Cian O'Leary heading up to the Great Roof on the 22nd pitch of the Nose.
No Better Knot
Ten days on the world's most famous big wall tests the strength of spirit and relationships
Vanessa woke me early, the predawn summit light creeping in even with my head still tucked inside our homemade two-person sleeping bag, the material damp and reeking after ten days on the wall, which was below us now. “Let’s walk to the summit and see the sun come up,” she whispered in my ear, a soft Irish nag to my leave-me-be groaning, my forty-four-year-old body stiff after a night on the ground. “Christ, where do you get your energy?” I mumbled into the warm fabric.
Most who’d just climbed El Cap would be wiped out for a week and in no need of a dawn hike through winter snow. But then Vanessa is like a switch, she is either on or off, and after a year together I knew she would not be satiated by a lie-in in a stinky bed. I opened one eye to buy some time as she moved her body over mine, saw her rock star hair cast over me,
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