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It's Never Too Late to Climb That Mountain
“It’s Never Too Late” is a series that tells the stories of people who decide to pursue their dreams on their own terms.
In her 40s, Dierdre Wolownick taught herself to swim. In her 50s, she took up running. Then, at 60, she became a rock climber — and not just any rock climber. Four years ago, at 66, Ms. Wolownick made a record-breaking ascent up El Capitan, Yosemite National Park’s granite monolith that has some of the longest, most challenging rock climbing routes in the world. And she did it in style. The route she tackled then, Lurking Fear, typically takes four days to complete. Ms. Wolownick did it in one.
Of course, it helped that the author and now-sponsored athlete had one of the most accomplished rock climbers in the world to guide her: her famous son, Alex Honnold, the star of the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo.” The film chronicles her son’s breathtaking journey to become the first person to climb “El Cap” with no rope or safety equipment whatsoever. Her own effort — which did use ropes — was “by far” the most demanding thing she had ever done, Ms. Wolownick said.
Reaching the summit of El Capitan in 2017, she became the oldest woman to make that ascent, according to Hans Florine, an American rock climber with a record 179 climbs of the vertical rock formation.
And she has not slowed down. In late September, Ms. Wolownick returned to El Cap without her son to climb it again, this time to celebrate her 70th birthday with a small group of friends and guides. On that adventure she went up an easier route that climbers typically use to descend. It took her six hours to reach the summit, and after camping there overnight, she came down in six and a half hours the next day.
The grueling climbs were a departure from the first half of Ms. Wolownick’s sedentary and cerebral life. Growing up in New York, she painted and played the piano in Jackson Heights, Queens. As an adult she taught five languages and wrote books, including a 2019 memoir, “The Sharp End of Life: a Mother’s Story,” in part about her first El Cap ascent. In 1990, a few years after moving to suburban Sacramento, where her husband grew up, she founded an orchestra in West Sacramento and conducted it.
“These were wonderful, greatly satisfying things but nothing was really physical. There certainly was no danger,” she said. “I never in a million years thought that I could climb El Cap.” (The following interview has been edited and condensed.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/sports/alex-honnold-mother-el-capitan.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
In her 40s, Dierdre Wolownick taught herself to swim. In her 50s, she took up running. Then, at 60, she became a rock climber — and not just any rock climber. Four years ago, at 66, Ms. Wolownick made a record-breaking ascent up El Capitan, Yosemite National Park’s granite monolith that has some of the longest, most challenging rock climbing routes in the world. And she did it in style. The route she tackled then, Lurking Fear, typically takes four days to complete. Ms. Wolownick did it in one.
Of course, it helped that the author and now-sponsored athlete had one of the most accomplished rock climbers in the world to guide her: her famous son, Alex Honnold, the star of the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo.” The film chronicles her son’s breathtaking journey to become the first person to climb “El Cap” with no rope or safety equipment whatsoever. Her own effort — which did use ropes — was “by far” the most demanding thing she had ever done, Ms. Wolownick said.
Reaching the summit of El Capitan in 2017, she became the oldest woman to make that ascent, according to Hans Florine, an American rock climber with a record 179 climbs of the vertical rock formation.
And she has not slowed down. In late September, Ms. Wolownick returned to El Cap without her son to climb it again, this time to celebrate her 70th birthday with a small group of friends and guides. On that adventure she went up an easier route that climbers typically use to descend. It took her six hours to reach the summit, and after camping there overnight, she came down in six and a half hours the next day.
The grueling climbs were a departure from the first half of Ms. Wolownick’s sedentary and cerebral life. Growing up in New York, she painted and played the piano in Jackson Heights, Queens. As an adult she taught five languages and wrote books, including a 2019 memoir, “The Sharp End of Life: a Mother’s Story,” in part about her first El Cap ascent. In 1990, a few years after moving to suburban Sacramento, where her husband grew up, she founded an orchestra in West Sacramento and conducted it.
“These were wonderful, greatly satisfying things but nothing was really physical. There certainly was no danger,” she said. “I never in a million years thought that I could climb El Cap.” (The following interview has been edited and condensed.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/sports/alex-honnold-mother-el-capitan.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes