1
00:01:00,329 --> 00:01:01,660
Hello?

2
00:01:01,872 --> 00:01:03,738
'Hey, guys. It's
John Branch from "The NY Times".

3
00:01:03,957 --> 00:01:05,322
'How's it going up there?'

4
00:01:05,542 --> 00:01:07,032
Good, John.

5
00:01:07,252 --> 00:01:09,744
'How high up
are you guys right now?'

6
00:01:09,963 --> 00:01:13,547
We are about 1,200 feet
up the wall at our base camp.

7
00:01:13,759 --> 00:01:16,251
This has been our home
for nine days now.

8
00:01:16,470 --> 00:01:20,213
'Tommy, I guess
the bottom line question here,

9
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'why are you doing this?

10
00:01:21,975 --> 00:01:24,763
'What's the point
of all this for you?'

11
00:01:29,608 --> 00:01:32,396
On the air tonight
with a story of two men

12
00:01:32,611 --> 00:01:35,478
attempting to free climb
the famously steep face

13
00:01:35,697 --> 00:01:38,064
of El Capitan in Yosemite.

14
00:01:42,329 --> 00:01:44,661
Inch by nerve-racking inch,

15
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using only their fingertips
to grasp razor sharp edges.

16
00:01:49,211 --> 00:01:51,373
Tommy Caldwell
and Kevin Jorgeson

17
00:01:51,588 --> 00:01:53,750
attempt the hardest climb
in the world.

18
00:01:53,965 --> 00:01:57,128
No one has ever
free-climbed the Dawn Wall.

19
00:01:57,344 --> 00:02:00,211
3,000 feet
of straight-up granite.

20
00:02:08,980 --> 00:02:10,891
A climb watched by the world.

21
00:02:11,108 --> 00:02:14,646
These guys have
captured the world's attention.

22
00:02:16,446 --> 00:02:18,653
They're trying to make history.

23
00:02:18,865 --> 00:02:22,654
El Capitan's infamous Dawn Wall.

24
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As a kid,
Tommy was slow at everything.

25
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He had a lot of difficulty
in school.

26
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The teachers actually
at one point told us

27
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that he was mentally retarded
and would never learn.

28
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I was developmentally delayed
through... probably still.

29
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I was this very fragile
little kid,

30
00:03:03,285 --> 00:03:04,992
incredibly shy.

31
00:03:05,203 --> 00:03:09,743
But meanwhile, my dad was,
like, the symbol of a man.

32
00:03:12,627 --> 00:03:16,086
He was this big bodybuilder dude
and mountain climber.

33
00:03:16,923 --> 00:03:18,254
Larger than life.

34
00:03:18,467 --> 00:03:20,208
Tommy was small.

35
00:03:20,427 --> 00:03:22,759
He was way behind.

36
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Didn't crawl until he was
over two.

37
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I think my dad felt

38
00:03:27,017 --> 00:03:29,179
the best way to prepare this
fragile little kid for the world

39
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was to toughen him up
a little bit.

40
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So he took me
on all these adventures.

41
00:03:36,318 --> 00:03:38,150
Three years old,
strap on the skis.

42
00:03:38,361 --> 00:03:40,898
Camping in a snow cave
during a blizzard.

43
00:03:41,114 --> 00:03:44,152
Every summer, we'd go
to Yosemite with my family,

44
00:03:44,367 --> 00:03:47,359
and my dad would take me
climbing on these giant walls.

45
00:03:47,579 --> 00:03:51,447
Some of the craziest climbing
stunts you could ever do,

46
00:03:51,666 --> 00:03:53,407
and he did it
with a six-year-old.

47
00:03:56,213 --> 00:03:58,545
The things
that Tommy's dad took him on,

48
00:03:58,757 --> 00:04:01,249
today you would have
Child Protective Services

49
00:04:01,468 --> 00:04:02,799
coming after you.

50
00:04:03,011 --> 00:04:07,346
He basically took hardship
and rephrased it as growth.

51
00:04:07,557 --> 00:04:11,425
He was loving,
but he definitely let me suffer.

52
00:04:11,645 --> 00:04:15,138
The word that was in my mind
was resilience.

53
00:04:15,357 --> 00:04:17,940
It seems to me one of the
best gifts you can give your kid

54
00:04:18,151 --> 00:04:20,643
is an ability
to deal with adversity.

55
00:04:24,241 --> 00:04:26,573
By the time
I was 14 or 15,

56
00:04:26,785 --> 00:04:30,653
there was climbs that I could do
that my dad couldn't.

57
00:04:30,872 --> 00:04:32,033
Tommy's strong.

58
00:04:32,249 --> 00:04:33,990
Climbing was
the first thing in my life

59
00:04:34,209 --> 00:04:36,041
where I could stand out
a little bit.

60
00:04:36,253 --> 00:04:37,709
Alright. Woo!

61
00:04:40,257 --> 00:04:41,588
So Tommy was 16,

62
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,963
and Snowbird held the Snowbird
Invitational that year.

63
00:04:45,178 --> 00:04:46,885
This big
climbing competition.

64
00:04:47,097 --> 00:04:49,338
We thought we'd drive over there
and watch the comp

65
00:04:49,558 --> 00:04:50,719
and get some autographs.

66
00:04:50,934 --> 00:04:53,050
We just went there
to be fans, really.

67
00:04:53,270 --> 00:04:55,011
And the day before
the big competition,

68
00:04:55,230 --> 00:04:57,847
they had a Citizens' Comp that
anybody who shows up can enter.

69
00:04:58,066 --> 00:05:01,229
So I entered that,
my first competition ever.

70
00:05:01,444 --> 00:05:03,776
Well, Tommy won.

71
00:05:03,989 --> 00:05:06,321
And I don't know
if this was an official policy

72
00:05:06,533 --> 00:05:08,570
or just something
they dreamt up on the spot,

73
00:05:08,785 --> 00:05:10,116
but they asked Tommy

74
00:05:10,328 --> 00:05:13,070
if he wanted to enter the
World Invitational the next day.

75
00:05:13,290 --> 00:05:14,746
Hello, everyone.
I'm James Brown,

76
00:05:14,958 --> 00:05:16,289
and welcome to Snowbird, Utah,

77
00:05:16,501 --> 00:05:18,458
for the International
Sport Climbing Championship.

78
00:05:18,670 --> 00:05:20,627
Expert climbers
will test their skills

79
00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:24,423
against a man-made
120-foot wall.

80
00:05:24,634 --> 00:05:26,124
There were 12 competitors.

81
00:05:26,344 --> 00:05:28,961
- The icons of climbing.
- It was so intimidating.

82
00:05:34,644 --> 00:05:36,055
Nobody had ever
heard of me.

83
00:05:36,271 --> 00:05:38,012
I was just
this scrawny little kid.

84
00:05:38,231 --> 00:05:40,643
I was videoing Tommy as he goes
climbing up this thing.

85
00:05:45,906 --> 00:05:47,112
Come on, Tommy.

86
00:05:50,994 --> 00:05:52,985
He got past
the final roof.

87
00:05:54,456 --> 00:05:56,197
So Tommy's winning.

88
00:05:59,085 --> 00:06:00,996
Alright, Tommy!

89
00:06:01,212 --> 00:06:02,373
And I started shaking.

90
00:06:07,010 --> 00:06:08,546
I just dropped the camera.

91
00:06:08,762 --> 00:06:10,503
I mean I completely lost it.

92
00:06:11,765 --> 00:06:12,926
Tommy got to the top.

93
00:06:14,267 --> 00:06:17,225
The only climber
to complete this climb.

94
00:06:17,437 --> 00:06:20,850
So all of a sudden,
Tommy went from nobody at all

95
00:06:21,066 --> 00:06:23,103
to winner of Snowbird

96
00:06:23,318 --> 00:06:25,355
I mean,
that was just unbelievable.

97
00:06:25,570 --> 00:06:28,028
It changed his whole life.

98
00:06:28,239 --> 00:06:29,525
Tommy became known

99
00:06:29,741 --> 00:06:31,607
as one of the best
young climbers.

100
00:06:31,826 --> 00:06:32,816
But he didn't grow up

101
00:06:33,036 --> 00:06:34,276
the way most of us do.

102
00:06:34,496 --> 00:06:36,282
Through high school
he didn't have girlfriends.

103
00:06:36,498 --> 00:06:39,456
He didn't have a social life.
He just went climbing.

104
00:06:43,797 --> 00:06:46,334
I was doing
this series of competitions,

105
00:06:46,549 --> 00:06:49,132
and I met this girl, Beth.

106
00:06:49,344 --> 00:06:52,211
She just caught my attention
totally. I was like, "Woah!"

107
00:06:52,430 --> 00:06:56,845
Tommy just had this really big,
goofy, endearing grin.

108
00:06:57,060 --> 00:07:00,394
We both lived and breathed
climbing.

109
00:07:00,605 --> 00:07:02,721
Tommy's
this climbing savant,

110
00:07:02,941 --> 00:07:07,356
and then he meets Beth,
the female version of himself.

111
00:07:07,570 --> 00:07:09,106
He's head over heels.

112
00:07:09,322 --> 00:07:11,689
I just found ways
to go wherever she was.

113
00:07:11,908 --> 00:07:14,024
- OK?
- Yeah.

114
00:07:14,244 --> 00:07:16,861
I found out
she was going to Yosemite,

115
00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:19,367
so I followed her out there.

116
00:07:19,582 --> 00:07:22,995
We ended up climbing
a big wall together.

117
00:07:23,211 --> 00:07:25,327
You know, we were
next to each other all the time.

118
00:07:25,547 --> 00:07:27,379
24 hours a day together.

119
00:07:27,590 --> 00:07:30,548
Sleeping 1,000 feet off
the ground on this portaledge,

120
00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,092
which is like a hanging cot.

121
00:07:33,304 --> 00:07:36,513
You sleep head to toe.
There's just more room that way.

122
00:07:36,725 --> 00:07:38,181
Sol laid down,

123
00:07:38,393 --> 00:07:40,134
and she laid down
the same way that I was,

124
00:07:40,353 --> 00:07:42,094
with her head at the same end.

125
00:07:42,313 --> 00:07:43,724
And I was
pretty excited by this.

126
00:07:43,940 --> 00:07:47,808
I was like, "Ooh, goodness.
This is getting exciting."

127
00:07:49,446 --> 00:07:50,902
I just hadn't been
in love before,

128
00:07:51,114 --> 00:07:54,277
and I just fell hardcore,
right off the bat.

129
00:07:56,453 --> 00:07:58,069
It just clicked.

130
00:07:58,288 --> 00:08:02,282
We had so many dreams of
traveling and climbing together.

131
00:08:04,294 --> 00:08:07,537
And then we got invited
to go on a big adventure trip.

132
00:08:07,756 --> 00:08:10,248
An expedition to Kyrgyzstan.

133
00:08:10,467 --> 00:08:12,959
Kyrgyzstan is this beautiful,
mountainous country

134
00:08:13,178 --> 00:08:14,464
in Central Asia.

135
00:08:14,679 --> 00:08:18,092
We'd seen pictures from friends
that had been there,

136
00:08:18,308 --> 00:08:19,969
and it looked like a paradise
for climbers.

137
00:08:20,185 --> 00:08:22,927
I was a photographer
working in the outdoor industry.

138
00:08:23,146 --> 00:08:25,979
And this amazing opportunity
came about for me

139
00:08:26,191 --> 00:08:29,229
to shoot an expedition
with Beth and Tommy and Jason.

140
00:08:29,444 --> 00:08:32,027
We were just four young climbers
looking for a big adventure

141
00:08:32,238 --> 00:08:35,447
in a new and unusual part
of the world.

142
00:08:35,658 --> 00:08:39,071
We charter a helicopter
into the Kara-Su Valley.

143
00:08:39,287 --> 00:08:41,324
Unbelievably beautiful.

144
00:08:41,539 --> 00:08:44,122
Just felt like
a dream come true,

145
00:08:44,334 --> 00:08:45,950
out in the middle
of this adventure

146
00:08:46,169 --> 00:08:48,410
with this girl
that I was totally in love with.

