She’s 10 Years Old and Just Climbed El Capitan

Selah Schneiter is only 10 years old, but she just climbed The Nose with her dad, Mike, and family friend Mark Regier over five days. She is the youngest climber on record to have climbed El Capitan, after Scott Cory in 2001 at age 11 and Tori Allen in 2001 at age 13. There have been reports of other 11- to 15-year -old climbers going up The Nose with their parents.

Chris Van Leuven recently wrote about the ascent for Outsideonline.com and said, “Selah, who lives in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, has climbing in her blood. Mike and Joy [Selah’s mom] fell in love 15 years ago while climbing El Capitan; when Selah was just eight weeks old they brought her to the Valley, bathing her in a Rubbermaid tub in historic Camp 4.”

Mike owns Glenwood Climbing Guides and Joy is a nurse in Glenwood. Selah led the first pitch of The Nose and the bolt traverse to the Boot Flake. In 2009, Mike posted a photo of Selah at three days old and “climbing” in Glenwood Canyon, see here.

Throwback to 2001

Scott Cory climbed The Nose twice when he was 11. The first from Sept. 8 to 9, two days before the attacks on the World Trade Towers in New York. He climbed it with Hans Florine, Beth Rodden, Tommy Caldwell and Steve Schneider. In October, he climbed it again with the same team in a day to raise money for the AmeriCares relief fund.

In 2002, Scott and his mom, Jennifer, were interviewed by mountainzone.com and Jennifer said, “hey finished climbing The Nose for the first time just two days before the September 11th tragedies occurred. Scott was very upset by the fact that so many kids were left without parents. He wanted to raise some money for them, and the way he thought he could do it best was by climbing.

“He contacted Beth and Tommy, and asked them if they would climb The Nose with him in one day, this time for charity. They readily agreed, and a Climb for Freedom was born. Scott began looking for charities that directly benefited children, and selected AmeriCares to receive all of the funds from their charity climb.” Full interview here.

Scott, who kept a blog until 2011, said in 2001, “I like climbing because I like being really high by myself,” Cory said. “Because of climbing, I’ve also met new people in different countries when I’ve gone climbing.