El Capitan: duo complete one of world's toughest free climbs

Two US climbers have become the first people to scale the 900m Dawn Wall of the El Capitan rock in Yosemite National Park, one of the "most difficult climbs in the world", with just their hands.

It took Tommy Caldwell, 36, and Kevin Jorgeson, 30, around two-and-a-half weeks to free climb the wall, which is around three times the height of The Shard in London.

The historic granite rock face was widely considered too steep and lacking enough cracks for free climbing, says National Geographic. But Caldwell and Jorgeson made it to the top, using ropes and other equipment only to stop them from falling.

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They slept on the rock face on a hammock, made from a tent attached to an aluminium frame, and sipped whiskey at night, with friends climbing a rope every few days to bring them new supplies.

The sheer granite face is "one of the most difficult climbs in the world and frighteningly smooth", says the BBC. The pair had to do much of their climbing at night by headlamp when it was cooler and their hands could achieve more grip.

Leo Houlding, a professional climber who has climbed El Capitan by a different route, described the holds as "matchsticks on a vertical face". Hanging onto these with all your bodyweight starts to "shred your fingertips", he explained. "After a week you have very little skin left."

The climbers' media manager John Long described it as "pulling down on razor sharp edges".

Jorgeson said the aim was not to "conquer" the Dawn Wall but to "realise a dream", which began seven years ago when he first started exploring the historic granite face.

He kept supporters updated on Facebook and Twitter throughout the climb, even posting a picture of the pair watching Netflix from their beds 400m up El Capitan. The climbers took several days to attempt a particularly difficult middle section of the wall, but with superglue for their fingertips and Advil for the pain, they battled through and made it to the top.