Did an 8-year-old really climb El Capitan in Yosemite? Not exactly. It’s complicated

Three years ago, a 10-year-old and then a 9-year-old were also reported to have had successful ascents. But they mostly used special hand clamps that allowed them to climb a rope without touching the rock face, a very different experience from traditional rock climbing. This led some mainstream members of Yosemite’s climbing community to reject the achievement.

In the past year, the 8-year-old’s father, Joe Baker, has continued a year-long media frenzy, describing Sam Baker in interviews with CNN, ABC, NBC and elsewhere as a “world-class climber” on the verge of joining the ranks of the famous pioneers of the great wall of Yosemite.

“You can’t climb El Cap unless you’re an expert in the sport,” says Joe Baker in a video promoting his son’s climbing exploits and posted on his family’s personal website. “That’s what we’re developing is a young man who is an expert in the sport. He can really do anything that great climbers can do.”

The Baker family did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Chronicle. At the top of the family’s website, where the Bakers are collecting donations related to their son’s cause, is the tagline: “Second grader and dad’s body climb El Capitan.”

It was not said that Sam used the same techniques as the two children who had gone before him.

Early Saturday, when the climb was completed, CNN ran a story with the headline: “8-year-old boy becomes youngest person to climb California’s El Capitan.”

For members of Yosemite’s climbing community, some of whom skeptically followed the ascent, the achievement deserved an eye roll and a shrug, not a headline. And Joe Baker, in a triumphant Instagram post, no longer uses the word “climb” to describe what his son has done.

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It is difficult to climb what is probably the most famous climbing wall in the world without being noticed. And in that case, Tom Evans took special notice of the Bakers last week.

Evans, 78, is a retired high school teacher from Southern California who spends three months of the year documenting activity on El Capitan’s sheer walls. He is part of the valley’s close-knit climbing community, an unofficial record holder with an unwavering devotion to the integrity of the sport.

Almost every day during the peak climbing season — six weeks in the spring and six weeks in the fall — Evans stands in El Capitan Meadow with a pair of binoculars mounted on a tripod telephoto lens and a clear view of the entire rock face, snapping photos and chatting with great wall climbers. He’s been at it for 27 years and updates a climbing blog he calls ElCap Reports daily with detailed observations and close-up photos of the various groups making their way up the walls.

What Evans saw from the Baker family did not qualify as rock climbing, he said.

“It’s a publicity stunt,” he told The Chronicle on Thursday.

Evans watched the Bakers climb every day. He estimated that he watched them for at least eight hours over four days as they advanced hundreds of feet up the cliff. He said that he did not see either the son or the father try to put a hand on rock and physical scale on the face.

Instead, he said, they were led by a pair of guides who climbed the route as might be expected — leading pitches, setting defenses, establishing anchors and hauling supplies — and then fixed lines so the Bakers could to “rise”.

Jagging involves using hand-held devices called ascenders that slide up a rope and automatically lock into place. They are used with leg loops capable of supporting the weight of a person. The entire setup is attached to a person’s waist belt, allowing the user to safely move up without interacting with the elements of the scale.

“The guides do everything I’ve ever seen,” Evans said. “That’s why it’s not a climb.”

The technical term for the activity is rope climbing and it is not considered by climbers to be very challenging or comparable to climbing disciplines.

Evans posted scathing criticism of the Bakers’ rise on his blog, and his like-minded readers responded with comments dismissing the venture and ridiculing the media campaign to legitimize it.

For their part, the Bakers claim to love sports. Joe Baker and his wife say they were introduced to rock climbing. They now have three young sons, who often take them climbing outdoors and to the gym. He says in the promotional video that he tried to climb El Cap years ago but partially failed. Getting his son up the wall, he said, would be “a life-changing adventure that we’ll always talk about.”

Evans said he ran into Joe Baker at the Mountain Room restaurant in Yosemite Village the night before the father and son began their climb. The father had seen Evans’ criticism online and the two men “had a very heated discussion,” Evans said.

“He said, ‘What’s the problem?’ And I said, ‘All the media coverage has got to stop. I know there is no way your son suggested we take this record. It’s about you,’” Evans recalled telling Joe Baker. “He said, ‘It’s not about the record, it’s about spending time with my son.’ I said, ‘Then why all the publicity?’

