Climbers, one with nine fingers, close to completing 17-day ascent without ropes

Two climbers trying to accomplish the "Climb of the Century" using only their hands and feet to scale a sheer granite face, are near the top after 17 days.

Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell are free-climbing to the 3,000 foot summit in Yosemite National Park in California.

The pair will be the first to "free climb" El Capitan's Dawn Wall, the tallest granite monolith in the world, using only their hands and feet, ie no ropes, to scale the sheer granite face.