El Capitan (film)
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Richard McCracken
Lito Tejada-Flores
- 1978
| El Capitan | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Fred Padula |
| Produced by | Fred Padula |
| Starring | Gary Colliver Richard McCracken Lito Tejada-Flores |
Release date |
|
Running time | 60 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
El Capitan is a 1978 film by filmmaker Fred Padula that captures one of the earliest ascents of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California.[1] It has won several awards at film festivals around the world.
The film follows three climbers as they do the 3000-feet (900 m) vertical ascent of The Nose, the classic first big-wall climb on El Capitan. A fourth climber follows the group and films their ascent but is never seen in the movie. The climbers need three days to reach the summit, which means they have to spend two nights sleeping on steep ledges, waking to magnificent views. Several minutes of the film are filmed in the pitch black when the climbers are caught by nightfall before reaching a ledge to spend the night. The screen is dark when one climber is heard trying to belay another when a bolt breaks loose and the climbers fall, luckily unharmed.
Climbers
- Gary Colliver
- Richard McCracken
- Lito Tejada-Flores
- Glen Denny (Filming)
Climbing techniques
The climbers use accepted climbing practices and state-of-the-art techniques appropriate to their climbing era. For example, they wear tubular nylon webbing "swami belts" around their bodies and tie the rope into them rather than harnesses clipped to the rope with carabiners. Also, though they use familiar hex nuts they can also been seen hammering pitons into cracks for protection.
