Most inspiring thing Ive read today! Go Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson! ______________________________ Tommy Caldwell, of Estes Park, Colorado, started climbing at just three years old and became a national climbing champion at 16. On a whim, he entered a sport climbing competition and won, beating some of the nations top pro climbers. Ever since then, he has dedicated a majority of his professional climbing career to exploring the nuances of the many climbing routes crisscrossing El Capitans towering granite walls. Caldwell is routinely described as an all-around climber because he consistently performs at world-class levels in each of climbings various genres, from bouldering to sport climbing to mountaineering—all disparate disciplines that demand very specialized skill sets. To understand the breadth of Caldwells athleticism, picture an Olympic runner who is as talented in the marathon as he is in the 100-meter dash. Its worth noting that Caldwell has managed to achieve all this success despite missing a finger. In 2001 while working with a table saw, he accidentally cut off his left index finger-a debilitating loss when your lifes passion involves hanging by your fingertips. Doctors were able to reattach the finger, but told Caldwell that with its diminished mobility hed never climb again. At first he was devastated, but then his determination kicked in, and he had the finger removed so as not to hinder him. Five months later, he free climbed the 3,000-foot (914-meter) Salathé Wall, another route on El Capitan, in less than 24 hours. He faced another grave moment the following year during an expedition to Kyrgyzstan with fellow climbers John Dickey, Jason Smith, and Beth Rodden, then Caldwells girlfriend. In the Aksu Valley, the four climbers were taken captive by militant rebels of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Over the next six days, they were held at gunpoint and marched at night through the mountains while their captors traded fire with the Kyrgyz army. The defining moment of their kidnapping came when the four climbers found themselves alone with just one rebel soldier, and Caldwell shoved the gunman off a cliff. The climbers escaped, hiking 18 miles to freedom. Caldwell was distraught over what he thought hed done. Yet in a bizarre twist, a year later, word emerged from Kyrgyzstan that the guard Caldwell had shoved had actually survived, having only tumbled down a steep hill.... In 2006 Caldwell first turned his attention to the expanse of El Capitans granite that receives the first light each morning—the Dawn Wall. Simply finding the free climb route took Tommy two years of exploration. This involved rappelling down the face and swinging around to identify enough consecutive hand- and footholds to allow for continuous upward passage. He found the holds—strung over 32 pitches—but he wasnt sure he would ever be strong enough, or good enough, to link them into one continuous ascent. That was the really hard part, and what has occupied most of his time over the past seven years. He has been rehearsing each of the pitches separately, trying to climb them without falling, sometimes successfully but often not. In 2009, Jorgeson, known in the climbing world for his strong fingers and cool head, joined Caldwell on the Dawn Wall. And he has remained Caldwells consistent partner for this project ever since.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:42:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015