He completed the route, partly by ship and partly overland, during 1850 54.
The Half Dome flake ripped a hole in the Robbins traverse, named after climbing pioneer Royal Robbins, who first completed the route in 1957, the hardest completed climb in the US at that time.
It begins among the ruins of Harran in Turkey, where tradition has it that Abraham first heard the call to "go forth", and when (and if) it is completed, the route will pass through Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Palestine and Israel.
"It's the opposite of an official event," says course creator David Gonzales, who first concocted the idea as a personal challenge in 2011, completed the route in 2012, and invited some friends along with him in 2013.
More than 200,000 people are thought to have completed the route in 2010 (numbers have shot up exponentially in recent decades), and that will surely increase further after the release of The Way in May.
"There's part of me that is still saying, 'Did this really happen?' " said Mayor Virgil W. Murray, who along with his grandchildren had completed the route on a fire truck near the lead of the 70-float procession when the troubles set off near the end.
