This is the Most Terrifying Place to Sleep 😳
A climber recounts their first experience ascending El Capitan, completing the climb over 3 days with heavy gear loads. They describe sleeping on portable ledges (portaledges) anchored to the sheer rock face, with the first night spent 800 feet off the ground. The experience was particularly intense given it was only the speaker's 10th time ever wearing a sit harness.
Summary
The speaker describes a 3-day ascent of El Capitan (El Cap), a massive rock formation, notable because it was only the 10th time in their life they had ever worn a sit harness. The climb required two nights on the wall itself using portaledges — specialized cots that are assembled and strapped directly to the rock face — with a final night spent at the top.
To manage the multi-day climb, the team hauled significant gear up the wall, including 2 gallons of water per day, ropes, food, and haul bags containing the portaledges. Each climber started with approximately 100 pounds of gear. Rather than climbing with all this weight, they would climb ahead, build an anchor, and then use a pulley system to haul the gear up behind them, repeating this process throughout each day.
The most harrowing detail comes from the first night, when the speaker set up their portaledge approximately 800 feet off the ground on a wall described as steeper than vertical. The ledge hung about 6 feet away from the wall and spun in the wind, creating an extremely exposed and terrifying sleeping situation.
Key Insights
- The speaker notes that their first day on El Cap was only the 10th time in their life they had ever worn a sit harness, highlighting their relative inexperience with technical climbing gear at the start of such a demanding ascent.
- The speaker explains that each climber carried approximately 100 pounds of gear at the start, but this was never climbed with directly — instead it was left on an anchor and hauled up via pulley after each climbing segment.
- The team required 2 gallons of water per person per day, illustrating the significant logistical demands of a multi-day big wall climb where resupply is impossible.
- The speaker describes the wall on the first night as 'steeper than vertical,' meaning the rock face actually overhangs, which caused the portaledge to hang 6 feet away from the wall rather than resting against it.
- The speaker recounts sleeping on a portaledge 800 feet off the ground that was spinning in the wind, describing the extreme and disorienting exposure of big wall sleeping conditions.
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] The 10th time in my life that I've ever even worn a sit harness is day one on El Cap. We climb it in 3 days spending two nights on portal edges, the last night on the top. The way we did it cuz we're not able to climb it all in one day. So, we have like haul bags with portal edges, which are cots that you sleep on, 2 gallons of water a day, all your ropes, all your food. Each of us had 100 lb of gear start. And you're not climbing with all that, that's on a anchor, but you would climb and then you build an anchor and you pulley that stuff up. Each…
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