Outdoor enthusiast
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47 years, Australia
Daily Mountain
A world-renowned climber survived a terrifying fall on Yosemite’s deadly El Capitan — getting saved in part by “Free Solo” star Alex Honnold.
Emily Harrington, 33, said she “took a bad fall” during her latest attempt on the 3,200-foot, almost-sheer granite wall on Sunday — and her companions feared she suffered serious spinal injuries.
But she escaped alive in part by being with Honnold, star of the 2018 documentary “Free Solo”about him becoming the first person to climb El Capitan without a safety rope.
Harrington, a five-time US sport climbing champion, posted pictures to Instagram from her hospital bed Monday, showing her badly injured face, with a rope burn across her neck.
“I had an accident yesterday on El Cap. I’m banged up but gonna be ok thankfully,” she wrote.
“Not much to say except I took a bad fall and pin balled a bit then somehow hit the rope w my neck,” she wrote, alongside face-slap and shrugging emojis.
Her boyfriend, Adrian Ballinger, posted a photo of her grimacing in pain while laid out on a stretcher — calling it “the scene we all dread.”
“The most important person in my world crumpled on a ledge after a big fall in below-freezing temperatures with real injuries and a lot of reasons to suspect spinal injury,” he wrote.
He called it “the best case scenario of the worst case scenario” because Honnold was there “calmly maintaining spinal immobilization on the wall, getting things ready for an evac, and telling stories and keeping her talking throughout.”
He praised Harrington’s “warrior mentality,” saying, “She dealt with the pain, helped where she could, and stayed positive throughout.
“It’s gonna take a bit of time, but Em and her blood stained earrings and new neck tattoo will be back in the vertical world soon,” he wrote.
Harrington, from Boulder, Colorado, first free-climbed El Capitan over six days in 2015.
She has become one of the most famous figures in the sport, getting sponsored by outdoor companies like The North Face in support of her numerous achievements, including climbing Mount Everest.
By Lee Brown
This article first appeared on http://nypost.com. The original can be read here.
Classic mountaineering ice axe
Location: Italy, Milan, Lombardy, Metropolitan City of Milan, Milan
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