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El Capitan

Towers 3,000' from Valley Floor

Monolith in Yosemite NP, Sierra Nevada near Yosemite Village, CA

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El Capitan (Spanish for The Captain, The Chief) is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers and BASE jumpers. The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when they explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan ("the captain", "the chief") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah" (Miwok language). It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief". In…