147
00:08:50,006 --> 00:08:51,417
A week-and-a-half into our trip,

148
00:08:51,633 --> 00:08:53,419
the four of us were sleeping
in portaledges

149
00:08:53,635 --> 00:08:55,125
1,000 feet up the wall,

150
00:08:55,345 --> 00:08:58,508
and we wake up to gunshots...

151
00:08:58,723 --> 00:09:00,680
...these piercing,
close gunshots.

152
00:09:02,519 --> 00:09:04,476
The bullets hitting the wall
right between our portaledges.

153
00:09:04,687 --> 00:09:05,927
We're sitting there like,

154
00:09:06,147 --> 00:09:07,763
"Oh, my God,
we're getting shot at."

155
00:09:07,982 --> 00:09:09,564
And you can't run away.
You can't do anything.

156
00:09:09,776 --> 00:09:11,608
We're just sitting ducks
up here.

157
00:09:11,820 --> 00:09:15,108
We look down,
and you could see these figures.

158
00:09:15,323 --> 00:09:17,985
These guys
waving at us to come down.

159
00:09:18,201 --> 00:09:19,987
We rappelled down
to the ground.

160
00:09:20,203 --> 00:09:24,242
We're encountered
by four guys, heavily armed.

161
00:09:24,457 --> 00:09:26,039
They took us
to our base camp.

162
00:09:26,251 --> 00:09:27,707
All of our tents
were cut open.

163
00:09:27,919 --> 00:09:29,626
A lot of our food
was splayed around the meadow.

164
00:09:29,838 --> 00:09:31,670
They had us start
hiding our camp.

165
00:09:31,881 --> 00:09:35,840
And so suddenly, it hits us,
we're hostages right now.

166
00:09:45,436 --> 00:09:47,052
Later,
we learned that these guys

167
00:09:47,272 --> 00:09:49,730
were part of the
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan,

168
00:09:49,941 --> 00:09:52,808
these rebels that wanted
to overthrow the government.

169
00:09:55,321 --> 00:09:57,312
We were caught up
in this battle

170
00:09:57,532 --> 00:10:00,365
between these rebels
and the Kyrgyz military.

171
00:10:01,744 --> 00:10:02,950
All of a sudden,

172
00:10:03,163 --> 00:10:04,699
Kyrgyz military helicopters
started to fly over,

173
00:10:04,914 --> 00:10:07,531
soldiers show up
on the hillside,

174
00:10:07,750 --> 00:10:09,912
and this battle breaks out.

175
00:10:10,128 --> 00:10:12,745
The rebels start pointing their
guns at us, yelling, "Hide!"

176
00:10:12,964 --> 00:10:14,875
Then we dive in these trees.

177
00:10:15,091 --> 00:10:17,708
The rebels had taken
a Kyrgyz soldier hostage.

178
00:10:17,927 --> 00:10:19,213
They took the other captive.

179
00:10:19,429 --> 00:10:21,045
And they just shot him
in the head.

180
00:10:23,641 --> 00:10:25,427
I just remember
shaking uncontrollably

181
00:10:25,643 --> 00:10:27,930
and Tommy just holding me
as tight as he could.

182
00:10:28,146 --> 00:10:30,478
Are they just going to
kill us next?

183
00:10:33,276 --> 00:10:35,938
Once it's dark,
the gunfire dies down.

184
00:10:36,154 --> 00:10:39,692
And the rebels start marching us
through the mountains.

185
00:10:44,037 --> 00:10:48,281
It's four rebels,
the four of us.

186
00:10:48,499 --> 00:10:51,036
It's really cold.
We're 11,000 feet in elevation.

187
00:10:51,252 --> 00:10:52,742
We don't have warm clothes.

188
00:10:52,962 --> 00:10:54,418
We don't have any food.

189
00:10:54,631 --> 00:10:57,714
We had no idea
where we were going.

190
00:10:57,926 --> 00:11:00,258
We would
hike through the night,

191
00:11:01,888 --> 00:11:04,801
and then during the day,
they would hide us.

192
00:11:06,142 --> 00:11:08,804
They hid us
in the craziest spots.

193
00:11:09,020 --> 00:11:11,102
Burying us
in holes in the ground

194
00:11:11,314 --> 00:11:14,477
so that we wouldn't be seen
by the military.

195
00:11:14,692 --> 00:11:16,353
This went on
for six days.

196
00:11:16,569 --> 00:11:20,153
Day two or three,
hunger really started to set in.

197
00:11:20,365 --> 00:11:23,153
You know,
we're sort of just wasting away.

198
00:11:23,368 --> 00:11:25,655
I thought they're
taking us back to their base

199
00:11:25,870 --> 00:11:28,532
or they're taking us somewhere,
there's a purpose to this.

200
00:11:28,748 --> 00:11:30,364
Finally, we realized

201
00:11:30,583 --> 00:11:32,995
they were leading us
in a giant circle.

202
00:11:33,211 --> 00:11:36,294
Like, these guys
clearly don't have a plan.

203
00:11:36,506 --> 00:11:39,919
Jason and John started to scheme
about how we could get away.

204
00:11:40,134 --> 00:11:41,966
I mean, things were getting
super desperate.

205
00:11:42,178 --> 00:11:44,795
They were ready to take matters
into their own hands.

206
00:11:45,014 --> 00:11:47,346
At one point,
two of our captors left.

207
00:11:47,558 --> 00:11:49,469
We never saw them again.

208
00:11:49,686 --> 00:11:53,099
We found out later
that they got killed.

209
00:11:53,314 --> 00:11:56,022
On our sixth night of captivity,

210
00:11:56,234 --> 00:11:58,601
the two captors
that were remaining with us

211
00:11:58,820 --> 00:12:00,857
decided that one of them
would go in one direction

212
00:12:01,072 --> 00:12:02,233
to try and get some food

213
00:12:02,448 --> 00:12:04,610
and then we would head off
with the other one.

214
00:12:09,622 --> 00:12:12,114
So we get left alone
with the one rebel,

215
00:12:12,333 --> 00:12:14,370
climbing up this cliff side.

216
00:12:14,585 --> 00:12:17,794
We were comfortable
on the terrain, and he was not.

217
00:12:18,006 --> 00:12:21,499
If we're going to escape,
this is the opportunity.

218
00:12:21,718 --> 00:12:23,334
Jason and John decided

219
00:12:23,553 --> 00:12:27,262
they would try and push our
remaining captor off this cliff

220
00:12:27,473 --> 00:12:28,804
and then run away.

221
00:12:29,017 --> 00:12:30,883
John and I were trying
to look for a point

222
00:12:31,102 --> 00:12:32,092
that we could throw him off.

223
00:12:32,312 --> 00:12:35,054
But we kept going
and kept going.

224
00:12:35,273 --> 00:12:37,640
We just couldn't quite push him.

225
00:12:39,110 --> 00:12:40,441
As we got to the top,

226
00:12:40,653 --> 00:12:43,736
I realized that our opportunity
was going to be over.

227
00:12:49,787 --> 00:12:53,655
And I decided that this was
what I had to do.

228
00:12:53,875 --> 00:12:57,584
I had to go and I needed
to push this guy off this cliff

229
00:12:57,795 --> 00:12:59,251
in order to save our lives.

230
00:12:59,464 --> 00:13:02,297
Tommy came over to me
at this point, and he said,

231
00:13:02,508 --> 00:13:04,124
"Do you think I should do this?"

232
00:13:04,344 --> 00:13:06,335
I was thinking,
"Yes, no, yes, no."

233
00:13:06,554 --> 00:13:08,511
So I just didn't say anything.

234
00:13:08,723 --> 00:13:13,012
I took that as
that she would be OK with it.

235
00:13:15,313 --> 00:13:18,977
So I just ran up behind him

236
00:13:19,192 --> 00:13:24,278
and I put one hand on his back
and grabbed his gun strap.

237
00:13:24,489 --> 00:13:27,777
And my other hand
went on his chest

238
00:13:27,992 --> 00:13:30,233
and I just gave a push...

239
00:13:34,290 --> 00:13:36,531
...to send him flying off
this cliff.

240
00:13:43,132 --> 00:13:44,839
We saw him hit a ledge,

241
00:13:45,051 --> 00:13:48,043
bounce off of it, and just fall
out of sight into the darkness.

242
00:13:51,516 --> 00:13:53,006
Tommy completely broke down,

243
00:13:53,226 --> 00:13:55,638
had his head in his arms
and he was crying.

244
00:13:55,853 --> 00:13:57,685
I couldn't believe
what I had just done.

245
00:13:57,897 --> 00:13:59,604
I had just killed somebody.

246
00:13:59,816 --> 00:14:04,026
The whole world came
crashing down on me all at once.

247
00:14:04,237 --> 00:14:06,979
We were all trying
to reassure him and say that,

248
00:14:07,198 --> 00:14:09,815
"You're not a bad person,
you just saved our lives."

249
00:14:10,034 --> 00:14:11,650
They really tried
to comfort me.

250
00:14:11,869 --> 00:14:13,906
But there was a sense of urgency
that we better get going,

251
00:14:14,122 --> 00:14:17,456
because we didn't know if the
other captor was gonna show up.

252
00:14:17,667 --> 00:14:19,908
We knew
from hiking in earlier

253
00:14:20,128 --> 00:14:23,291
where there was a military
outpost we could try and run to.

254
00:14:23,506 --> 00:14:25,918
So even on almost no food
for six days,

255
00:14:26,134 --> 00:14:27,340
adrenaline kicked in.

256
00:14:27,552 --> 00:14:29,008
So we ran for four hours.

257
00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:31,086
Through the darkness
down this valley.

258
00:14:31,305 --> 00:14:33,842
We were greeted by this
man yelling at us with this gun.

259
00:14:34,058 --> 00:14:36,891
Throw up our hands, start
yelling that we're Americans.

260
00:14:37,103 --> 00:14:39,219
And luckily,
it was the Kyrgyz army.

261
00:14:39,439 --> 00:14:42,431
This huge wave of relief
came over us.

262
00:14:42,650 --> 00:14:47,065
This horrible situation
that we had been in was over.

263
00:14:48,614 --> 00:14:52,448
They gave us food and water,
military fatigues.

264
00:14:52,660 --> 00:14:54,822
And then we got
helicoptered out from there.

265
00:15:00,835 --> 00:15:03,668
From our studios
in New York, here's Jane Pauley.

266
00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:06,963
Four young Americans
face a life or death choice,

267
00:15:07,175 --> 00:15:11,294
with the ultimate question,
to kill or be killed?

268
00:15:11,512 --> 00:15:15,005
When we got home, there
was this crazy media circus.

269
00:15:15,224 --> 00:15:17,932
You guys are walking
with this captor

270
00:15:18,144 --> 00:15:19,976
on a very rocky cliff.

271
00:15:20,188 --> 00:15:21,394
Tell me what you did, Tommy.

272
00:15:21,606 --> 00:15:24,564
We just ended up
pushing the guy.

273
00:15:24,775 --> 00:15:26,231
- You pushed him over the cliff.
- Yeah.

274
00:15:26,444 --> 00:15:28,310
What happened at that moment
when you realized,

275
00:15:28,529 --> 00:15:30,566
I've actually done this,
I've killed somebody?

276
00:15:30,781 --> 00:15:34,069
I thought that I was
an evil person. I said to Beth,

277
00:15:34,285 --> 00:15:37,698
"How can you love me after I did
something like this?"

278
00:15:37,914 --> 00:15:39,746
And, uh...

279
00:15:41,876 --> 00:15:43,241
After Kyrgyzstan,

280
00:15:43,461 --> 00:15:45,668
Tommy had tremendous
personality changes.

281
00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:47,712
Speaking so softly.

282
00:15:47,924 --> 00:15:51,758
I was like, what is inside me
that allowed me to do this?

283
00:15:53,471 --> 00:15:56,133
Just an entirely
different person.

