Wolownick on El Capitan, about 200 feet up from the Yosemite Valley floor

Let me start at the beginning, at ground level. For years, I’d see news photos and videos of my son, Alex Honnold, a world-renowned climber, and I’d tell myself, That can’t be right. That can’t be what he’s doing. I was terrified of heights—for myself and for him.

Finally, at age 60, I decided I needed to understand what he was doing. So I asked him to take me to a local climbing gym. That’s how I started doing it myself.

At the gym, I was usually the oldest climber. I lacked the body strength the younger climbers had. But once I learned the skills, 90 percent of my fears for Alex disappeared, because now I understood how careful climbers are and what they do to protect themselves.

That day on Lover’s Leap, I had to figure out whether my fear was a rational one I should listen to or a false perception I should talk myself out of. I knew if my climbing partners weren’t afraid, I needn’t be. So I talked myself through my fear and grabbed the rope.

I made it to the top, and since then, I have gone on many more climbs. At 66, I became the oldest woman to scale El Capitan, the iconic cliff that towers more than 3,000 feet above Yosemite’s valley floor. On my 70th birthday, I did it again, celebrating with cake atop the monster granite wall.

As we age, we have reasonable concerns about falling, breaking a bone. Our bodies are different, as are our minds. But some things stay the same. There’s a battle with fear you have to win if you’re going to do anything worthwhile. —As told to Kimberly A. Edwards

Sacramento, California–area resident Dierdre Wolownick, 72, is the subject of the forthcoming documentary Climbing Into Life.