93-year-old summits Yosemite's Half Dome: 'It felt pretty good'
Everett Kalin isn't letting age hold him back. The retired professor from Oakland, California, just completed the Half Dome hike at Yosemite National Park in California at the age of 93.
The Half Dome trail is described as an "exciting, arduous hike" on the National Park Service's website. The full round-trip hike is 14 to 16 miles, with the rock formation rising 8,800 feet above sea level, according to the NPS.
While thousands of hikers summit Half Dome each year, according to the NPS, park rangers end up assisting "hundreds of people" along the difficult Half Dome trail each summer.
"Most of these emergencies could have been prevented," the NPS states on its website.
Kalin made sure to prepare for his own ambitious goal of summiting Half Dome by training and climbing the stairs at the 17-floor senior living community where he resides.
Kalin told ABC affiliate KFSN-TV in Fresno that the idea to climb Half Dome simply came to him, and his wife Clara signed off on the trek before it began.
Kalin's son Jon, a backpacker and climber, and granddaughter Sidney also joined him on the hike, which they divided into a multi-day excursion, taking 13 hours overall to finish the trek. The trio reached the Half Dome peak on July 18.
"I guess I was pleasantly surprised that when I got up there -- I did not feel that I was huffing and puffing so much as we went up. It felt pretty good," Kalin said.
His son added, "It was spectacular for the three generations of us to be together, enjoying it all at once."
Kalin's latest feat isn't his only major adventure in recent years: For his birthday last year, the nonagenarian thrill-seeker jumped out of a plane.
