7yr-old breaks brothers’ record and becomes the youngest person ever to summit El Capitan
Michael Logerwell
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – What were you doing on your 7th birthday? Eating sheet cake at the bowling alley? Yeah, me too.
Joey Danger Evermore can’t relate because he turned 7 years old while summiting El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
“So amazing,” Joey said, describing reaching the summit. “We got to the top [and] we ate military food.”
With that ascent, Joey became the youngest ever to summit El Capitan, beating out his two older brothers, Sam and Sylvan, who both did it at 8 years old.
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“In a way he’s the least afraid that we’ve ever seen,” Joe Evermore, the father, said. “Joey’s just trusting the lines, and it’s amazing to see that he’s really just having fun up there when we’re climbing.”
Like any major climb, this one had some ups and downs, even at what was supposed to be the pinnacle
“This one kind of sucked,” said Sylvan, chiming in.
“So there’s a big rescue. we got within one pitch of the summit, and like, the sun was setting, and YOSAR had this giant rescue. It was 2000ft below us, but they shut down the entire route,” Joe explained.
YOSAR is Yosemite Search and Rescue.
However, even without the rescue hold-up, the summit still probably would’ve been overshadowed by even bigger news
During the climb, along with Joey’s birthday, the family had a gender reveal, and Joey, Sylvan, and Sam all learned they were going to have a new baby sister.
“When it said girl, I thought the portal edge was going to tip over and dump us all because the boys went so wild on the ledge and jumping up and down,” Joe recalled, smiling.
Joe said he hopes this story inspires other fathers to take their kids into the great outdoors, but maybe start a little easier than El Capitan.