The father of a boy who scaled Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan has lashed out at critics who said the boy isn’t really the youngest to scale the daunting rock face.
Critics have accused Joe Baker of orchestrating a “publicity hoax” surrounding the rise, saying he drew media attention to his son Sam’s rise while also informing the public about the nature of the “record-breaking performance” in the misled.
Sam, a second-grader from Colorado, and his father completed their climb of El Capitan Saturday amid a chorus of headlines calling the climb a “historic” event and celebrating Sam as the youngest person to scale the daunting peak.
But many in the climbing community raised eyebrows at the headlines, noting that Sam didn’t actually scale the cliff face, but instead scaled it on previously installed ropes using a climbing device called an ascender.
Countering the critics, Baker pointed out that the arguments against his son’s achievements felt “semantic,” and also pointed to numerous other widely accepted records set by rope ascents.
“Stealing this from Sam is such a sick thing. It’s a nasty thing because he accentuated every foot of that wall,” Baker told
Joe Baker hit back at critics who questioned whether his eight-year-old son Sam was really the youngest person to scale El Capitan
Sam and his father Joe Baker. Over the weekend, the two climbed the 3,000-foot El Capitan in Yosemite
Baker told that he never thought twice about using the word “climb” in interviews before he and Sam climbed El Capitan.
“The word climbing — there’s free climbing, ice climbing, solo climbing, rope climbing, I didn’t say any of that, I just said climbing,” he said. “There’s this whole controversy about the language, I’ve never heard of that.”
“They all say because Joe used the word climb it makes this thing a hoax,” he added, noting that after the backlash he chose to always state that the climb was a rope climb.
Baker also pointed out that numerous other El Capitan records that are widely recognized — including the ascent for the oldest woman set by free climber Alex Honnold’s mother, Dierdre Wolownick — were made with rope ascents.
He said criticism of his son’s rise was largely due to the wording, and questioned what other parts of the sport might be challenged in the future.
“It felt very semantic. It’s very funny when you think about it because who controls this lexicon? May I call Sam a climber? How far do you go with that?’
Some have said that Sam’s rope ascent of El Capitan qualified him as the youngest person to scale the cliff, while others have argued that is not the case
Eight-year-old Sam Baker scales the 3,000-foot El Capitan cliff in Yosemite National Park
Baker said he felt criticism of his son’s rise may also have been fueled by stars of the sport who are bitter they are not getting the national recognition that other athletes are getting.
“In America, people don’t love rock climbing as much as football and basketball,” he explained. “Whereas there are boys in Yosemite [doing] these sick climbs and the populace never hears about it. Then suddenly a kid jumps into the lines of El Capitan and draws international attention. You can see how unfair that is.’
Baker said he was no happier about this reality than Sam’s critics and wished he weren’t.
“I don’t like it either, I wish people would care more,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from others, but people just don’t like Sam getting all that attention.”
Baker also dismissed claims in the San Francisco Chronicle that he made the ascension without permission using so-called pirate guides.
He said the outlet misconstrued his El Capitan climb with another climb he previously requested but later gave up after the park said it had to do it with a large team of guides.
“This is a publicity hoax,” said Tom Evans, a retired teacher who has camped at the base of El Capitan with a telephoto lens for 28 years, documenting the comings and goings of climbers on the cliff
![“In theory, I could have said [my son] when he was a year old in a carrier bag and brought him there to get a record,](https://www.spamchronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667348790_26_Dad-of-boy-8-whose-record-breaking-climb-on-El-Capitan.jpg "Dad of boy, 8, whose record-breaking climb on El Capitan was called a 'hoax' calls critics 'nasty' 8")
“In theory, I could have said [my son] when he was a year old in a carrier bag and brought him there to get a record,” said climbing legend Tommy Caldwell
For at least the last year, Baker has been pushing the public about his plans for his son to be the youngest person to scale El Capitan.
The duo have been featured in countless news segments on local and national television and appeared in numerous interviews.
“You don’t get on El Cap unless you’re an expert in that sport,” Baker said of his son in a promotional video on his website promoting the climb.
“That’s what we’re developing is a young man who’s an expert in this sport. He can really do anything the big climbers can do,” he said.
While countless clips showed that Sam — who family says has been climbing since he could walk — is undoubtedly a talented young climber, critics said Baker’s characterization of her quest to scale El Capitan wasn’t entirely honest.
“This is a publicity hoax,” said Tom Evans, a retired teacher who has camped at the base of El Capitan with a telephoto lens for 28 years, documenting the comings and goings of climbers on the cliff.
Evans, 78, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he watched the Bakers climb for four days and that he never once saw them touch the rock or attempt to physically scale the wall.
Instead, he saw the pair “Jug Up” — also known as jumaring — which refers to the process of climbing ropes with a mechanical ascender. The process still requires significant physical effort on the part of the climber.
“The guides are doing everything I’ve seen,” Evans said. “Therefore, this is not an ascension.”
Tommy Caldwell, a well-known El Capitan scaler, also questioned their claims to a world record.
“In theory, I could have said [my son] in a carrier bag when he was 1 year old and took him there to claim a record,” Caldwell said.
Sam peeks over the edge of his bed during his climb for the night on the 3,000ft El Capitan cliff
Baker shrugged off the criticism, saying he’s made rounds in the media touting Sam’s skills – who he claimed is the best climber his age he’s ever seen – because he’s just proud of his son.
“I’m his father, I’m very proud of him. I didn’t say he was going to do the Dawn Wall here,’ he said. “You do it in a movie and people say, ‘Well, he’s going to be Free Solo Free Rider. I didn’t want to be dishonest. I was just proud of my son.”
“I definitely didn’t fool anyone and they claim that I fooled everyone on purpose.”