This 10-year-old girl is the youngest person ever to climb Yosemite's El Capitan.
At just 10-years-old, Selah Schneiter is the youngest person to climb the dangerously steep El Capitan boulder in Yosemite. Selah, who started climbing as an infant, says that she loves the sport because of all the preparation that goes into it, and it's closeness to nature.
Video Transcript
SELAH SCHNEITER: I love climbing because of all the work that goes into it. And when you're working on something really hard and you're excited about it, you can just feel that electricity in the air. And it's so exciting. It's so incredible. I love the nature. All the animals, plants, the dirt, the rock, everything that surrounds you. It's beautiful. My name is Selah Schneider and I'm a rock climber. I mean, this has always kind of been a climb that I've wanted to do. It's always been in the back of my mind. But I wasn't quite sure if I could actually do it. El Cap is 3,000 feet tall and made of granite. It's taller than the tallest building on Earth.
The nose was the first route up El Cap and arguably the most famous route in the world. Preparing for El Cap was really big. I needed to prepare myself mentally, trying to prepare myself for how big it was. I also really needed to work on getting stronger. I needed to be much stronger to do El Cap. There is a lot of family history in El Cap for me. My parents were both big climbers.
And then a week after they met, they climbed El Cap together. And that's really inspired me to go climb El Cap, too. We thought that I might be the youngest girl to climb it, but we really didn't know. And that really wasn't why I climbed El Cap. I just went up to go and climb something. And I knew that I probably wouldn't get to the top, but I just wanted to try.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: I watched her. And we were like, wow, she really knows what she's doing. Super safe. Was just doing everything right. There was no question about it. She was teaching people up on El Cap how to do things. She knew more than some of the other people that were up there.
SELAH SCHNEITER: Climbing El cap with my dad, it really improved our relationship. And having him there, not only at the base of El Cap, but at the base of every climb, he encourages me.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: Good. You got it.
SELAH SCHNEITER: Watch me close.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: I'm watching you. There you go. Nice.
SELAH SCHNEITER: Lower. That was fun.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: Good job.
SELAH SCHNEITER: I can't remember a time when I hadn't climbed. It's just always been a part of me. I started climbing when I would go along the bottom holds of the climbing wall and just use them to walk when I was about six months old. And then when I was about one and 1/2, I started learning how to walk. And my parents put me in a full body harness and just I started climbing up the wall.
JOY SCHIEDER: Day three was her first time touching a boulder.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: Yeah, day three. She was just a blob basically.
JOY SCHIEDER: She always really loved it. She never was afraid. She always wanted to try. And so we encouraged that. Make it fun, so you want to go again next weekend.
SELAH SCHNEITER: My first [INAUDIBLE] was when I was about six. It was really fun. And then I did my first desert tower when I was seven. When I was nine, I led 59 for the first time. That was really big for me. It's just really amazing how many goals you can set and how many you get to and how many you don't even know you set.
Falling is fun for me in certain situations when it's steep or overhanging. But when it's not, I sometimes can get really freaked out. Things are really, really quiet when I'm climbing. Just very in the moment and focused. I think just being in the moment. It's not thinking about how to get to the top. It's not thinking about how to get that next move. It's thinking about what to do now as you're in this moment. You're not tomorrow or yesterday. You're today.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: That last bolted anchor.
SELAH SCHNEITER: When I got to the top of El Cap, I was really happy. But I was also kind of sad, because you only get to do something your first time once. So there's a first time for everything, but there's only one first time for everything. And you really have to embrace that first time.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: That's your first happy cry?
SELAH SCHNEITER: Yeah. I just can't believe I just did that.
MIKE SCHNIEDER: We thought, well, maybe she could be the youngest girl to climb it. So I was kind of blown away to find out that she was the youngest person to have ever climbed it.
JOY SCHIEDER: With a little bit of encouragement and practice, kids can really do a lot. And what we can do as parents is foster those dreams and encourage it and say, hey, how can we learn how to do this together?
SELAH SCHNEITER: I hope to inspire not just young people, but all people, to just get outside. You don't have to go climb El Cap. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying go for a walk around your block. I could see myself climbing professionally, but I really don't know what I want to do in the long run. But for the most part, I'm just trying to keep climbing.
