“Every Part of My Body Hurt”

I’ve been rock climbing since I was 18 months old. This year, I wanted to climb a route called The Nose on El Capitan. That’s a famous cliff in California’s Yosemite [yo-SEH-mih-tee] National Park. The Nose is a very difficult climb.

I trained hard for a year. Then last June, my dad and I drove with our friend Mark to Yosemite. Standing at the bottom, I thought, “Oh my gosh, that’s huge.” It looked like there couldn’t be anything bigger on Earth. But I took deep breaths and started climbing.

I’ve been rock climbing since I was 18 months old. This year, I wanted to climb up a cliff. It’s called The Nose. The Nose is in California’s Yosemite [yo-SEH-mih-tee] National Park. It’s a very hard route.

I trained for a year. Then last June, my dad and I drove to The Nose. Our friend Mark came with us. I looked up at The Nose and thought, “Oh my gosh, that’s huge.” It looked like there couldn’t be anything bigger on Earth. But I took deep breaths. Then I started climbing.

We split the climb into pieces, or pitches. Our route had 29 pitches. My dad and Mark carried up tools, our stove, headlamps, food, sleeping bags—and about 100 pounds of water! We ate instant meals mixed with water, like Indian food and mac and cheese. The last night we ate what was left: chocolate-chip cookies.

We were way above the trees as we climbed. Suddenly, we’d hear Pfffffffew really loud, like a whistle. It was the sound of 20 or 30 birds dive-bombing nearby. It was so cool! At night, bats would zip by.

Every part of my body hurt at some point. My helmet squeezed my head. I
had blisters on my hands. My climbing shoes pinched my feet. Sometimes I was scared I wouldn’t reach the top.

But on the fifth day, I made it. At the top, I started to cry. I was happy, but also sad it was over.

I’ve been interviewed a lot since my climb. I hope I inspire people to get outdoors. It’s fun and it’s beautiful. Do something that challenges you, but start small. I think anybody can do anything.

We split the climb into pieces, or pitches. Our route had 29 pitches. My dad and Mark carried up our supplies. They also carried about 100 pounds of water! We ate instant meals mixed with water. We had Indian food and mac and cheese. On the last night, we ate chocolate-chip cookies. That’s all we had left.

We were way above the trees as we climbed. Then we’d hear a really loud whistle. It was the sound of 20 or 30 birds flying together right toward us. It was so cool! At night, bats would zip by.

Every part of my body hurt. My helmet squeezed my head. My hands had blisters. My shoes pinched my feet. I was scared I wouldn’t reach the top.

But on the fifth day, I made it. I started to cry at the top. I was happy. But I was sad it was over.

I’ve talked to a lot of people since my climb. I hope more kids and adults go outdoors. It’s fun and it’s beautiful. Do something that challenges you! But start small. I think anybody can do anything.