284
00:16:37,682 --> 00:16:38,843
Yosemite is known

285
00:16:39,058 --> 00:16:41,891
as the Mecca
of world rock climbing.

286
00:16:44,939 --> 00:16:48,807
And the crown jewel
of this Mecca is El Capitan.

287
00:16:50,361 --> 00:16:54,901
It's just this iconic
3,000 foot high monolith.

288
00:16:55,116 --> 00:16:57,153
When you see that thing
for the first time,

289
00:16:57,368 --> 00:16:59,951
it takes your breath away.

290
00:17:00,162 --> 00:17:04,747
The steepest, blankest,
most forlorn...

291
00:17:04,959 --> 00:17:06,996
impressive part of El Cap

292
00:17:07,211 --> 00:17:09,168
is the Dawn Wall.

293
00:17:11,382 --> 00:17:14,124
People have done a handful
of free climbs up El Cap

294
00:17:14,343 --> 00:17:16,334
to the right and to the left.

295
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:21,765
But the Dawn Wall
has never been climbed.

296
00:17:21,976 --> 00:17:25,640
Just the sheer magnitude
of blank rock on the thing,

297
00:17:25,855 --> 00:17:28,187
it just looks impossible.

298
00:17:29,483 --> 00:17:32,100
Until Tommy Caldwell came along,

299
00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,154
nobody had actually
considered trying it.

300
00:17:36,365 --> 00:17:40,074
If Tommy and his partner Kevin
can actually do this,

301
00:17:40,286 --> 00:17:45,577
it will be the most continuously
difficult rock climb ever done.

302
00:17:47,793 --> 00:17:50,160
Nothing else
is even close to it.

303
00:17:52,548 --> 00:17:54,585
It's December 27th,

304
00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:58,464
and we're planning on heading up
for like two weeks plus.

305
00:17:59,388 --> 00:18:01,129
We'll see.

306
00:18:01,349 --> 00:18:04,808
The goal is climb it
in a single push,

307
00:18:05,019 --> 00:18:07,101
which means we're going to
leave the ground,

308
00:18:07,313 --> 00:18:09,054
live on the wall,

309
00:18:10,816 --> 00:18:13,979
and not come down
until we're done.

310
00:18:16,530 --> 00:18:18,020
We're going for it.

311
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:19,947
I'm nervous.

312
00:18:20,159 --> 00:18:24,528
We've put in so much work
leading up to this moment.

313
00:18:24,747 --> 00:18:27,660
There's nothing left to do
but take a couple deep breaths

314
00:18:27,875 --> 00:18:29,240
and start climbing.

315
00:18:30,002 --> 00:18:32,494
Day one.

316
00:18:32,713 --> 00:18:34,044
Yup.

317
00:18:36,217 --> 00:18:37,582
This is going to be awesome.

318
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,468
The Dawn Wall itself
is 3,000 feet tall.

319
00:18:45,017 --> 00:18:47,850
The route that they think
they have figured out

320
00:18:48,062 --> 00:18:51,896
is comprised of
32 individual pitches.

321
00:18:52,108 --> 00:18:56,898
Each pitch is its own challenge,
like the stages of a race.

322
00:18:59,615 --> 00:19:03,529
A pitch is a rope-length long,
about 150 feet or so.

323
00:19:03,744 --> 00:19:05,109
And ends of the ledge

324
00:19:05,329 --> 00:19:08,572
are a natural resting place
on the rock.

325
00:19:08,791 --> 00:19:10,532
Yeah, man. Good work.

326
00:19:10,751 --> 00:19:12,116
When you end the pitch,

327
00:19:12,336 --> 00:19:14,373
you anchor yourself
to the wall...

328
00:19:14,588 --> 00:19:17,922
One down,
thirty-something to go.

329
00:19:18,134 --> 00:19:21,126
...and hold the rope or
belay as your partner comes up.

330
00:19:22,847 --> 00:19:24,884
Once you've both done
that pitch without falling,

331
00:19:25,099 --> 00:19:27,136
you can move on
to the next pitch.

332
00:19:30,020 --> 00:19:31,385
When you're
free-climbing,

333
00:19:31,605 --> 00:19:33,346
you're using
your hands and feet

334
00:19:33,566 --> 00:19:35,898
to climb the natural features
on the rock

335
00:19:36,110 --> 00:19:38,727
without any assistance
from the rope.

336
00:19:39,989 --> 00:19:41,571
- Good job.
- Yeah, man.

337
00:19:41,782 --> 00:19:44,365
You take turns
leading each pitch,

338
00:19:44,577 --> 00:19:47,945
placing protection in the cracks
to catch you in case you fall.

339
00:19:49,457 --> 00:19:51,664
Yeah, come on.
You got it.

340
00:19:51,876 --> 00:19:53,742
Ugh! Oh!

341
00:19:56,922 --> 00:19:58,959
If you fall,

342
00:19:59,175 --> 00:20:03,214
you just go back down
to the beginning of that pitch,

343
00:20:03,429 --> 00:20:06,046
and then the other guy tries it.

344
00:20:06,265 --> 00:20:08,097
They have
a certain number of pitches

345
00:20:08,309 --> 00:20:10,095
they're trying to get through
each day

346
00:20:10,311 --> 00:20:12,973
to stay on track
to finish this climb.

347
00:20:13,189 --> 00:20:16,727
The first few pitches
are relatively easy.

348
00:20:16,942 --> 00:20:19,183
But as you get higher
on the wall...

349
00:20:22,406 --> 00:20:24,773
...the wall gets steeper,

350
00:20:25,868 --> 00:20:27,950
the holes get smaller,

351
00:20:29,205 --> 00:20:31,913
and the climbing
gets way more difficult.

352
00:20:37,296 --> 00:20:39,412
It's hard to articulate

353
00:20:39,632 --> 00:20:42,044
the level of detail
that's required.

354
00:20:44,678 --> 00:20:48,171
You can't make any mistake
in where you grab the hold

355
00:20:48,390 --> 00:20:51,098
and how you place your toe.

356
00:20:51,310 --> 00:20:55,224
You're pushing and pulling
as hard as you possibly can,

357
00:20:55,439 --> 00:20:57,897
always on the verge
of slipping off.

358
00:21:02,154 --> 00:21:03,861
Argh!

359
00:21:04,073 --> 00:21:05,655
Oh, no!

360
00:21:05,866 --> 00:21:08,403
- Oh!
- Oh, foot slip.

361
00:21:10,496 --> 00:21:13,284
We climb all day
into the night,

362
00:21:13,499 --> 00:21:17,288
trying the same pitch
until we both do it.

363
00:21:24,552 --> 00:21:26,008
Come on, Tommy!

364
00:21:27,930 --> 00:21:29,420
Come on!

365
00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:34,217
Man, I'm getting tired.

366
00:21:34,436 --> 00:21:36,427
Tommy is just
a man possessed.

367
00:21:36,647 --> 00:21:38,809
Come on. Finish this.

368
00:21:40,276 --> 00:21:41,607
Yeah, come on.

369
00:21:43,112 --> 00:21:44,443
Yeah, man.

370
00:21:44,655 --> 00:21:47,317
<i>'Lee-hoe!</i>

371
00:21:47,533 --> 00:21:48,864
And I'm just trying to keep up.

372
00:21:49,076 --> 00:21:50,737
You got it, Kevin.
Come on!

373
00:21:50,953 --> 00:21:53,945
Come on! Come on!
Come on!

374
00:21:54,164 --> 00:21:56,030
Yeah, that was awesome, dude.

375
00:21:56,250 --> 00:21:58,161
Thank God I didn't fall.

376
00:21:59,086 --> 00:22:00,292
Nice, man.

377
00:22:00,504 --> 00:22:02,495
When you're trying
a big wall like this,

378
00:22:02,715 --> 00:22:04,080
the work does not end

379
00:22:04,300 --> 00:22:06,883
once the climbing is done
at the end of the day.

380
00:22:07,094 --> 00:22:09,961
You've got to haul up
hundreds of pounds of gear,

381
00:22:10,180 --> 00:22:12,046
set up portaledges...

382
00:22:12,266 --> 00:22:16,305
This seems pretty good.
Pretty flat, even, I would say.

383
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:18,352
...and gag down some food.

384
00:22:18,564 --> 00:22:21,556
I actually brought
a bag of kale on the wall

385
00:22:21,775 --> 00:22:24,358
to put it in our burritos.
Mmh!

386
00:22:29,950 --> 00:22:32,942
This is the hardest thing you
could ever do on your fingers,

387
00:22:33,162 --> 00:22:34,698
climbing this route.

388
00:22:34,914 --> 00:22:36,700
It's just grabbing razor blades.

389
00:22:36,916 --> 00:22:39,874
I tape up any wounds
with Neosporin for healing.

390
00:22:40,085 --> 00:22:42,952
Then I wake up probably
twice in the night and reapply.

391
00:22:43,172 --> 00:22:46,540
Getting pretty obsessed
with my lips.

392
00:22:46,759 --> 00:22:48,966
Then you've got to hope
you can get a little sleep.

393
00:22:49,178 --> 00:22:52,921
The next day is going to be
more of the same, but harder.

394
00:22:53,140 --> 00:22:55,222
And it's going to go on
day after clay,

395
00:22:55,434 --> 00:22:58,301
two weeks, three weeks.
Nobody knows.

396
00:23:10,658 --> 00:23:12,615
After Kyrgyzstan,

397
00:23:14,036 --> 00:23:16,619
we're trying to absorb
what had happened.

398
00:23:19,208 --> 00:23:21,870
Beth is really traumatized.

399
00:23:22,086 --> 00:23:24,578
I started to have
nightmares and couldn't sleep.

400
00:23:24,797 --> 00:23:28,210
I did not want to be separated
from Tommy at that point.

401
00:23:28,425 --> 00:23:31,292
Beth and I are bonded
at the hip. I'm her rock.

402
00:23:31,512 --> 00:23:32,718
We go to church a few times.

403
00:23:32,930 --> 00:23:34,591
We hadn't been to church
in ten years.

404
00:23:34,807 --> 00:23:37,139
We're just searching.
We're like, what does this mean?

405
00:23:37,351 --> 00:23:38,637
We go to a therapist.

406
00:23:38,852 --> 00:23:41,093
It's like nobody knows
how to deal with this situation.

407
00:23:42,856 --> 00:23:44,722
I think my way
of dealing with it was

408
00:23:44,942 --> 00:23:48,731
you just get back on that horse
and go climb again.

409
00:23:51,407 --> 00:23:53,523
This has always been
my safe place,

410
00:23:53,742 --> 00:23:55,733
my way to deal with life.

411
00:23:59,999 --> 00:24:02,536
I didn't know what to think
about Kyrgyzstan.

412
00:24:04,044 --> 00:24:05,751
Part of me was feeling
kind of empowered.

413
00:24:05,963 --> 00:24:08,079
I was like, when the shit
really hit the fan,

414
00:24:08,298 --> 00:24:10,505
I was able to do
what needed to be done

415
00:24:10,718 --> 00:24:12,459
to get us out of there.

416
00:24:12,678 --> 00:24:14,669
Tommy jumped
right back into climbing,

417
00:24:14,888 --> 00:24:17,801
and slowly we got back
into our groove.

418
00:24:18,017 --> 00:24:20,679
We're both
professional rock climbers,

419
00:24:20,894 --> 00:24:23,886
doing these really cool climbs
all over the place.

420
00:24:24,106 --> 00:24:26,814
He started
setting these lofty goals.

421
00:24:27,026 --> 00:24:29,859
Trying to climb
harder and harder routes.

422
00:24:30,070 --> 00:24:32,562
And then, about a year
after Kyrgyzstan,

423
00:24:32,781 --> 00:24:34,863
we were remodeling
this tiny little cabin.

424
00:24:37,244 --> 00:24:42,364
And Tommy was using
his parent's old table saw.

425
00:24:42,583 --> 00:24:44,915
Tommy did something
that you should never do,

426
00:24:45,127 --> 00:24:47,414
which is he tried
to pull a small piece of wood

427
00:24:47,629 --> 00:24:49,336
through the table saw.

