Two American free-climbers make history

Many had thought this was impossible to achieve: Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson became the first to free-climb a 3,000-foot (900-meter) vertical rock formation called Dawn's Wall on Yosemite's El Capitan mountain. It is considered the world's most difficult rock climb.

The two men began their ascent on December 27. They were the first to scale El Capitan's Dawn Wall using only their hands and feet to climb the vertical rock inch by inch. Ropes and safety harnesses were only used to catch the two free-climbers if they fell.

The trek took 19 days. During their pioneering adventure, the two free-climbers lived on the wall itself. They ate and slept in tents attached to the rock formation. Caldwell and Jorgeson ate canned peaches and occasionally drank whiskey. Reporters shot videos of the spectacular ascent.

The warmth of the day caused their hands to perspire, so Caldwell and Jorgeson often started climbing at dusk.

There are about 100 routes up the monolith El Capitan. In 1958, the first climbers made it to the top. Even the extremely challenging Dawn Wall was scaled in 1970. However, no one had ever reached the top in one continuous free-climb before Caldwell and Jorgeson.

Kevin Jorgeson (left) and Tommy Caldwell (right) were turned back by a storm when they tried to free-climb El Capitan in 2010. A year later, another attempt failed because Jorgeson broke his ankle while climbing the rock.

Gaelena Jorgeson (center) and Terry Caldwell cheered as their sons reached the top. Terry Caldwell said that her son could have reached it several days ago, but he had waited for his friend so that they made it together. "That's a deep, abiding, lifelong friendship, built over suffering on the wall together over six years," she said.

The free-climbers embraced after their dauntless ascent. US-President Barack Obama congratulated them from the White House on his Twitter account, saying that the two men "remind us that anything is possible".