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Girl, ten, becomes youngest to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan

A ten-year-old girl has made climbing history by becoming the youngest person to scale the El Capitan cliff in Yosemite National Park.

Selah Schneiter took five days to scale the 915m (3,000ft) granite monolith in California, one of the world’s most famous climbs, with her father and a family friend.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” she said when she reached the top. Asked how she had approached the prospect of climbing the Nose route of El Capitan she said: “Our big motto was, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ Small bites,” she said. “One pitch at a time, one move at a time, one day at a time.”

Her father, Mike Schneiter, an American Mountain Guides Association-certified guide and instructor from Colorado, said: