| El Capitan | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Fred Padula |
| Produced by | Fred Padula |
| Starring | Gary Colliver Richard McCracken Lito Tejada-Flores |
| Release date(s) | 1978 (USA) |
| Running time | 60 min. |
| Language | English |
El Capitan is a film by filmmaker Fred Padula that captures one of the earliest ascents of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California, USA.[1] It was screened at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 1979[2] and won several awards at film festivals around the world.
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The film follows three climbers as they do the 3000-feet (900 m) vertical ascent of The Nose, the classic first big-wall climb on El Capitan. A fourth climber follows the group and films their ascent but is never seen in the movie. The climbers needs three days to reach the summit, which means they have to spend two nights sleeping on steep ledges waking to magnificent views. Several minutes of the film is filmed in the pitch black when the climbers are caught by nightfall before reaching a ledge to spend the night. The screen is dark when one climber is heard trying to belay another when a bolt breaks loose and the climbers fall, luckily unharmed. Most of the filming was done over a 6 week period probably in 1969 (possibly 1968 or 1970).
The climbers use many techniques that are different from modern big-wall climbing. For example they do not use harnesses but instead tubular nylon webbing swami belts around their bodies and tie the rope into them. Typical nuts can not been seen used; they often hammer pitons into the cracks which they then use to secure themselves.
The film has received awards at the following film festivals