428
00:24:49,548 --> 00:24:51,004
If the blade catches
on the wood,

429
00:24:51,216 --> 00:24:53,457
it sucks your hand
right back into the blade.

430
00:24:54,595 --> 00:24:55,881
I heard Tommy scream,

431
00:24:56,096 --> 00:24:57,427
"I fucking cut off my finger,
I cut off my finger."

432
00:24:57,639 --> 00:24:59,550
Completely cut his finger off
instantly.

433
00:24:59,767 --> 00:25:01,098
It was over in the bushes.

434
00:25:01,310 --> 00:25:03,267
Beth finds the finger
laying in this pile of sawdust.

435
00:25:03,479 --> 00:25:05,811
We throw it on ice,
drive to the hospital.

436
00:25:06,023 --> 00:25:08,811
My dad comes in, and he's like,
"You have to fix his finger."

437
00:25:09,026 --> 00:25:11,609
And so for two weeks,
they tried to reattach it.

438
00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:13,356
Three different surgeries.

439
00:25:13,572 --> 00:25:16,155
But it became apparent that the
finger wasn't going to survive.

440
00:25:19,620 --> 00:25:21,577
This one doctor
who was a climber

441
00:25:21,789 --> 00:25:24,156
came in and told Tommy
that he was going to have to

442
00:25:24,374 --> 00:25:25,830
come up with a new career now.

443
00:25:26,043 --> 00:25:29,752
There's no way he was going to
make it as a climber any longer.

444
00:25:30,589 --> 00:25:32,626
Oh, that was...

445
00:25:32,841 --> 00:25:35,583
either the wrong thing
or the right thing to say,

446
00:25:35,803 --> 00:25:37,635
because it sure fired him up.

447
00:25:37,846 --> 00:25:39,428
I was like, "Fuck that guy!"

448
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,506
"He doesn't know
what I'm capable of."

449
00:25:41,725 --> 00:25:44,763
I remember the
first time he tried to climb.

450
00:25:44,978 --> 00:25:47,094
Good, Tommy.

451
00:25:48,649 --> 00:25:51,311
He was like, "Whoa!"

452
00:25:51,527 --> 00:25:52,733
You know, it's going to be hard.

453
00:25:52,945 --> 00:25:54,151
Good job, sweetie.

454
00:25:54,363 --> 00:25:56,149
When I heard
he cut his finger off, I go,

455
00:25:56,365 --> 00:25:58,527
"Well, so much
for Tommy Caldwell."

456
00:25:58,742 --> 00:25:59,982
The grip in climbing is,

457
00:26:00,202 --> 00:26:02,443
you wrap your thumb
over your finger like that

458
00:26:02,663 --> 00:26:04,199
and pull down
on the little edges,

459
00:26:04,414 --> 00:26:08,533
and if there's no finger there,
the physics are all wrong.

460
00:26:11,505 --> 00:26:13,667
I don't know about that.

461
00:26:13,882 --> 00:26:16,123
Everybody around me,
except for Beth and my parents,

462
00:26:16,343 --> 00:26:20,302
looked at me and they're like,
"He's done. That's so sad."

463
00:26:20,514 --> 00:26:22,096
I knew it wasn't
going to be easy.

464
00:26:22,307 --> 00:26:24,469
But ever since Kyrgyzstan,

465
00:26:24,685 --> 00:26:26,221
I just have this fire in me

466
00:26:26,436 --> 00:26:31,181
that is different than
anything I've had before.

467
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,893
He had all these jars
of rice and beans and gravel.

468
00:26:35,112 --> 00:26:37,319
He's supposed to jam
that nub of a finger in there.

469
00:26:37,531 --> 00:26:39,238
I just abused the thing

470
00:26:39,449 --> 00:26:41,611
to retrain the nerves,
to toughen them up.

471
00:26:43,954 --> 00:26:46,946
Those six days of captivity
in Kyrgyzstan

472
00:26:48,250 --> 00:26:51,788
were so profoundly painful.

473
00:26:55,048 --> 00:26:57,289
At first, I felt overwhelmed

474
00:26:57,509 --> 00:27:01,924
with fear and fatigue
and hunger.

475
00:27:02,139 --> 00:27:05,677
But at some point,
I felt something come over me,

476
00:27:05,893 --> 00:27:08,100
this reserve of energy,

477
00:27:09,313 --> 00:27:10,929
this confidence.

478
00:27:11,148 --> 00:27:13,105
I knew I was cold,
I knew I was hungry,

479
00:27:13,317 --> 00:27:15,558
but those things
didn't matter anymore.

480
00:27:22,075 --> 00:27:27,320
I think we all have this idea
of where our limits lie.

481
00:27:27,539 --> 00:27:29,029
If you're hurting really bad,

482
00:27:29,249 --> 00:27:32,037
you get to a point where you're
like, "I can't endure any more."

483
00:27:32,252 --> 00:27:35,370
And it takes something
to force you past that.

484
00:27:36,965 --> 00:27:41,209
In Kyrgyzstan, I realized
that my preconceived limits

485
00:27:41,428 --> 00:27:43,886
were totally off base,

486
00:27:45,933 --> 00:27:47,549
that we're capable
of so much more

487
00:27:47,768 --> 00:27:50,476
than we really
could ever imagine.

488
00:27:56,151 --> 00:27:58,108
There was this really
hard climb nobody had done

489
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:00,778
that he tried the year
before he cut off his finger,

490
00:28:00,989 --> 00:28:02,650
and he couldn't do it.

491
00:28:02,866 --> 00:28:04,982
A year later, he came back
without the finger

492
00:28:05,202 --> 00:28:06,909
and he did it.

493
00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:08,952
He cuts off his finger.

494
00:28:09,164 --> 00:28:11,405
"Oh, no big deal. I'll just
get better after that."

495
00:28:11,625 --> 00:28:14,037
I have no idea
how that's possible.

496
00:28:16,129 --> 00:28:18,996
That's when Tommy
took his game

497
00:28:19,216 --> 00:28:22,004
to the biggest stage on Earth,
which is El Cap.

498
00:28:22,219 --> 00:28:23,505
At that time,

499
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,678
there were only a few
free climbs that went up El Cap.

500
00:28:26,890 --> 00:28:29,803
Some of the hardest
big wall climbs ever done.

501
00:28:30,018 --> 00:28:32,009
Just to claim
one of these routes

502
00:28:32,229 --> 00:28:35,142
would have been
a monumental achievement

503
00:28:35,357 --> 00:28:37,519
for the best climbers
in the world.

504
00:28:37,734 --> 00:28:39,771
And then Tommy
walks into the Valley,

505
00:28:39,987 --> 00:28:42,354
missing a finger,

506
00:28:42,572 --> 00:28:45,815
and just started knocking them
down, one after the other.

507
00:28:46,034 --> 00:28:49,572
Over the next five years,
he went on a rampage.

508
00:28:49,788 --> 00:28:52,246
I did basically all
the existing routes on El Cap.

509
00:28:52,457 --> 00:28:53,868
- Salathe Wall.
- The Zodiac.

510
00:28:54,084 --> 00:28:55,074
El Corazon.

511
00:28:55,294 --> 00:28:56,409
- Golden Gate.
- The Nose.

512
00:28:56,628 --> 00:28:58,585
Then he starts
speed climbing these routes,

513
00:28:58,797 --> 00:29:00,333
linking one into the other.

514
00:29:00,549 --> 00:29:03,132
Two El Cap routes
in a day.

515
00:29:03,343 --> 00:29:05,380
6,000 feet of climbing.

516
00:29:05,595 --> 00:29:06,756
That was unheard of.

517
00:29:06,972 --> 00:29:08,963
- You did it!
- Oh, my goodness.

518
00:29:09,182 --> 00:29:11,514
And then I started looking
for new routes.

519
00:29:11,727 --> 00:29:15,095
Tommy started looking
between the lines

520
00:29:15,314 --> 00:29:16,850
for his own first ascents.

521
00:29:17,065 --> 00:29:19,306
It added that element
of the unknown,

522
00:29:19,526 --> 00:29:22,735
this what-if, like,
maybe that could be climbed.

523
00:29:24,239 --> 00:29:26,276
I think Tommy
had become hypnotized

524
00:29:26,491 --> 00:29:29,358
trying to figure out,
where is the ultimate limit?

525
00:29:29,578 --> 00:29:31,068
Oh, shit.

526
00:29:32,706 --> 00:29:35,323
I did the first ascent
of the Muir Wall.

527
00:29:35,542 --> 00:29:37,579
- The West Buttress.
- Dihedral Wall.

528
00:29:37,794 --> 00:29:39,034
Magic Mushroom.

529
00:29:39,254 --> 00:29:41,495
Anybody that does
a first ascent on El Capitan

530
00:29:41,715 --> 00:29:43,046
has their place in history
forever.

531
00:29:43,258 --> 00:29:45,499
Tommy did five of them.

532
00:29:45,719 --> 00:29:48,177
Anything he could
dream up, he did it.

533
00:29:48,388 --> 00:29:51,551
And everyone in the climbing
world is like, "What the hell?"

534
00:29:53,643 --> 00:29:54,929
He's Mr. El Cap.

535
00:29:55,145 --> 00:29:57,603
The best
big wall climber ever.

536
00:29:59,566 --> 00:30:02,558
And Beth
was with him all the time,

537
00:30:02,778 --> 00:30:05,395
climbing all of these routes
together.

538
00:30:05,614 --> 00:30:07,321
We just poured
our hearts into climbing

539
00:30:07,532 --> 00:30:10,320
and supporting each other
on these goals.

540
00:30:10,535 --> 00:30:13,323
It was quite a team.

541
00:30:13,538 --> 00:30:16,030
They were known
as the first couple of climbing.

542
00:30:17,417 --> 00:30:19,704
There was one word -
Beth and Tommy.

543
00:30:22,881 --> 00:30:24,337
We get married.

544
00:30:24,549 --> 00:30:27,758
We ended up buying property
like 20 minutes from El Capitan

545
00:30:27,969 --> 00:30:29,505
and building a house there.

546
00:30:30,347 --> 00:30:31,803
We're nearly there!

547
00:30:32,015 --> 00:30:33,881
We were just
going to live in Yosemite

548
00:30:34,101 --> 00:30:36,388
and raise our kids there
and keep climbing.

549
00:30:36,603 --> 00:30:38,890
I was good friends
with them both,

550
00:30:39,106 --> 00:30:40,642
and we were next-door neighbors.

551
00:30:40,857 --> 00:30:42,222
They seemed so happy.

552
00:30:42,442 --> 00:30:43,932
I'm like, wow, this life

553
00:30:44,152 --> 00:30:46,314
that I never even saw coming
in the first place

554
00:30:46,530 --> 00:30:49,272
is starting
to just magically appear.

555
00:30:50,659 --> 00:30:54,448
Things are going
seemingly really well,

556
00:30:54,663 --> 00:30:58,201
at least from my mind.

557
00:30:58,417 --> 00:31:03,958
But I'm noticing, over time,
little cracks started to form.

558
00:31:04,172 --> 00:31:07,255
The first inklings
of almost hostility towards me.

559
00:31:08,510 --> 00:31:10,547
There was
all this weird tension.

560
00:31:10,762 --> 00:31:11,968
And I was just like,

561
00:31:12,180 --> 00:31:14,342
well, we've been together
for eight years now.

562
00:31:14,558 --> 00:31:16,344
Marriages go through
troubling times.

563
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:22,431
We'll get through this
and just keep climbing.

564
00:31:22,649 --> 00:31:25,641
I think there was
a natural growing apart,

565
00:31:25,861 --> 00:31:28,649
desires we had
outside of climbing.

566
00:31:30,449 --> 00:31:32,941
I think going through
a super intense experience

567
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,026
like Kyrgyzstan...

568
00:31:36,371 --> 00:31:38,282
I mean, we were so young.

569
00:31:38,498 --> 00:31:41,206
Years later, there's probably
a lot that started to come out,

570
00:31:41,418 --> 00:31:42,908
healing that I hadn't done.