The two men separated.

“I was pretty rough on the guy, I have to admit,” Evans said.

“I’m very annoyed by this because climbing El Capitan puts you in an elite group of climbers,” Evans said. The Bakers are “blatantly stealing that reputation for their own use.”

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There is nothing inherently wrong or dangerous about climbing a rock wall while rope climbing. Done right, it’s a very safe way to travel vertically, climbers say.

But the Baker family’s behavior on El Capitan has raised questions.

First, there is no official rock climbing registrar. It is unclear how the Bakers intend to claim a world title.

The National Park Service does not monitor exploits on Yosemite’s walls. It’s possible the Bakers will petition Guinness World Records, which is by no means an exhaustive repository of the sport’s greatest achievements – although it does list a handful of different ones, including the speed record on the Nose of El Cap route set by Honnold and Caldwell in 2018.

Second, the Bakers appear to have hired two unauthorized guides to lead them up the wall, which would be illegal.

From the photos the Bakers shared from the wall and others Evans took from the ground, it’s clear that two men led the Bakers up the wall and handled the logistics. A Yosemite spokesman confirmed the Bakers had received the necessary permit to climb into the desert, but would not comment further.

Guided climbing in Yosemite is supervised exclusively by the park’s concessionaire, Yosemite Hospitality, through the Yosemite Mountaineering School and Guide Services. But the tour outfit told The Chronicle in an email that it rejected Baker’s request for guides. The company “has determined that this group cannot effectively meet the needs of our safety requirements, National Park Service wildlife protocols, and Leave No Trace principles” that seek to sustain the environment for future generations.

So it’s not clear who was leading the bakers, but it wasn’t the only authorized guide in the park.

Finally, there are inconsistencies in what the Baker family says they will do with the money raised in connection with this climb.

In talk show appearances and news interviews, Joe Baker has repeatedly said he is using his son’s El Cap climbing project to raise money to help foster children “find forever families” and has directed people to donate through his family website. In some interviews, Baker said the donations would go to America’s Kids Belong, an adoption nonprofit in Colorado. Requests for comment from the organization were not returned.

But the family’s website makes no mention of foster children or adoption agencies. Instead, it says the donations will go to the Sam Adventure Fund, which it says will help fund “a film that inspires parents to do great things with their kids.”

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What do Yosemite climbers think of all the media attention and the idea that the kid on the wall this week will be the youngest person to climb El Capitan? The Chronicle reached out to several of El Cap’s most experienced climbers this past week — many of whom are parents who have taken their children climbing — for reactions to the Bakers’ ascent.

Responses ranged from a figurative eye roll and shrug to outright disapproval. Most were reluctant to judge until they knew all the details of the Bakers’ venture, but they were critical nonetheless.

“I can personally say that this mania for records is quite dangerous. It’s the wrong reason to climb,” said Ken Yager, founder and president of the nonprofit Yosemite Climbing Association. “Also, it kind of takes away from the integrity of the sport. When it becomes a big media thing, I’m not a fan of it.

Tommy Caldwell, a prominent free climber on El Capitan, was also critical of the apparent push for media attention that brought the Baker family to Good Morning America, CNN and other media outlets. “I find it a bit horrible,” he said.

There are easy ways to help inexperienced climbers safely scale big walls, Caldwell said — such as hooking them to fixed lines with jumars the same way Bakers did — but what’s the point of claiming a record for it?

“Theoretically, I could have put (my son) in a carrier bag when he was 1 and taken him there” to claim the record, Caldwell said.

Speaking at the time of Baker’s climb, Caldwell said that if the boy legitimately climbed any part of the route, “that would be great. But that wouldn’t mean he’s the cutting-edge, world-record-breaking super badass kid he seems to be made out to be.”

After reaching the summit on Friday night, Joe Baker posted a celebratory note on Instagram. The word “climb” was absent from his post.

“What an amazing week! I am so proud of Sam. He completed the youngest ElCap rope climb! In a few years, he can come back and break more records.”

Gregory Thomas is The San Francisco Chronicle’s lifestyle and outdoors editor. Email: gthomas@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @GregRThomas