We've spent many hours climbing and hiking. I'd never even think of comparing us to elite climbers, and we'll never get close to being one, but we still love doing it. People that do the big climbs always inspire me, even if I also think they're kinda crazy.
Climbing El Capitan without a rope is maybe the height of crazy, but he only did it after putting in many days of practice *with* ropes, finding routes and holds. Working it out. Crazy, but not insane. Here's a great recap of the whole thing:
https://www.climbing.com/news/alex-h...of-el-capitan/
Also, there are not one but TWO movies out at the same time about climbs on El Capitan: