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8-year-old attempting to become youngest to scale El Capitan

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Posted at 11:07 AM, Oct 25, 2022
and last updated 2022-10-25 14:19:18-04

An 8-year-old is following in his father's climbing footsteps.

Sam Baker is attempting to become the youngest person to reach the summit of El Capitan in California.

“I’m just excited to climb with daddy,” Sam said.

Yosemite National Park's iconic vertical rock formation is more than 3,000 feet high. That's approximately 2.5 times higher than the Empire State Building.

“It’s going to be basically four days of hanging from your fingers or hanging from your anchors. And basically, there’s very few ledges and so we’re going to have to bring up portaledges, which are like nylon cots that you hang on the side of the wall," said Joe Baker.

Besides climbing with his dad, Sam said he's most excited about eating lasagna in a hammock hanging thousands of feet in the air.

The entire Baker family is reportedly into climbing. Joe told CNN that his son was in a rock climbing harness "before he could walk."

Sam began the climb on Monday. People can track his progress on his website.