In the world of rock climbing, Tommy Caldwell is one of the all-time great climbers. His many accomplishments, speed records and first ascents are even more impressive when you factor in a traumatic kidnapping in 2000 and the loss of his left index finger in an accident in 2001. Rather than holding him back, Caldwell used these events as fuel, becoming even more determined to reach to top of his game.
He's perhaps best known for his free ascent of the Dawn Wall in 2015, alongside Kevin Jorgeson, which was widely regarded as one of the greatest climbs in history. The achievement was documented in the critically acclaimed 2017 film The Dawn Wall and brought both Yosemite big wall climbing and Caldwell to wider audiences. He also featured prominently in 2018’s smash hit Free Solo, which documented Alex Honnold’s incredible free solo climb of Freerider on El Cap.
Caldwell was one of America’s greatest climbers long before he sent The Dawn Wall and he’s continued to achieve stunning climbs ever since. We asked one of our mountaineering experts to delve into his remarkable life and put his achievements into context. Sport climbing grades are sometimes included alongside his routes, see our separate feature on climbing rating systems for how these compare to other climbs.
Early life
Born in Colorado in 1978 to two mountain guides, it was no surprise that the young Caldwell developed a passion for climbing and wild places. The family visited Yosemite annually and Caldwell soon developed a passion or the rock, aided by his admiration for his father Mike’s climbing. His father would be his partner throughout his childhood climbing adventures and into his teens.
He started competing at the age of 16 and he met future wife and world-class climber Beth Rodden during the American comp circuit in 1995, though they wouldn’t begin dating until 2000. They’d go on to form a strong partnership, climbing extensively in Yosemite and beyond.
Meet the expert
Held Hostage in Kyrgyzstan
In 2000, along with Rodden, and climbers John Dickey and Jason ‘Singer’ Smith, Caldwell set out to tackle Yellow Wall, a 2,500-foot wall on Mount Zhioltaya Stena in Kyrgyzstan’s Kara-su Valley. However, on the second day of their attempt, they were taken hostage by armed fundamentalists who were in conflict with the Kyrgyz government. The four climbers were held for six days, during which time they experienced being in the crossfire between the rebels and Kyrgyz soldiers. During one such battle, they witnessed the rebels execute a soldier they had taken captive.
Having managed to gain their captors’ trust, the four climbers conspired as to how to escape. The ideal opportunity arose when three of the rebels departed one night, leaving just one armed man guarding them, as they moved along a precipitous ridge. At the top, Caldwell seized the chance, grabbed him by his gun strap and pulled him over the edge. He disappeared into the abyss. The climbers fled and managed to make it to the safety of a Kyrgyz army camp. Caldwell later learned that the man he’d pulled over the edge had survived, though he’d been captured and sentenced to death by the army.
Caldwell was initially very shaken by the incident, though he also believes the experience has since helped him to stay calm during climbs. He said: “In a lot of regards, that experience was so intense and painful and life-threatening, it just turned up the volume so much that everything since then has felt comparatively mellow.”
Dazzling ascents after adversity
In 2001, Caldwell lost his left index finger in a tablesaw accident and spent two weeks in hospital. He was faced with never being able to climb to the same level again but Rodden put together a training schedule and Caldwell launched into it with determination. He said that: “In time, I realized my mind was the only thing holding me back.” He told himself that the pain was growth and he’d soon be climbing at a level way beyond anyone would have expected.
The following years were characterized by stunning free climbs in Yosemite and beyond, many with Beth Rodden, who he married in 2003, though they later divorced in 2009. During this time, their relationship and climbs were widely publicized in the climbing media. He sent some of the world’s toughest sport climbs, including a first ascent of Flex Luther (9b, 5.15b) at the Fortress of Solitude, Colorado. The climb, originally bolted by Nick Sagar in the ’90s, wouldn’t be repeated for 18 years until Matty Hong’s effort in 2021. Caldwell had said that Flex Luther, along with the Salathé Wall, were two routes he had made his personal mission to send after his accident.
He's widely admired for taking the free climbing approach to Yosemite’s big walls. In 2004, he sent what was then the hardest big wall free climb in Yosemite, Dihedral Wall, with Rodden and Adam Stack. This was followed by a prolific streak on the Nose in 2005, when he and Rodden pulled off the 3rd and 4th free climbs of the route. He returned twice in the space of a week, first climbing The Nose again in 12 hours and then again a few days later, knocking another hour off his time before descending and immediately free climbing Freerider, completing both in the space of 24 hours – an unprecedented achievement.
The Dawn Wall
Caldwell’s crowning glory came in 2015 when he and Kevin Jorgeson achieved what most had previously thought impossible, to free climb El Capitan’s Dawn Wall. It was the first ever big wall route at the 9a (5.14d) grade and took Caldwell and Jorgeson 19 days to unlock.
There are a number of aspects to the climb that make it utterly remarkable. Most climbs on El Capitan seek out lines of weakness in the granite wall, usually the great vertical cracks that run up its face. The Dawn Wall is different in that the route Caldwell put together doesn’t follow this rule, seeking out a purposefully difficult way up. Their success potentially opens up a new era of hugely challenging big wall climbing on Yosemite’s faces, where cracks are shunned for difficult and ingenious lines up the rock.
After the climb, National Geographic proclaimed: “It’s safe to say that it’ll be a long time before anyone repeats this rock climb,” paying tribute to the achievement. However, a year later, legendary Czech sport climber Adam Ondra free climbed the route in just eight days. He was quick to point out that the hard work had already been done by Caldwell and Jorgeson, saying, “I cannot really compare my effort to theirs.” The feat has not been repeated since.
Other adventures
As two of America’s elite climbers, Caldwell and Alex Honnold have teamed up on multiple projects, some in Yosemite and some further afield.
Having been introduced to climbing in Patagonia in 2006, Caldwell craved to return to Argentina to take on something really big. In 2014, he did just that. Along with Honnold, Caldwell earned the respect of the global mountaineering community and was awarded a prestigious Piolet d’Or for a stunning seven-peak traverse of the Fitz Roy massif in Patagonia. This feat had alluded mountaineers up until their attempt and their achievement was all the more startling given that both Caldwell and Honnold were not hugely experienced alpinists. Yet they managed to take their rock climbing and route-finding ability to make a successful five-day traverse. Their adventure was documented in A Line Across the Sky. Incidentally, Tommy and his second wife Rebecca named their first child Fitz in 2013, after the mountain.
Other adventures alongside Honnold included a ridiculously fast speed ascent of the Nose on El Cap, achieved in under two hours in 2018. To put the pace of the climb into some sort of context, it took Caldwell just 11 minutes to reach Sickle Ledge, a feature that most climbers take an entire day to attain. The timelapse below illustrates the sheer scale of the climb.
Caldwell and Honnold’s latest adventure took them 2,600 miles from Caldwell’s home in Colorado to the Devil’s Thumb on the British Columbia/Alaska border. They completed this journey by human power alone, cycling, kayaking and hiking to the base of the climb to champion environmental causes. Once arrived, they pulled off the first ever single-day traverse of the massif’s quintet of spires, taking less than 12 hours.
