Climbing
Legendary climber Tommy Caldwell reveals his 6 lessons of perseverance
Get to know how indefatigable American climber Tommy Caldwell still finds time to climb new routes while doing everything from escaping hostage situations to fighting climate change.
Five years ago this month Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson scaled the Dawn Wall, a project requiring seven years of preparation and 19 days to complete the climb itself. The route caught the world’s attention for both the challenge and the story of Kevin and Caldwell’s friendship – and was immortalised in 2017 movie, The Dawn Wall.
Fast forward to October 31, 2019, when Caldwell, partnering with Alex Honnold, completed another big wall free climb on Yosemite’s El Capitan, called Passage to Freedom (5.13+). Unlike the Dawn Wall, they kept the project to themselves, even though photographer Austin Siadak climbed with them to document the proceedings.
Back on El Capitan - Passage to Freedom (5.13+)
© Austin Siadak
After finishing, Caldwell completed the descent quickly in order to meet up with his wife and kids for trick-or-treating Halloween festivities. They’d decided to stay put in Yosemite to make the most of their visit for the next few weeks instead of heading home to Estes Park, Colorado.
“After the Dawn Wall, I didn’t know if I’d come back to the Valley for a while,” he says. “But it feels like home here. It’s great for the family; my wife loves it; my kids love it. The kids play in the woods. What brings me back more than anything is the family scene.”
“The way that climbers use Yosemite, it feels peaceful. In a lot of ways, it’s changed, but in a lot of ways, it still feels the same as it did when I was a little kid.”
Lesson one: the early years
As a child, Caldwell learned climbing from his father, who taught him how to embrace fear and transform it into inspiration. One such experience was at the age of six on Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite.
“He was all about life experiences,” says Caldwell of those early years. “We’d get out on big climbs and be scared and excited about that. People thought my dad was insane for taking such a small child to these places.”
By 14, Caldwell had begun climbing with his father. When he started competing at 16, he’d beat climbers in his age group, as well as adults. He quickly became one of the best young climbers in the world.
Caldwell’s first big climbing trip to Yosemite came at the age of 17, when he attempted to free El Cap’s Salathé Wall with his dad. The route, famous for a demanding splitter finger crack, was too much for Caldwell. Overwhelmed and defeated, he left the park, driven by the desire to gain the experience he needed to climb the Big Stone. He returned the next year and freed the Salathé Wall, his first of 13 big wall free climbs on El Cap.
As darkness falls, Caldwell pushes on, trying to complete the route
© Corey Rich
As if climbing big walls wasn’t hard enough, Caldwell has overcome setbacks that have permanently impacted his life. In 2000, he and three other climbers escaped a six-day hostage situation in Kyrgyzstan, and to save himself and his team, he pushed his captor off a cliff. In 2001, a table-saw accident left him without the index finger on his left hand. Forced to adapt, he poured his energy into completing his first ascent of Flex Luthor (5.15a) in Colorado, which was the USA's most difficult climb at the time.
21 min
A line across the sky part 2
The two most capable rock climbers in the world continue their trek across the Fitz Roy Traverse in Patagonia.
As an all-around climber, Caldwell’s proven himself in the alpine arena of Argentine Patagonia, known for its towering peaks and ferocious winds. In 2014, over five days, he and Honnold climbed the immense 5,000-meter Fitz Roy Traverse, one most iconic undone objectives in the range.
In the years since that feat and the completion of the Dawn Wall he has written his memoir, became an environmental activist, and returned to Yosemite to complete the Nose in under two hours.
Lesson two: climbing with nine fingers
In 2001 Tommy Caldwell lost his finger during an accident with a table saw
© Becca Caldwell / Red Bull Content Pool
Caldwell’s had to adapt since losing the index finger on his left hand. “Going through things like that strengthens the mind,” he says of his recovery, where he faced the possibility that he might never climb hard again. Today, setbacks from the accident continue to plague him; since he’s left-handed, the injury has made him weaker on his dominant side. Due to missing that digit, “sport climbing and bouldering is harder for me, but big walls aren’t. Maybe I’m just better at them anyway.”
Lesson three: his memoir
After completing the Dawn Wall in January 2015, Caldwell went home to Colorado, where his second child, Ingrid, was born. He began work with his good friend and editor Kelly Cordes on his book, The Push: A Climber’s Search for the Path.
