American duo conquer El Capitan

Two Americans have completed what was considered the world’s most difficult rock climb, by scaling a 910m vertical wall on El Capitan.

The granite pedestal in California’s Yosemite National Park has beckoned adventurers for more than half a century and Tommy Caldwell, 36, and Kevin Jorgeson, 30, became the first to free-climb the rock’s Dawn Wall, a feat that many had considered impossible.

They used ropes and safety harnesses, but relied entirely on their strength and dexterity to ascend by grasping cracks as thin as razor blades and as small as 10c pieces. The effort took 19 days..