WATCH: First Woman To Free Climb El Capitan

Her name is Emily Harrington and she has become the first woman to do what was once seen as impossible - free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Free climb, that means NO ROPES or safety gear of any kind. That means if she makes one mistake there is nothing to catch her.

She is the fourth person to do it. The first was documented by a Wyoming documentary crew, and their film, SOLO, won an Academy Award.

But back to Emily.

She is 34 years old and made the climb in 21 hours, 13 minutes and 51 seconds. Imagine working for that long and not making a single mistake.

To climb something like El Capitan, the climber does not just jump into it. They will spend over a year, at least, choosing their route and climbing it with safety gear until they get it right. Only when they are sure they have it down, flawlessly, do they proceed.

In the video above you can watch her progression as she practices for the big climb and makes mistakes until she gets it right.

But getting it right once is not good enough. She needed to make sure she had climbed successfully several times before she was ready to go for it.

Her attempt was almost called off while practicing when she reached one of the route's most difficult sections and she fell sideways, slamming her head into the wall. Even a climbing helmet can offer only so much protection.

But she cleaned up the blood and continued on to the record books.