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During Caldwell and Jorgeson's 19-day journey -- a dream seven years in the making -- the climbers slept in hanging tents attached to the wall, even braving a windstorm and clinging to razor-sharp edges with bloodied fingers.

\"What makes it hard is the holds are very small. They are far apart. ... Basically just hard to climb,\" friend and professional climber Alex Honnold said recently.

\"PHOTO:
ABC News
PHOTO: Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson became the first to free-climb up the nearly vertical El Capitan's Dawn Wall, Jan. 14, 2015.
>

On Day 8, Jorgeson struggled at one of the toughest points.

\"It was a true cliffhanger,\" he said in a video blog from the Dawn Wall. \"Thoughts crossed my mind that I should just throw in the towel.\"

It was game on from there though.

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy Brett Lowell
PHOTO: Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell are seen in this undated photo climbing the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California.
>

Over the course of the climb, which began Dec. 27, they ate packed hard-boiled eggs, breakfast sandwiches with salmon and got caffeine boosts from their flasks of coffee.

The men were met by an entourage up at the top -- from climbing buddies to family members.

It will take them a few hours to come back down through a combination of hiking and rappelling.

\"I feel like the most proud person in the world right now,\" Caldwell's sister Sandy Van Nieuwenhuyzen told The Associated Press. \"I'm just going to hug. Just hug. No words necessary.\"

\"PHOTO:
Tom Evans/ElCap Report
PHOTO: Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell are seen in this undated photo in their camp on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California.
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