571
00:31:43,128 --> 00:31:47,497
And at some point,
the climbing we had

572
00:31:47,716 --> 00:31:51,254
wasn't enough glue
to hold it together anymore.

573
00:31:51,470 --> 00:31:52,710
In Kyrgyzstan,

574
00:31:52,929 --> 00:31:56,672
Beth was extremely traumatized
by those six days,

575
00:31:56,892 --> 00:31:59,350
and Tommy was the person
who saved them.

576
00:31:59,561 --> 00:32:01,268
And so from that, I think

577
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,723
a sort of dependency
probably developed

578
00:32:04,941 --> 00:32:09,651
that isn't necessarily
the same thing as true love.

579
00:32:10,489 --> 00:32:11,695
Eventually,

580
00:32:11,907 --> 00:32:14,649
she started feeling something
for somebody else.

581
00:32:15,911 --> 00:32:17,743
And...

582
00:32:19,581 --> 00:32:21,572
I don't know
how to summarize this.

583
00:32:21,791 --> 00:32:24,408
This is kind of a hard thing
to talk about, but...

584
00:32:24,628 --> 00:32:27,666
that relationship with her and
this other man just solidified

585
00:32:27,881 --> 00:32:29,872
in a way that she couldn't
walk away from that anymore.

586
00:32:30,091 --> 00:32:32,799
And she wanted that more
than she wanted me.

587
00:32:36,765 --> 00:32:39,848
Once the divorce
fully happened, I...

588
00:32:42,312 --> 00:32:44,724
Yeah, I was just crushed.

589
00:32:46,525 --> 00:32:49,142
I drove to the rim
of Yosemite Valley

590
00:32:49,361 --> 00:32:52,023
and was looking across
at El Capitan.

591
00:32:53,907 --> 00:32:57,320
It felt like
El Cap was all I had.

592
00:33:02,457 --> 00:33:03,788
Early in the morning,

593
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,243
there's this one panel of
the Wall that illuminates first.

594
00:33:14,344 --> 00:33:16,927
That's why it's called
the Dawn Wall.

595
00:33:19,891 --> 00:33:23,555
The last unclimbed
big swath of stone.

596
00:33:23,770 --> 00:33:25,852
I had looked at it
a little bit before and knew

597
00:33:26,064 --> 00:33:28,806
that it was way too hard,
I'd never be able to do it.

598
00:33:30,694 --> 00:33:32,435
But I was just hurting so bad

599
00:33:32,654 --> 00:33:34,315
that I had to figure out
a distraction in life.

600
00:33:34,531 --> 00:33:38,069
I couldn't just sit there
and feel the pain.

601
00:33:40,495 --> 00:33:43,362
I decided to go up there alone

602
00:33:43,582 --> 00:33:47,200
and beat myself up on the Wall
as just a way to cope.

603
00:33:52,132 --> 00:33:54,840
I walked around the back
to the top of El Cap.

604
00:33:57,429 --> 00:34:00,046
I started rappelling down
from above.

605
00:34:00,265 --> 00:34:03,678
And I put in a camp
so I could stay up there.

606
00:34:03,893 --> 00:34:06,180
And I started going
through this process

607
00:34:06,396 --> 00:34:10,139
of searching for a way to climb
this section of the Wall.

608
00:34:13,778 --> 00:34:16,611
The specific path
was totally unknown.

609
00:34:18,658 --> 00:34:21,741
You look for weaknesses
in the rock.

610
00:34:21,953 --> 00:34:24,911
Corners that you can wedge
your body into.

611
00:34:25,123 --> 00:34:27,615
Cracks for your hands and toes.

612
00:34:27,834 --> 00:34:30,371
Little edges
for your fingertips.

613
00:34:30,587 --> 00:34:32,578
Anything that you could
possibly grab onto

614
00:34:32,797 --> 00:34:35,255
that would make this wall
climbable.

615
00:34:39,804 --> 00:34:42,011
At first, it was just
hanging on the rope,

616
00:34:43,642 --> 00:34:45,303
analyzing the surface
of the rock

617
00:34:45,518 --> 00:34:47,475
to see if there was holds.

618
00:34:51,983 --> 00:34:54,315
Just finding something
to obsess about

619
00:34:54,527 --> 00:34:57,895
so I wouldn't obsess
about my divorce.

620
00:34:58,114 --> 00:35:00,321
I think
it's probably important

621
00:35:00,533 --> 00:35:03,742
that it was an impossible level
of rock climbing.

622
00:35:03,953 --> 00:35:07,571
When you absorb yourself
in some magnificent challenge,

623
00:35:07,791 --> 00:35:10,624
there is no space to be thinking
about anything else.

624
00:35:14,130 --> 00:35:15,746
You know,
if you're heartbroken,

625
00:35:15,965 --> 00:35:20,004
just throw yourself
into an impossible wall.

626
00:35:20,220 --> 00:35:22,211
So I was sitting
up there through this storm.

627
00:35:22,430 --> 00:35:24,262
My wife has left me.

628
00:35:24,474 --> 00:35:26,636
She was the only person
I had climbed with

629
00:35:26,851 --> 00:35:29,468
for, like, ten years.

630
00:35:30,730 --> 00:35:32,767
In my portaledge at night,

631
00:35:32,982 --> 00:35:35,440
weeping and really
feeling sorry for myself,

632
00:35:35,652 --> 00:35:37,689
trying to find
this elusive thing

633
00:35:37,904 --> 00:35:39,611
that probably didn't even exist.

634
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:43,486
I was concerned.

635
00:35:43,702 --> 00:35:45,864
He just seemed to be suffering
at that point.

636
00:35:46,079 --> 00:35:48,116
And I wanted to see
what this was all about,

637
00:35:48,331 --> 00:35:51,790
so early on in the game
I went up there with him.

638
00:35:52,001 --> 00:35:55,039
I convinced my dad
to come up there and belay me,

639
00:35:55,255 --> 00:36:00,125
so I could start actually trying
to climb sections of the route.

640
00:36:01,636 --> 00:36:04,549
What the heck?

641
00:36:04,764 --> 00:36:07,347
I really had my doubts
as to whether it was going to be

642
00:36:07,559 --> 00:36:09,345
a viable climb.

643
00:36:09,561 --> 00:36:10,722
- Be safe.
- I will.

644
00:36:10,937 --> 00:36:12,598
- Get strong.
- Yup.

645
00:36:12,814 --> 00:36:14,725
But during that period of time,

646
00:36:14,941 --> 00:36:18,150
he became convinced
that it was somehow possible.

647
00:36:20,363 --> 00:36:22,400
Tommy spent
an entire year

648
00:36:22,615 --> 00:36:26,279
swinging around looking
for a route up the Dawn Wall,

649
00:36:28,788 --> 00:36:30,495
trying to connect the dots

650
00:36:30,707 --> 00:36:32,948
from the bottom
all the way to the top

651
00:36:33,168 --> 00:36:37,412
so you can someday hope
to free climb the whole thing.

652
00:36:37,630 --> 00:36:39,997
Eventually,
I found a route

653
00:36:40,216 --> 00:36:43,504
that seemed like it was
theoretically possible,

654
00:36:43,720 --> 00:36:45,927
like I found the path
through the maze maybe.

655
00:36:46,806 --> 00:36:48,171
But I realized

656
00:36:48,391 --> 00:36:51,008
there was no way I was going
to be able to do this alone.

657
00:36:51,227 --> 00:36:55,221
It's just a monumental project.

658
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:59,149
Without Beth,
I needed to find a partner,

659
00:37:01,070 --> 00:37:03,687
somebody that I could rely on

660
00:37:04,991 --> 00:37:06,948
to help me solve this puzzle.

661
00:37:32,268 --> 00:37:35,226
I should wake Kevin up
with some coffee.

662
00:37:38,525 --> 00:37:40,061
Just stretching.

663
00:37:40,276 --> 00:37:42,062
That's a good idea.

664
00:37:42,278 --> 00:37:44,610
I felt a little rugged
when I first woke up.

665
00:37:44,823 --> 00:37:45,938
But how are you feeling?

666
00:37:46,157 --> 00:37:48,319
Still stuffy and sore throat.
Kind of achy.

667
00:37:48,535 --> 00:37:51,323
I think I got
whatever you got.

668
00:37:56,876 --> 00:37:59,618
After the first
couple of days on the Wall,

669
00:37:59,838 --> 00:38:02,170
there's a small little cadre
of people down in the meadow

670
00:38:02,382 --> 00:38:04,373
following their progress.

671
00:38:04,592 --> 00:38:06,674
You can get a telescope
or a pair of binoculars,

672
00:38:06,886 --> 00:38:08,502
look up at this spectacle
happening.

673
00:38:08,721 --> 00:38:10,052
Oh, my God.

674
00:38:10,265 --> 00:38:12,973
Is he naked or what?

675
00:38:14,352 --> 00:38:15,888
My name is Tom Evans.
I've been

676
00:38:16,104 --> 00:38:18,516
for many years photographing
climbers on El Cap.

677
00:38:18,731 --> 00:38:20,392
I usually don't come
in the winter,

678
00:38:20,608 --> 00:38:22,690
but this is big news
in climbing.

679
00:38:22,902 --> 00:38:24,893
And we've all been pulling
for him for many years.

680
00:38:25,113 --> 00:38:26,603
I was on
a little vacation from work,

681
00:38:26,823 --> 00:38:28,564
and I decided to come out
from Sacramento

682
00:38:28,783 --> 00:38:31,115
to watch these guys climb
the Dawn Wall.

683
00:38:31,327 --> 00:38:33,284
It's definitely
a moment in history.

684
00:38:33,496 --> 00:38:35,407
To be able to be a part of that
and witness it

685
00:38:35,623 --> 00:38:36,954
is pretty phenomenal.

686
00:38:39,919 --> 00:38:42,331
Pushing forward.

687
00:38:42,547 --> 00:38:47,007
From here on up,
every pitch is pretty legit.

688
00:38:48,970 --> 00:38:51,337
We've got to pace ourselves.

689
00:38:51,556 --> 00:38:53,843
Maybe one or two pitches a day.

690
00:38:54,893 --> 00:38:56,554
Come on, Tommy.

691
00:38:59,606 --> 00:39:01,267
Good.

692
00:39:01,482 --> 00:39:02,768
Good, Tommy. Come on.

693
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:06,401
Nice.

694
00:39:07,113 --> 00:39:08,103
Yeah.

695
00:39:12,994 --> 00:39:14,325
Come on.

696
00:39:14,537 --> 00:39:16,027
You got it.

697
00:39:16,247 --> 00:39:17,863
Yeah. Yeah, Kevin.

698
00:39:18,082 --> 00:39:20,540
Nice, dude.

699
00:39:20,752 --> 00:39:22,743
- Cool.
- Dude, that was sick.

700
00:39:22,962 --> 00:39:27,251
It's day three on the Wall,
and we sent pitch 10.

701
00:39:28,009 --> 00:39:29,249
Yeah!

702
00:39:29,469 --> 00:39:31,051
Yeah. Boom.

703
00:39:31,262 --> 00:39:33,173
- Things are going good.
- Things are going good.

704
00:39:34,933 --> 00:39:36,844
And the forecast
is calling

705
00:39:37,060 --> 00:39:39,472
for super cold windy temps
tomorrow,

706
00:39:39,687 --> 00:39:41,348
so we're going to rest.

707
00:39:43,524 --> 00:39:45,811
Urgent weather message.

708
00:39:46,027 --> 00:39:49,816
Winds, 50 miles per hour
with gusts 75 or higher.

709
00:39:50,031 --> 00:39:53,194
Impact... downed trees,
downed power lines,

710
00:39:53,409 --> 00:39:55,275
flying portaledges.

711
00:39:58,831 --> 00:40:00,913
These guys are up there
in the middle of winter,

712
00:40:01,125 --> 00:40:02,786
which is almost unheard of.