Writing didn’t come easy for Caldwell, who has said, “I always struggled as a student [and] I’m not a fast writer at all. But just like with climbing, I put tremendous effort into it, like 30 to 40 hours a week.”
The project kept him indoors for prolonged periods. “It felt like a mid-life crisis; I wasn’t climbing. I was sitting behind a desk. It was great as I was meditating through all the intense experiences in my life. Sticking with it helped me sort stuff out.”
"It's a story about Tommy's life"
© Bligh Gillies
His hard work paid off; his book became a New York Times Best Seller and was a finalist for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature.
Lesson four: balancing parenthood and professional climbing
Today, as his father did for him, he’s instilling the outdoor values and transformative experiences into his children, Fitz, who's six, and Ingrid, who's three. “As far as taking them climbing, we don’t push them towards it,” he says, “but I recognise that it teaches them to deal with adversity and builds self-confidence.”
“This adventurous life does bring the kids away from school. That’s why when we’re home, for 80 percent of the year, we put them in public school. When we’re in Yosemite, I do workbook stuff with the kids.”
Lesson five: work as an environmental advocate
Though climbing continues to play a central role in Caldwell’s life, his priorities have shifted to balancing multiple projects at once, including his role as a climate advocate.
“I’m doing a lot of environmental activist work and going climbing and spending time with my family. I do 50-60 events a year on average.” That’s a combination of festivals, book and movie events, sponsor work and events for the Access Fund, the American Alpine Club and Protect Our Winters (POW) Climb, where he’s an alliance member. With the POW Climb, he and professional climbers, including Conrad Anker and Emily Harrington, represent the climbing community to halt climate change.
“As a climber and a father, I’m seeing the impacts of climate change firsthand and feel the need to do everything in my power to protect my children’s future,” he said.
Inching up the wall
© Austin Siadak
His advocacy work often takes him to Washington, DC, where he’s spoken to Congress in support of the Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and renewable energy research. He also testified at a Senate hearing for The Fight to Save Winter: Pro Athletes for Climate Action.
“I’m just living a reactionary life and figuring out how to be a good activist," he says. "Climbing has been satisfying but a selfish endeavour. That’s why I’ve been doing environmental work, studying and figuring out how to be a better person for the planet.”
Lesson six: big wall climbing – the obsession
“This has always been my safe place, my way to deal with life,” he says of his decades climbing on the Big Stone. “If I’m not in Yosemite Valley climbing big walls on occasion, I miss it. It’s feeding an addiction.”
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Skeptics Chris Sharma and Alex Honnold
Chris Sharma and Alex Honnold weren't sure if Tommy Caldwell could make it to the top of the Dawn Wall.
But today, he sees big walls more than as “a selfish endeavour.” As with the legendary bond he shares with Kevin Jorgeson as seen in the Dawn Wall film, what keeps Caldwell coming back is the time he gets to spend with his best friends in an arena of golden stone with only air beneath their feet. “Friendship is huge. I climb more for that these days than for personal fulfillment. That shared experience is more important to me than the accomplishment.”
That’s why last year Caldwell, Jorgeson, Honnold and Siadak joined forces to complete Passage to Freedom, the free climb that parallels the Dawn Wall. (Jorgeson was unavailable for the final push due to a fire in his neighbourhood.) The route is a continuation of a project started by Leo Houlding 20 years ago, who was unable to piece together an all-free way to the top.
The solution that Caldwell’s team found included large amounts of downclimbing, some zigzagging, and a big traverse to connect to the Dawn Wall and the upper roofs on New Dawn. “Up there, it feels like home,” he says. “It’s like being in the world that I’m good at and it feels like an ego boost.”
Honnold and Caldwell climb Passage to Freedom
© Austin Siadak
“Hanging out on the Dawn Wall, we could see those cracks on New Dawn,” he says. “I was blown away when we got to them. The top pitches rival the Salathé headwall. Some of the best cracks in existence in rock climbing.”
Siadak, who photographed Caldwell during the climb, says: "It was pretty funny watching him trying to make conference calls from the summit, struggling to rack up with one hand and also deal with the increased responsibilities and work that celebrity has brought to his life.”
Caldwell agrees, saying, “These days, I understand it’s my platform. Going climbing helps me do my advocacy work. I figure out a way to make all it come together.”