El Capitan
About El Capitan
El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is about 3,000 feet (914 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is a world-famous location for big wall climbing, including the disciplines of aid climbing, free climbing, and more recently for free solo climbing.
On the show — 14 mentions total
While he was climbing El Capitan, there was someone at the top doing a tightrope walk, so there were people yelling to the person doing the tightrope walk. He says the drones that were coming up to him and filming him sounded like he was being attacked by wasps.
from No Such Thing As A Forbidden Panettone, 2025-11-27 at 00:36:02 · read transcript
Other times El Capitan came up
Three months after Alex Honnold became the first person ever to free solo climb El Capitan, his mum became the oldest woman to ever climb it. Stunning. That's amazing. Yeah. Such cool family. So this is Alex Honnold. This was an Oscar-winning documentary made with National Geographic. The New York Times called what he did. one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind ever. He free climbed, which means no ropes.
611: No Such Thing As A Forbidden Panettone, 2025-11-27 · listen
He free climbed, which means no ropes. It's just his hands, his feet, climbing up a 2009. 100 foot route of a mountain face. No one had ever done it before. No one has done it since, and this was in 2017. Three months later, his mum, not doing a free solo climb, but you can also climb El Capitan via the actual route which goes through. Exactly. Made it up herself three months later. Amazing.
No Such Thing As A Forbidden Panettone, 2025-11-27 · listen
You also use chalk on your fingers because that's, yeah. There's another mountain that he free-solu'd, which is called Zion's Moonlight Buttrus. It's a 1,200 foot mountain. When he did it, no one believed him for a few days after. Even though this is, you know, half the size of El Capitan. Do you know why no one believed him? Because he's a big old liar. Okay.
No Such Thing As A Forbidden Panettone, 2025-11-27 · listen
More places from this episode
No Such Thing As A Forbidden Panettone put 3 places on the map.
- Bondi Beach · Australia
- Post Office Tower · United Kingdom
Coordinates: 37.7422, -119.6358