713
00:40:03,002 --> 00:40:04,993
But they need it to be
as cold as possible

714
00:40:05,213 --> 00:40:07,921
so they can stick
to the tiny holds

715
00:40:08,132 --> 00:40:10,043
There's nobody else on the Wall.

716
00:40:10,259 --> 00:40:13,923
Last night, the temperature
dropped 30 degrees.

717
00:40:14,138 --> 00:40:16,345
To be up there
under these conditions,

718
00:40:16,557 --> 00:40:19,345
it's horrendous.
I don't know how they do it.

719
00:40:23,314 --> 00:40:24,770
Carabiners, locked

720
00:40:24,983 --> 00:40:28,192
The windchill's like
negative 20 or something.

721
00:40:28,403 --> 00:40:30,144
How you feeling over there, KJ?

722
00:40:33,199 --> 00:40:35,110
It's getting pretty rowdy.

723
00:40:35,326 --> 00:40:38,034
On El Cap, the wind
blows straight up the wall.

724
00:40:38,246 --> 00:40:41,364
The ledge would float up
and, bang, back into the wall.

725
00:40:44,836 --> 00:40:46,918
Oh, boy.

726
00:40:47,130 --> 00:40:50,373
Tommy
feels right at home.

727
00:40:50,591 --> 00:40:53,128
Argh!

728
00:40:55,054 --> 00:40:56,670
I don't know what's
wrong with me,

729
00:40:56,889 --> 00:40:58,596
but I love this shit.

730
00:41:02,145 --> 00:41:05,513
It might be smart
to stay in the ledges today.

731
00:41:07,108 --> 00:41:11,477
Because of the windstorm
the day before,

732
00:41:11,696 --> 00:41:13,778
all of this moisture froze,

733
00:41:13,990 --> 00:41:17,199
like salt on a Margarita glass
on the top of El Cap.

734
00:41:17,410 --> 00:41:20,323
And as soon as the sun
hit the top of the Wall,

735
00:41:20,538 --> 00:41:26,955
that ice just started
to shower down on top of us.

736
00:41:31,841 --> 00:41:34,424
These missiles
flying by our camp.

737
00:41:34,635 --> 00:41:37,468
You hear it before you see it.

738
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,468
I'm like,
this is a deadly situation.

739
00:41:42,477 --> 00:41:44,844
- That was fucked up.
- Did you get hit?

740
00:41:45,063 --> 00:41:46,849
No,
but that was just pure luck.

741
00:41:48,524 --> 00:41:49,480
That was scary.

742
00:41:49,692 --> 00:41:51,182
I hate that shit.

743
00:41:51,402 --> 00:41:54,440
Here come some more big
chunks. Tommy forgot his helmet.

744
00:41:54,655 --> 00:41:56,521
Heads up, Tommy.

745
00:41:58,409 --> 00:42:01,743
Tommy doesn't seem
too concerned. What the fuck?

746
00:42:01,954 --> 00:42:03,536
What's new?

747
00:42:03,748 --> 00:42:06,957
Tommy, he was made
for something like this.

748
00:42:07,168 --> 00:42:12,709
But for me, it took a long time
to get comfortable on the Wall.

749
00:42:12,924 --> 00:42:15,586
You can understand,
Tommy grew up in the mountains.

750
00:42:15,802 --> 00:42:18,339
He'd spent the better part
of his adult life

751
00:42:18,554 --> 00:42:21,342
on El Capitan
trying to do free climbs.

752
00:42:21,557 --> 00:42:25,721
But this guy Kevin was raised
in Santa Rosa, I think.

753
00:42:25,937 --> 00:42:28,429
You know, wine country.

754
00:42:28,648 --> 00:42:31,891
There's not a lot
of rock climbing in Santa Rosa.

755
00:42:32,110 --> 00:42:34,317
- First ascent.
- Yeah!

756
00:42:34,529 --> 00:42:37,521
Don't fall on the Camaro.

757
00:42:37,740 --> 00:42:42,029
I found climbing
through the local gym.

758
00:42:42,245 --> 00:42:44,327
- Bye, honey. Have fun.
- Bye, Mom.

759
00:42:44,539 --> 00:42:45,870
Drive careful.

760
00:42:46,082 --> 00:42:48,039
I got really into
this particular form of climbing

761
00:42:48,251 --> 00:42:50,083
called bouldering.

762
00:42:50,294 --> 00:42:53,286
It's typically 30 feet or less.

763
00:42:53,506 --> 00:42:55,918
Doesn't require any gear.

764
00:42:56,134 --> 00:42:58,626
Bouldering's just about
athleticism

765
00:42:58,845 --> 00:43:01,086
and difficulty
in its purest form.

766
00:43:04,517 --> 00:43:05,757
Bouldering is all about

767
00:43:05,977 --> 00:43:08,309
trying the hardest
individual moves.

768
00:43:11,065 --> 00:43:14,478
And Kevin quickly became
very, very talented.

769
00:43:15,653 --> 00:43:17,735
He was one of the best
in the world.

770
00:43:20,324 --> 00:43:22,736
But only up to about
30 feet.

771
00:43:24,579 --> 00:43:28,368
In 2009, I was at
the top of my game in bouldering

772
00:43:29,584 --> 00:43:32,167
and looking for something new.

773
00:43:34,463 --> 00:43:38,047
I kept hearing about
this futuristic thing

774
00:43:38,259 --> 00:43:40,250
that Tommy was working on.

775
00:43:40,469 --> 00:43:42,585
I had zero big wall experience.

776
00:43:42,805 --> 00:43:44,466
Tommy and I
didn't know each other at all.

777
00:43:44,682 --> 00:43:46,923
But I just sent him a message
out of the blue.

778
00:43:47,143 --> 00:43:48,679
"Hey, do you need a partner?"

779
00:43:48,895 --> 00:43:52,388
And to my utter shock, he said,
meet me in Yosemite in October.

780
00:43:53,858 --> 00:43:55,769
I knew Kevin
by reputation.

781
00:43:55,985 --> 00:43:58,522
He was this amazingly strong
bouldering kid.

782
00:43:58,738 --> 00:44:00,354
And I thought to myself,
"What the heck?"

783
00:44:00,573 --> 00:44:02,735
"Maybe he could be an asset."

784
00:44:02,950 --> 00:44:04,816
Plus, he was the only one
interested.

785
00:44:05,036 --> 00:44:07,619
Everybody else
thought I was crazy.

786
00:44:09,540 --> 00:44:10,496
Show up.

787
00:44:10,708 --> 00:44:12,415
I remember standing there
with Tommy,

788
00:44:12,627 --> 00:44:14,083
who's a legend figure
in my life.

789
00:44:14,295 --> 00:44:16,832
I feel like such a fucking dork.

790
00:44:17,048 --> 00:44:19,210
Who am I?
I've never climbed El Cap.

791
00:44:19,425 --> 00:44:20,836
What a noob.

792
00:44:21,052 --> 00:44:22,213
Fiddling around on boulders,

793
00:44:22,428 --> 00:44:24,385
that's a far cry
from being on El Capitan.

794
00:44:24,597 --> 00:44:27,385
First thing I had to do
was test him.

795
00:44:28,643 --> 00:44:30,759
I gave him like
an 80 pound haul bag.

796
00:44:30,978 --> 00:44:32,685
A soul crushing load.

797
00:44:32,897 --> 00:44:34,479
We hiked
to the top of El Cap.

798
00:44:34,690 --> 00:44:36,351
We spent the night on top.

799
00:44:36,567 --> 00:44:38,103
Woke up early the next day...

800
00:44:38,319 --> 00:44:40,481
It's 3:15
in the morning.

801
00:44:40,696 --> 00:44:41,982
Cooking up a little breakfast.

802
00:44:42,198 --> 00:44:44,360
You never get up at 3:00
in the morning to go bouldering.

803
00:44:45,868 --> 00:44:48,576
...and start rappelling
down the face.

804
00:44:51,791 --> 00:44:54,749
You start walking backwards.

805
00:44:54,961 --> 00:44:57,953
It's like stepping off
the edge of the Earth.

806
00:45:06,138 --> 00:45:09,756
You instantly have 3,000 feet
of exposure under your butt.

807
00:45:12,853 --> 00:45:14,218
Oh, my God!

808
00:45:16,607 --> 00:45:18,189
How's it going
up there, Kev?

809
00:45:18,401 --> 00:45:20,358
- Good, I got the bag.
- And my shoes?

810
00:45:20,569 --> 00:45:23,982
- And your shoes.
- Cool, thank you.

811
00:45:24,198 --> 00:45:26,906
It's scary to be a total
beginner again.

812
00:45:27,118 --> 00:45:28,825
I don't know any of this stuff.

813
00:45:30,204 --> 00:45:33,413
Trying to figure out
how to jumar a fixed line.

814
00:45:35,751 --> 00:45:37,788
How to set up a portaledge.

815
00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:46,960
Sorry, Kevin.

816
00:45:47,179 --> 00:45:50,467
I'll just hold
this quarter in. It's cool.

817
00:45:50,683 --> 00:45:53,766
How to take a dump
on the side of the Wall.

818
00:45:53,978 --> 00:45:56,470
- They get every moment.
- Close up.

819
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,985
At this point, I have
no idea what I'm getting into,

820
00:46:04,196 --> 00:46:07,564
no idea that it's about
to consume six years of my life.

821
00:46:09,035 --> 00:46:11,493
When Kevin
joined on with Tommy,

822
00:46:13,331 --> 00:46:15,572
it was the first time
since getting divorced

823
00:46:15,791 --> 00:46:17,828
that Tommy had a partner.

824
00:46:19,295 --> 00:46:21,036
There's two bolts
and then an old bolt.

825
00:46:21,255 --> 00:46:24,793
I didn't know
what we were up against,

826
00:46:25,009 --> 00:46:28,422
but I was going on faith
that this is Tommy's world.

827
00:46:28,637 --> 00:46:32,175
He's got the clear vision
of what this could be.

828
00:46:32,391 --> 00:46:34,678
And I'm just going
to trust that.

829
00:46:37,521 --> 00:46:39,057
The basic strategy
early on

830
00:46:39,273 --> 00:46:41,184
was not to climb the route
from the bottom.

831
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:43,767
It was to identify
the hardest sections

832
00:46:43,986 --> 00:46:45,522
and focus on those first.

833
00:46:45,738 --> 00:46:47,979
There were
all these question marks.

834
00:46:48,199 --> 00:46:49,781
Come on, Tommy.

835
00:46:49,992 --> 00:46:51,528
OK, take it there.

836
00:46:51,744 --> 00:46:54,076
Oh, I got the pinch with my
right hand instead of my left.

837
00:46:54,288 --> 00:46:55,494
Working it out.

838
00:46:55,706 --> 00:46:57,162
Constantly working it out.

839
00:46:58,751 --> 00:47:02,039
Early on, most of it was
figuring out what didn't work.

840
00:47:08,094 --> 00:47:09,425
Right in the middle of the Wall,

841
00:47:09,637 --> 00:47:11,674
we were gonna have to
traverse it sideways.

842
00:47:11,889 --> 00:47:13,471
Come on.

843
00:47:16,936 --> 00:47:18,722
Come on.

844
00:47:18,938 --> 00:47:20,554
I don't see any holds,

845
00:47:20,773 --> 00:47:23,856
but I try to harness
some of Tommy's optimism.

846
00:47:26,153 --> 00:47:27,439
After the traverse,

847
00:47:27,655 --> 00:47:30,522
there's this 8 and 1/2 foot
blank section.

848
00:47:30,741 --> 00:47:32,106
Completely smooth.

849
00:47:32,326 --> 00:47:35,159
Nothing that you could even
get your fingernails behind.

850
00:47:35,371 --> 00:47:37,362
The only way was to just leap.

851
00:47:39,041 --> 00:47:40,998
This crazy dynamic move.

852
00:47:41,210 --> 00:47:42,325
The Dyno.

853
00:47:42,545 --> 00:47:44,035
I didn't really believe
it would be possible

854
00:47:44,255 --> 00:47:45,541
until I saw Kevin try it.

855
00:47:47,883 --> 00:47:49,624
Yeah, man. It was close.

