by Mick Ryan, Charles Arthur Warren Harding, who observed as he pulled himself over the top of El Capitan that “it looked in better shape than me”, began his final climb – the one you do alone – peacefully in his home on Feb 28th. We´ve lost a great climber and a great man. Harding was the leader of the team that attacked El Capitan; it took 18 months. To quote the obit at Terraquest, “As opposed to Robbins´ highly methodical approach to climbing, “Batso” Harding, as he is known in the climbing world, had a more organic approach. On a Harding climb, difficulties were dealt with as they arose and never without the aid of a good deal of wine, guts and humour. Undoubtedly one of the most colourful characters to ever scale El Cap´s unforgiving heights.”