Everything came together for Emily Harrington last Wednesday, with her climbing skills, stamina, and determination helping propel her to the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Harrington, 34, became the first woman to free-climb El Capitan via the Golden Gate route in less than 24 hours, and only the fourth person to ever achieve this accomplishment.
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It usually takes climbers four to six days to reach the summit, but Harrington made it up in 21 hours, 13 minutes, and 51 seconds. "In a way, this was my life's dream," she said. "This is the culmination of everything I've ever put into my climbing all summed up in one day." In the climbing world, "men kind of dominate," Harrington told ABC News, but she knows that she belongs on the top and "didn't have to do it the way everyone else said I had to do it. There's no formula and I did it my own way." Catherine Garcia
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