93-year-old man becomes the ‘oldest known person to climb' Yosemite’s Half Dome
Some of us - and i’m not naming names - would rather drive 'round to the local shop than walk the 15 minutes there and back – let alone take on a mega hike.
And yet one 93-year-old is putting us to shame with his incredible feat.
That's right, Everett Kalin decided at his ripe age to climb Yosemite’s Half Dome on 18 July.
But despite trying out skydiving when he was 91, the legend still doesn’t consider himself a thrill-seeker.
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According to the National Park Service, the Half Dome Day Hike takes most hikers 10 to 12 hours to complete.
They also say that the 14 to 16-mile round trip is ‘not for you if you’re out of shape of unprepared’, with the Yosemite icon and hiker haven sitting nearly 8,800 feet above sea level.
And now Kalin is believed to be the oldest person on record to climb it.
He told SFGATE: “When you hit your 90s, you think, ‘What would be some things I’d like to do?’ I guess Half Dome was the thing that most popped into my mind.”
The 93-year-old completed the climb with his 57-year-old son Jon and 19-year-old granddaughter Sidney. The pair carried all of the supplies so the grandfather could hike with just a water bladder on his back.
Of course, the American trained for months beforehand. The retired theology professor would do a near-daily walk around Lake Merritt as well as walking up the stairs in his 17-story building, reports SFGATE.
Parts of the dome have cables to allow hikers to pull themselves up, but for Kalin, one of the toughest sections was the subdome which is steep and without cables.
At moments, Jon and Sidney had to hold on to him in help.
“I didn’t realise how tricky it would be, especially at my age,” Kalin said.
Jon added: “He’s stubborn as a mule. When he sets his mind to something, he’s going to do it, he kept proving me wrong every step of the way.”
Those they had met along the trek burst into cheers when Kalin reached the top.
Jon described: “There were tears in everyone's eyes. It was like paparazzi, everyone taking videos and photos. It was unreal. I’m choking up just talking about it now. The power of seeing him was so much joy and inspiration.”
Rangers along the journey told them they’d heard of a few who’d completed it in their 80s, but not anyone in their 90s.
A day after getting home, Kalin actually ‘felt great’ and not even sore, just ‘very grateful’ to those who made the climb possible. It was an experience he will never forget.
“One of the crazy things both on the trail and the night before was we met tons of people who were looking at me and asking, ‘How old are you?’” Kalin said. “I said 93, and they wanted to take my picture.”
Jess Battison