A 7-Year-Old Scaled El Cap. Climbers Aren't Thrilled

It was big news in the climbing world, and even outside it, back in May: A 7-year-old named Joey "Danger" Evermore reached the top of El Capitan in Yosemite, laying claim to being the youngest person to scale the famed peak. But as Sam MacIlwaine reports in a deep dive for Climbing magazine, many in the climbing community are less than impressed. MacIlwaine dug in after hearing the complaints: that it was a publicity stunt engineered by the boy's father, that the climbing technique used wasn't legit, etc. What he found was "a complicated picture of media, climbing achievement, and parenting," writes MacIlwaine.

The story details how Joey and his older brother ascended, or "jugged," fixed ropes for five days while a support crew of hired climbers led pitches, fixed lines, and hauled hundreds of pounds of gear—labor that never shows up in viral headlines or on the family's Instagram feeds. Dad Joe Evermore, who plans to make a documentary about his parenting style—"real fathers raising real men"—then launched Joey on a publicity blitz. "How could you possibly believe that your child, at that age, is the one who's motivating this and not you?" says climber Chris Kalous. "It just all adds up to ick." Another, Tommy Caldwell, argues that jugging on ropes others put up isn't the same as "climbing El Cap," and that erasing the adult team distorts what really happened.

MacIlwaine speaks to the elder Evermore and cut him slack, noting that mainstream media coverage of the feat sometimes misstated things. Still:

• "Joe's decision to hire illegal guides and porters for an ascent that he intentionally publicized set him up to tell a dishonest story—one in which a father shows his sons what it's like to take on big objectives, lead, fix lines, haul, and manage risk as a self-sufficient unit. It's not necessary to say that they climbed the big wall themselves; removing their six team members from the narrative implies that no one else could have."

Read the full piece, which explains that reference to illegal guides and porters.