856
00:47:49,844 --> 00:47:51,505
He showed me that it was.

857
00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:54,508
Come on. All you got.

858
00:47:54,723 --> 00:47:57,260
Above the Dyno,
you have pitch after pitch

859
00:47:57,476 --> 00:47:59,012
of have super smooth granite,

860
00:47:59,228 --> 00:48:00,889
extremely polished.

861
00:48:02,148 --> 00:48:04,139
Because of Tommy's
missing index finger,

862
00:48:04,358 --> 00:48:07,521
he's using his thumbs
in crazy ways.

863
00:48:11,866 --> 00:48:13,356
Shit.

864
00:48:13,576 --> 00:48:15,362
Argh!

865
00:48:16,537 --> 00:48:18,369
Holy crap, that is hard.

866
00:48:18,581 --> 00:48:21,448
13B. 13D.

867
00:48:21,667 --> 00:48:23,704
13C. 14A.

868
00:48:23,919 --> 00:48:26,786
To understand
the difficulty of this route,

869
00:48:27,006 --> 00:48:31,375
you have to understand
climbing grades.

870
00:48:31,594 --> 00:48:33,460
Climbers use a numerical system

871
00:48:33,679 --> 00:48:35,886
to rate the difficulty
of each pitch.

872
00:48:36,098 --> 00:48:38,760
The higher the number,
the harder the pitch.

873
00:48:38,976 --> 00:48:42,014
Once you get into
513 and 514 level,

874
00:48:42,229 --> 00:48:43,970
that's virtuoso territory.

875
00:48:45,941 --> 00:48:48,057
The Dawn Wall
has more hard pitches

876
00:48:48,277 --> 00:48:51,861
than every other route
on El Cap combined.

877
00:49:00,206 --> 00:49:01,492
I always thought it was futile

878
00:49:01,707 --> 00:49:03,368
in terms of doing
the whole thing.

879
00:49:05,336 --> 00:49:08,454
This is a pipe dream, man.
Come on.

880
00:49:08,672 --> 00:49:11,380
The next few years
were a grind.

881
00:49:11,592 --> 00:49:16,712
Coming back every spring and
every fall for months at a time.

882
00:49:19,892 --> 00:49:22,554
Come on.

883
00:49:24,021 --> 00:49:27,434
Living on the Wall
takes a huge toll.

884
00:49:27,650 --> 00:49:29,857
This is what El Cap
does to your feet.

885
00:49:30,069 --> 00:49:32,026
We'd stay up there
a few days...

886
00:49:32,238 --> 00:49:34,730
Oh, my God.
That's a lot of air time.

887
00:49:35,950 --> 00:49:38,442
...go down, rest,

888
00:49:38,661 --> 00:49:39,696
try again.

889
00:49:39,912 --> 00:49:42,654
There were always
new problems to face.

890
00:49:42,873 --> 00:49:43,988
Get out of here!

891
00:49:46,544 --> 00:49:48,251
Come on, Kevin.
Do it, man.

892
00:49:50,506 --> 00:49:51,917
- Really close.
- Oh, I sprained my ankle.

893
00:49:52,132 --> 00:49:53,668
- Are you OK, man?
- Oh, shit.

894
00:49:53,884 --> 00:49:56,125
So many reasons
to give up.

895
00:49:57,763 --> 00:49:59,094
Oh, shit.

896
00:49:59,306 --> 00:50:02,515
Man, I think I have
broke or dislocated ribs.

897
00:50:02,726 --> 00:50:04,091
We're heading to the clinic.

898
00:50:04,311 --> 00:50:05,642
Maybe they'll just
pop it back in.

899
00:50:05,854 --> 00:50:08,312
They will, and
we'll go back up later tonight.

900
00:50:09,316 --> 00:50:11,398
But Tommy was committed.

901
00:50:13,112 --> 00:50:14,853
Come on, Kevin!
Come on!

902
00:50:15,072 --> 00:50:17,404
There were times
I thought he was totally crazy.

903
00:50:17,616 --> 00:50:19,402
Come on!

904
00:50:21,787 --> 00:50:23,118
<i>'Lee-hoe!</i>

905
00:50:23,330 --> 00:50:26,163
<i>Whoa'. Ow-ow!</i>

906
00:50:30,546 --> 00:50:33,038
When we weren't
together on the Wall,

907
00:50:33,257 --> 00:50:35,373
we would go home
to our own worlds,

908
00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:38,842
check in on loved ones.

909
00:50:41,140 --> 00:50:44,132
It's gross. I can see the oil
on your hair.

910
00:50:45,769 --> 00:50:48,136
OK, I'm just totally
being a mom.

911
00:50:50,357 --> 00:50:52,724
Try to get some good rest

912
00:50:52,943 --> 00:50:57,153
and find motivation
for the next round of attempts.

913
00:51:01,201 --> 00:51:02,532
When I wasn't
on the Dawn Wall,

914
00:51:02,745 --> 00:51:05,863
I was living by myself
in Colorado,

915
00:51:06,081 --> 00:51:08,288
training and obsessing.

916
00:51:08,500 --> 00:51:10,582
I was really lonely, honestly.

917
00:51:11,629 --> 00:51:13,870
I met this girl named Becca.

918
00:51:14,089 --> 00:51:15,454
We started dating.

919
00:51:15,674 --> 00:51:18,041
He was thoughtful
and considerate,

920
00:51:18,260 --> 00:51:21,218
but from the beginning,
it was pretty obvious

921
00:51:21,430 --> 00:51:25,924
his mind was completely occupied
by the Dawn Wall.

922
00:51:26,143 --> 00:51:27,599
It wasn't just a climb.

923
00:51:29,146 --> 00:51:30,932
It was all consuming.

924
00:51:32,900 --> 00:51:36,313
We were trying to build
a relationship.

925
00:51:36,528 --> 00:51:39,316
But he would go out to Yosemite
for months at a time,

926
00:51:39,531 --> 00:51:41,989
giving everything
to the Dawn Wall.

927
00:51:44,703 --> 00:51:48,662
For years,
Tommy put his whole life on hold

928
00:51:48,874 --> 00:51:52,663
so he could give every
last ounce of his body and soul

929
00:51:55,255 --> 00:51:58,293
to this impossible quest.

930
00:51:58,509 --> 00:52:01,217
I could never tell
if we were wasting our time

931
00:52:01,428 --> 00:52:05,012
or we were in pursuit
of something grand.

932
00:52:05,224 --> 00:52:06,259
Come on!

933
00:52:10,521 --> 00:52:11,682
I'd go out to Yosemite

934
00:52:11,897 --> 00:52:13,433
and I'd watch him
from the meadow.

935
00:52:13,649 --> 00:52:15,014
It looked completely ridiculous.

936
00:52:15,234 --> 00:52:16,941
Ah, shoot.

937
00:52:17,152 --> 00:52:20,520
I think we all admire people
who are dedicated.

938
00:52:20,739 --> 00:52:23,481
But at some point,
you start to wonder,

939
00:52:23,701 --> 00:52:27,239
where are the lines between
dedication and obsession?

940
00:52:31,041 --> 00:52:34,705
He was going
through emotional agony.

941
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:37,537
This climb has been
gut wrenching.

942
00:52:37,756 --> 00:52:39,918
I want this for him so badly.

943
00:52:40,134 --> 00:52:42,501
Argh!

944
00:52:42,720 --> 00:52:44,586
- Oh, he fell off.
- Oh.

945
00:52:44,805 --> 00:52:48,218
Man. I mean, you've
failed on this thing 800 times.

946
00:52:48,434 --> 00:52:51,802
How can you continue to beat
your head against this wall?

947
00:52:52,020 --> 00:52:53,431
After years of effort,

948
00:52:53,647 --> 00:52:56,685
it didn't feel like we were
any closer to our dream.

949
00:52:57,651 --> 00:52:59,892
He's worked so hard.

950
00:53:00,112 --> 00:53:01,853
Why am I crying right now?

951
00:53:02,072 --> 00:53:04,234
This project! Argh!

952
00:53:04,450 --> 00:53:05,531
This makes me wonder

953
00:53:05,743 --> 00:53:07,074
if he bit off
more than he could chew.

954
00:53:07,286 --> 00:53:09,448
Oh, it's so good
to have you down.

955
00:53:12,082 --> 00:53:14,949
After all this failure,
I started to wonder

956
00:53:15,169 --> 00:53:18,127
if maybe this climb
really was impossible.

957
00:53:19,256 --> 00:53:21,213
Maybe I wasn't good enough.

958
00:53:39,067 --> 00:53:41,479
- Morning.
- Morning.

959
00:53:45,407 --> 00:53:48,240
Tommy and Kevin have been
up there, this is their 8th day.

960
00:53:48,452 --> 00:53:50,318
They're halfway up the Wall.

961
00:53:50,537 --> 00:53:53,905
They got past 70 mile an hour
winds, the ice falls.

962
00:53:54,124 --> 00:53:56,035
They climbed
a lot of difficult rock.

963
00:53:56,251 --> 00:53:59,118
Now they've got today
a very hard section to do.

964
00:53:59,338 --> 00:54:01,921
They're here. They've got to go
across this traverse.

965
00:54:02,132 --> 00:54:04,214
14D, I think it is.

966
00:54:04,426 --> 00:54:08,420
If they can get that done,
they're well on their way.

967
00:54:11,350 --> 00:54:15,309
The hardest individual
part of this 3,000 foot puzzle

968
00:54:15,521 --> 00:54:18,013
is the traverse.

969
00:54:18,232 --> 00:54:19,518
The bottom section of the route

970
00:54:19,733 --> 00:54:24,318
follows a vague series of cracks
and corners in the rock.

971
00:54:24,530 --> 00:54:29,240
But after 1,000 feet, those
cracks and corners dead end.

972
00:54:29,451 --> 00:54:32,318
300 feet to the left, there's
another series of features

973
00:54:32,538 --> 00:54:34,495
that angles up to the top.

974
00:54:35,791 --> 00:54:36,997
The trick is,

975
00:54:37,209 --> 00:54:39,496
how do you traverse
this 300 foot blank section

976
00:54:39,711 --> 00:54:41,668
right in the middle of the Wall?

977
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:43,837
There's
this band of rock

978
00:54:44,049 --> 00:54:45,960
that's a slightly different
color and texture.

979
00:54:46,176 --> 00:54:47,758
Everything
above and below it

980
00:54:47,970 --> 00:54:49,426
is impossible to free climb.

981
00:54:49,638 --> 00:54:51,845
But the composition of that band

982
00:54:52,057 --> 00:54:55,095
is such that it has
a few holds on it.

983
00:54:55,310 --> 00:54:59,850
Over the last six years,
we spent over 100 days

984
00:55:00,065 --> 00:55:02,272
trying to get across
this traverse.

985
00:55:02,484 --> 00:55:04,600
Thousands of tries
on that single pitch.

986
00:55:06,071 --> 00:55:08,733
I've never done it.

987
00:55:08,949 --> 00:55:10,690
Now we have to do it
for the very first time...

988
00:55:10,909 --> 00:55:13,901
Looks like
Tommy's getting ready.

989
00:55:14,121 --> 00:55:16,488
...in the moment,
on the push.

990
00:55:17,708 --> 00:55:18,948
Go get it.

991
00:55:28,886 --> 00:55:30,422
It's really unnerving.

992
00:55:30,637 --> 00:55:32,844
You're just waiting to slip off
at any moment.

993
00:55:42,190 --> 00:55:43,555
It's kind of funny.

994
00:55:43,775 --> 00:55:47,268
This 3,000 foot wall, and
it's coming down to millimeters

995
00:55:47,487 --> 00:55:50,445
of skin contact
on your fingertips.

996
00:55:50,657 --> 00:55:53,820
It becomes
such a zoomed-in world.

997
00:55:54,036 --> 00:55:56,653
There's one way
to get across,

998
00:55:56,872 --> 00:55:59,409
and it is made up of
all these little sequences

999
00:55:59,625 --> 00:56:01,912
that have to be done perfectly.

