Tommy Caldwell

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Tommy Caldwell (2015)

Tommy Caldwell (born August 11, 1978 in Estes Park , Colorado ) is an American sport climber . He is best known for his achievements in big wall climbing , especially in Yosemite National Park .

Life

Caldwell was taken to climbing tours by his father at the age of six. During a visit to Kyrgyzstan in August 2000, Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden, Jason Smith and the photographer John Dickey were kidnapped by the Islamic Turkestan Party . However, after six days in detention, they were able to break free. Caldwell threw the remaining guard of the kidnap group over a cliff. For a long time he thought that he was dead, which threw him into a conflict of conscience and threw him off course for a while. He retired for a year until he learned that the kidnapper had survived. The story was also published in book form in 2002 under the title Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia by Greg Child.

On November 29, 2001, he lost his left index finger in an accident with a table saw , but this did not prevent him from continuing his climbing career. Thanks to intensive training, he managed to climb again in the Yosemite Valley six months later.

Caldwell was married to sport climber Beth Rodden from 2003 to 2010. In 2012 he married the photographer Rebecca Pietsch, with whom he has a son and a daughter.

Climb

On October 14, 2005, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden were the third and fourth - after Lynn Hill (1993) and Scott Burke (1998) - who managed the free ascent of the famous route The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Two days later, on October 16, 2005, Caldwell climbed the route in less than 12 hours.

From December 27, 2014 to January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson successfully climbed the Dawn Wall route on El Capitan in free style . The Dawn Wall comprises a multitude of extremely difficult passages over 1000 m (31 pitches). Caldwell envisaged climbing through in 2007 and Kevin Jorgensen joined in 2009. For six years they came to Yosemite Valley for a few months to prepare the ascent, until they had worked out solutions and choreographed every little step and grip. The ascent took place in winter and often at night because of the better grip. Caldwell climbed a difficult traverse on the 15th pitch and waited for days for Jorgensen, who had problems negotiating the point. Caldwell and Jorgensen received a lot of public attention with the climb. Caldwell wrote his autobiography and climbed the wall one more time for a movie ( Through the Wall , 2018).

Climbing routes

  • 2003: West Buttress, 5.13c, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
  • 2004: Dihedral Wall, 5.14a, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
  • 2005: The Nose, 5.13b, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, USA (with Beth Rodden); October 14, 2005
  • 2008: Magic Mushroom, 5.14a, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, USA (with Justen Sjong); 12-17 May, 2008
  • 2014: The Fitz Traverse - 5000 m, 4000 m ascent, 7a - together with Alex Honnold , crossing the Fitz-Roy massif from north to south. For these achievements, Honnold and Caldwell were awarded the Piolet d'Or in 2015.
  • 2015: Dawn Wall, 5.14d, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, USA (with Kevin Jorgeson); December 27, 2014 to January 14, 2015

Filmography

  • Progression (2009, Big Up Productions)
  • The Dawn Wall, 2018

Books

  • Tommy Caldwell: The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits (autobiography), Viking, 2017

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Climbers Recount Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan.Retrieved April 1, 2010.
  2. ↑ Bernd Steinle, Climbed Free. The American Tom Caldwell has pushed the boundaries in his sport, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, September 10, 2018, p. 36
  3. ↑ El Tommy Caldwell & Kevin Jorgeson complete Dawn Wall (32 SL, ~ 9a) , www.klettern.de from January 19, 2015.
  4. ^ El Capitan's Dawn Wall: Coverage of the Ascent at Yosemite , New York Times website January 14, 2014, accessed January 15, 2015.
  5. ↑ John Branch: 'Battling' Up a Sheer Yosemite Face, Seizing a Dream, Not a Rope , New York Times website January 4, 2014, accessed January 15, 2015.
  6. ↑ The Fitz Traverse - 5000 m, 4000 m ascent, 7a bergstieg.com
  7. ↑ Prize Winners 2015 ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Piolet d'Or @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pioletsdor.com
personal data
SURNAME Caldwell, Tommy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sport climber
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Estes Park , Colorado