World-class climber Emily Harrington credits 'Free Solo' climber Alex Honnold with life-saving rescue after fall from El Capitan
World-class climber Emily Harrington said she was actually in a "calm moment" when she had a terrifying fall while attempting to ascend El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
"It wasn't a moment of panic. It wasn't a moment of surprise," Harrington, 33, told "Good Morning America." "Honestly, it was a very calm moment. In my head, it was just kind of like, 'OK, I'm falling. This is happening.'"
Harrington had climbed about 150 feet Monday when she lost her grip. She was attempting to free climb El Capitan on the Golden Gate Route in under 24 hours.
No woman has ever free climbed that route in under a day, and only three or so women have free climbed El Cap on any route in under a day.
ABC News obtained exclusive video of the moments immediately after Harrington's fall as rescue workers carefully stabilized her neck.
"I actually remembered thinking that, like, oh, having pain is actually a good thing because it means that I can feel," Harrington told "GMA." "And it was a huge relief."
By Harrington's side during the fall were her boyfriend and fellow climber Adrian Ballinger and Alex Honnold, who gained fame with the Oscar-winning film "Free Solo," which documented his historic climb of El Capitan.
Honnold was holding the rope that Harrington used to protect herself in case of this type of fall.
He explained on "GMA" Wednesday that Harrington was "using equipment to protect her in case of a fall but she was trying to just climb [El Capitan] with her hands and feet."
"I was holding the other end of the rope and she unfortunately slipped and hit some things as she fell," he said. "But ultimately the safety equipment caught her, as we expect it to."
Honnold said even he is not sure exactly what happened during Harrington's fall because it was in the dark and was what he described as an "unusual situation."
"We thought it was a very unusual situation in that she must have hit some things,” he said. “And also … she had rope around her neck which is a really unusual way for the rope to wrap around you so it’s hard to know what exactly happened but basically I caught the rope and she came to a stop and then we assessed the situation and helped her from there.”
Harrington described her condition in a post on Instagram as "’banged up but gonna be ok thankfully."
"Not much to say except I took a bad fall and pin balled a bit then somehow hit the rope w my neck," she said, going on to thank Honnold, Ballinger and other climbers who were there to help her.
ABC News' Alexandra Svokos contributed to this report.
