo Ninov (with Dave Hahn in the background) peering over his portaledge on the morning before their summit, 2,700 feet above the valley floor. The six weeks from September 15 until the end of October are, along with six weeks in spring, the best time to scale the granite face, between the summer heat and sudden blizzards. A veteran of 54 El Cap ascents, including a speed climb of the Pacific Ocean Wall route in 33 hours, Ninov normally tackles a big wall by aid climbing (a style that uses extra equipment to gain elevation), even if it takes twice as long and means hauling up to 100 pounds of gear and food. “You have time to lounge and locate yourself in a place where other people cannot,” he says. The first thing Chin did when he reached solid ground? “I threw stuff down — my harness, a water bottle,” he says. “It’s entertaining, dropping stuff.”

This article originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Men’s Journal.

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