El Capitan: A grand granite rock with a fascinating myth
Have you ever dreamt of being a climber? Climbing the steep slopes of mountains in pursuit of fun and some daring adventure can be a truly thrilling hobby. One rock that should be on the bucket list of an aspiring climber is El Captain. Located inside California’s famous Yosemite National Park, it is also the world’s largest granite monolith.
El Capitan: A bird’s eye view
El Capitan is a vertical rock formation that towers over the north-western side of the Yosemite Valley. It is 7573 feet from the base to the summit and is made up of granite. It is a favourite among rock climbers for its steep slope, height and the terrain that overlooks the Yosemite Falls. It is spread across 1.5 miles only and is part of the Sierra Nevada range. This massive rock or monolith is composed of pale, coarse-grained granite that is more than 100 million years old. Although mostly made up of granite, a separate form of igneous rock called Taft Granite forms the peak of the cliff. Another rock called diorite is also found which gives the structure its varied hues. Experts believe that just like the other natural wonders in the site, El Capitan too was formed by continuous glacial action, particularly the Sherwin Glaciation that happened 1.3 to 1 million years back. In fact, the granite of the monolith is so formidable and free of joints that even glacial action couldn’t erode the faces of the rock structure.
Why is it called El Captain?
By now you must have wondered how did the monolith end up getting such an unusual name. Well, as it turns out, while exploring the Yosemite Valley in 1851, a Spanish explorer, Mariposa Battalion came upon the structure and named it El Capitan, the Spanish word or The Captain. The local native American name of the monolith is ‘Tutokanula’, which means ‘Rock Chief’ in English. This is where Battalion drew the inspiration behind this name from.
The legend of Tutokanula
El Captain is definitely an unusual name. So is the native ‘Tutokanula’. Well, there is an interesting legend behind this. The narrative goes like this. Two innocent bear cubs along with their mother were walking along a native river. When the mother stopped for foraging seeds and berries, her cubs napped on the flat rock. On returning, she found that that the rock had magically grown into a tall structure with her cubs sleeping on them. She sought help from other animals but none of them manage to reach the summit. However, finally, a slow and little inchworm called Tutokanula climbed it successfully and rescued the cubs. So, the rock was named after it. The local Miwok word for inchworm is ‘Tutokanula’.
Climbing The Nose
The El Cap, as it is fondly called by rock climbers, originally had two different routes through which it could be climbed. These were through the two faces, one on the Southwest and the other on the Southeast. However, seasoned climbers later found a third route through a giant prow that lied in between these two faces. Since it looked like a human nose, it came to be known as The Nose.
Now a favourite among climbers, The Nose was first pioneered in 1958 by the famous American rock-climbing trio Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore, who took 47 days to reach the summit. The first solo ascent was done by American climber Thomas Bauman in 1969. Six years later, another trio, comprising of John Long, Jim Bridwell and Billy Westbay managed to successfully climb The Nose in a single day. Quite a feat, what say?
Interestingly, today it can be ascended within a few hours. In fact, the American climber duo Alex Honnold and Hans Florine in 2012 climbed it within 2 hours and 23.46 minutes and set an all-time record.