Climbers

John Cleare:

But rock was his medium. On it he was superb. He was tall and slim with powerful arms and steel fingers and he moved over it with the ease and grace of an elongated leopard—never have I seen him awkward or harassed on even the most uncompromising climb. Whatever move he made it was photogenic. Bubbling with enthusiasm and assurance one could want no better companion on the rope and he was the safest climber with whom I have shared it. His death is such an ironic tragedy. [1]

References

[1] Obituary in the Alpine Journal 1977 by John Cleare. Alpine Journal 1977 265-273 In Memoriam

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFwmIi4Z9HA

A legendary figure in American climbing. As a youth he established himself as one of the new wave while repeating many of America's hardest climbs alongside Chris Sharma.

He went on to establish many of his own hard routes, notably Flex Luthor which some now consider to be the first 9b in America.

He has also contributed an astounding number of hard free climbs to Yosemite. The pinnacle of these efforts is The Dawn Wall which opened up a new level of difficulty in big wall free climbing.

Other notable achievements include the Fitz Traverse, a full traverse of the FItzroy range in patagonia, completed with Alex Honnold in 2014. Tommy has at at various points held many speed records for Yosemite big walls.

In August of 2000 Tommy was on a trip to Kyrgyzstan with fellow climbers Beth Rodden, John Dickey and Jason 'Singer' Smith. They were kidnapped and held hostage for 6 days, only escaping when Tommy pushed one of their captors over a cliff, believing he had killed them (though it subsequently emerged that the captor had survived the fall).

Interestingly Tommy only has 3 fingers on his left hand, having lost the index finger "in a home remodelling accident" in 2001.

References

[1] http://www.niallgrimes.com/jam-crack-climbing-podcast/2016/1/5/tommy-caldwell-dawn-wall-yawn-wall

[2] AMA on reddit.com/r/iama, September 2018 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9fkki7/we_are_tommy_caldwell_a_climber_who_spent_6_years/

References

[1] Interview with https://covergroundusa.com Jan 2025 https://covergroundusa.com/connorherson

[2] Interview with Sonnie Trotter, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1MdKRXzclE

References

[1] The Incredible Iker Pou by Stevie Haston, On The Edge issue 114, page 30.