1000
00:56:02,127 --> 00:56:04,084
You miss a hold,
it's impossible.

1001
00:56:04,296 --> 00:56:06,037
Yeah, dude.

1002
00:56:06,256 --> 00:56:08,588
You grab it wrong,
it's impossible.

1003
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:09,790
Nice.

1004
00:56:13,013 --> 00:56:15,345
We're trading attempts.

1005
00:56:16,642 --> 00:56:19,885
Tommy ties in
and just flips that switch.

1006
00:56:20,103 --> 00:56:21,889
Alright.
Go get it, Tommy.

1007
00:57:11,655 --> 00:57:13,771
You grab
these sharp holds,

1008
00:57:13,991 --> 00:57:15,527
like razor blades.

1009
00:57:20,247 --> 00:57:21,487
Come on!

1010
00:57:23,500 --> 00:57:25,411
Span as far as you can.

1011
00:57:27,796 --> 00:57:29,412
Come on!

1012
00:57:30,674 --> 00:57:32,256
So stretched out.

1013
00:57:46,773 --> 00:57:49,390
I suddenly felt this confidence.

1014
00:57:54,031 --> 00:57:58,366
I knew exactly how each finger
was going onto each hold,

1015
00:57:58,577 --> 00:58:02,787
where the little ripples on the
rock were digging into my shoes.

1016
00:58:14,843 --> 00:58:17,585
After years of working
on that pitch,

1017
00:58:17,804 --> 00:58:20,512
it just came together
in this amazing, magical way.

1018
00:58:20,724 --> 00:58:22,260
Yes, come on!

1019
00:58:22,476 --> 00:58:23,841
Come on!

1020
00:58:25,937 --> 00:58:27,143
Whoa!

1021
00:58:27,355 --> 00:58:29,392
Whoo!

1022
00:58:34,821 --> 00:58:36,562
Ow-ow-ow-ow!

1023
00:58:36,782 --> 00:58:39,069
When I heard
that Tommy had done pitch 15,

1024
00:58:39,284 --> 00:58:41,992
that was like,
"You've got to be kidding me!"

1025
00:58:44,247 --> 00:58:45,658
For the first time,

1026
00:58:45,874 --> 00:58:49,208
these guys actually have a shot
at maybe doing this thing.

1027
00:58:51,713 --> 00:58:53,704
When Tommy got across,

1028
00:58:53,924 --> 00:58:55,915
it was a big moment.

1029
00:58:56,134 --> 00:58:59,593
Everything was rolling,
and now it was my turn.

1030
00:59:08,939 --> 00:59:10,850
Over the years, we realized

1031
00:59:11,066 --> 00:59:14,184
sometimes the best conditions
are at night.

1032
00:59:16,321 --> 00:59:18,232
It's colder. It's drier.

1033
00:59:18,448 --> 00:59:20,780
So there's better friction
on the rock.

1034
00:59:22,410 --> 00:59:24,947
At first, it's scary.

1035
00:59:25,163 --> 00:59:28,622
But after a while, you forget
how high off the ground you are

1036
00:59:28,834 --> 00:59:31,872
and you can focus
just on the climbing.

1037
00:59:51,189 --> 00:59:52,771
Tried it a few times.

1038
00:59:53,650 --> 00:59:56,642
I wasn't that close.

1039
00:59:56,862 --> 01:00:00,025
We rappelled back to our camp
below the traverse.

1040
01:00:01,741 --> 01:00:05,609
I was stoked for Tommy,
a little stressed for myself.

1041
01:00:08,582 --> 01:00:11,574
So Tommy's made it
through the traverse.

1042
01:00:11,793 --> 01:00:14,160
He still has to get
past the Dyno

1043
01:00:14,379 --> 01:00:16,711
and the Long Run to Wino Tower.

1044
01:00:22,345 --> 01:00:25,212
But first, he has to wait
for Kevin to catch up.

1045
01:00:39,613 --> 01:00:41,024
Hello?

1046
01:00:41,239 --> 01:00:42,650
'Hey, guys. This is
John Branch from the NY Times.

1047
01:00:42,866 --> 01:00:44,948
- 'How's it going up there?'
- Good, John.

1048
01:00:45,160 --> 01:00:47,618
'Tommy, I know that
you made it to 15 last night.

1049
01:00:47,829 --> 01:00:49,240
'It's very exciting,

1050
01:00:49,456 --> 01:00:51,117
'so I appreciate you guys taking
just a few minutes to talk.'

1051
01:00:51,333 --> 01:00:53,449
We're always looking for stories
that are a little bit

1052
01:00:53,668 --> 01:00:55,124
out of the mainstream
sports realm.

1053
01:00:55,337 --> 01:00:56,873
Every time we start
a hard pitch...

1054
01:00:57,088 --> 01:01:00,456
I knew about the Dawn
Wall and Tommy Caldwell's quest.

1055
01:01:00,675 --> 01:01:03,758
And when I heard that
Tommy did pitch 15, I thought,

1056
01:01:03,970 --> 01:01:06,052
if it was ever going to happen,
this might be the time.

1057
01:01:06,264 --> 01:01:07,550
We recognized

1058
01:01:07,766 --> 01:01:10,007
this is not only the best
climbing story of the year,

1059
01:01:10,227 --> 01:01:11,262
but maybe of our generation.

1060
01:01:11,478 --> 01:01:13,060
'We talked about
follow-up stories.'

1061
01:01:13,271 --> 01:01:14,386
Quickly typed up a story.

1062
01:01:14,606 --> 01:01:17,849
The next day,
it ran in the paper.

1063
01:01:18,068 --> 01:01:19,900
It was on the front page
of The New York Times,

1064
01:01:20,111 --> 01:01:21,442
and it just exploded.

1065
01:01:21,655 --> 01:01:24,613
It was the most viewed
story at nytimes.com.

1066
01:01:24,824 --> 01:01:26,314
Tons of comments.
Lots of questions.

1067
01:01:26,534 --> 01:01:27,319
People care about this.

1068
01:01:27,535 --> 01:01:29,025
When John Branch,

1069
01:01:29,246 --> 01:01:31,578
the Pulitzer Prize winning
journalist, got a hold of it,

1070
01:01:31,790 --> 01:01:34,498
it just got its own momentum.

1071
01:01:34,709 --> 01:01:36,416
And it just got bigger
and bigger from there.

1072
01:01:36,628 --> 01:01:38,619
There was
follow-up stories

1073
01:01:38,838 --> 01:01:40,875
and a flood of media requests

1074
01:01:41,091 --> 01:01:44,129
from every major news outlet
in the world.

1075
01:01:44,344 --> 01:01:46,756
Picture this.
Our next guests talk to us

1076
01:01:46,972 --> 01:01:49,589
as they were suspended
high up in mid air.

1077
01:01:49,808 --> 01:01:52,425
'We're sitting in a
portaledge, which is basically'

1078
01:01:52,644 --> 01:01:54,976
a hanging cot
with an aluminum frame.

1079
01:01:55,188 --> 01:01:57,395
That's professional
climber Tommy Caldwell

1080
01:01:57,607 --> 01:01:59,393
ten days into what's considered

1081
01:01:59,609 --> 01:02:02,021
one of the world's most daunting
climbing challenges.

1082
01:02:02,237 --> 01:02:03,773
This is crazy.

1083
01:02:03,989 --> 01:02:05,195
'Best of luck.'

1084
01:02:05,407 --> 01:02:06,897
Great.
Thank you so much.

1085
01:02:08,618 --> 01:02:10,950
Guess we hang up.
I don't really know.

1086
01:02:13,123 --> 01:02:16,832
They don't tell us what to do
when it's over.

1087
01:02:18,795 --> 01:02:20,661
Oh, my God!

1088
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:22,370
How many days does it take?

1089
01:02:22,590 --> 01:02:23,921
All of a sudden,

1090
01:02:24,134 --> 01:02:26,091
there are crowds of people
congregating in the Valley.

1091
01:02:26,303 --> 01:02:29,170
Let's turn now to this historic
feat by two American climbers.

1092
01:02:29,389 --> 01:02:31,221
Perched on a cliff
above Yosemite.

1093
01:02:31,433 --> 01:02:33,925
The famously steep face
of El Capitan.

1094
01:02:34,144 --> 01:02:37,478
The whole media thing
was very strange for me.

1095
01:02:37,689 --> 01:02:39,020
The climb of the century.

1096
01:02:39,232 --> 01:02:40,313
It's just been extraordinary.

1097
01:02:40,525 --> 01:02:42,516
A real cliffhanger.
Did I just say that?

1098
01:02:42,736 --> 01:02:44,647
They were just saying
these ludicrous things.

1099
01:02:44,863 --> 01:02:46,274
- Two American hikers.
- Daredevils.

1100
01:02:46,489 --> 01:02:47,729
- Thrill seekers.
- Adrenaline junkies.

1101
01:02:47,949 --> 01:02:49,860
Scaling the cliff
known as El Capitan.

1102
01:02:50,076 --> 01:02:51,487
That's not even El Cap.

1103
01:02:51,703 --> 01:02:53,910
Inching up
without any climbing tools.

1104
01:02:54,122 --> 01:02:56,955
I'm wearing pretty much the same
gear as the guys up in Yosemite.

1105
01:02:57,167 --> 01:03:00,785
I like the second picture,
so we'll hover here.

1106
01:03:01,004 --> 01:03:03,621
The Dawn Wall was always
this personal journey.

1107
01:03:03,840 --> 01:03:05,547
This was a bad idea.

1108
01:03:06,301 --> 01:03:07,587
And obviously,

1109
01:03:07,802 --> 01:03:09,668
this turned into something
very different from that.

1110
01:03:09,888 --> 01:03:11,720
So don't understand
how they could possibly do it.

1111
01:03:11,931 --> 01:03:13,797
I hope they make it,
but I don't understand it.

1112
01:03:14,017 --> 01:03:15,052
It's the challenge.

1113
01:03:15,268 --> 01:03:17,726
Yeah, the challenge of it.
No, thanks.

1114
01:03:17,937 --> 01:03:21,180
Suddenly, the whole
world was watching this climb.

1115
01:03:21,399 --> 01:03:24,983
Which wasn't the
best timing for me personally,

1116
01:03:27,405 --> 01:03:29,692
because I still
had to do pitch 15.

1117
01:03:31,785 --> 01:03:34,527
At this point,
they've established a base camp

1118
01:03:34,746 --> 01:03:36,953
a couple of hundred feet
below the traverse.

1119
01:03:37,165 --> 01:03:38,496
So when Kevin's ready to climb,

1120
01:03:38,708 --> 01:03:41,325
they go up the fixed ropes
to the start of pitch 15.

1121
01:03:44,506 --> 01:03:46,838
Tommy sets up his belay,

1122
01:03:47,050 --> 01:03:50,259
and Kevin tries
to get across this thing.

1123
01:03:50,470 --> 01:03:52,837
Here would be actually
a big moment on the climb.

1124
01:03:53,056 --> 01:03:55,047
Drove all the way out here today
just to see this.

1125
01:03:57,143 --> 01:04:00,101
It was important
to get through pitch 15

1126
01:04:00,313 --> 01:04:02,429
and catch up
to Tommy's high point

1127
01:04:02,649 --> 01:04:04,390
as soon as possible.

1128
01:04:11,616 --> 01:04:13,323
Come on, Kev.
You got it.

1129
01:04:19,582 --> 01:04:21,493
Oh!

1130
01:04:21,709 --> 01:04:24,701
Every fall, you go back
to the start of the pitch,

1131
01:04:24,921 --> 01:04:27,162
rest for at least an hour...

1132
01:04:29,342 --> 01:04:31,174
...try again.

1133
01:04:33,930 --> 01:04:36,968
Every attempt,
you wear off more skin.

1134
01:04:37,183 --> 01:04:38,514
You run out of
a little more energy.

1135
01:04:40,061 --> 01:04:41,927
Everything was going smoothly

1136
01:04:42,147 --> 01:04:44,559
until Jorgeson
couldn't grasp pitch 15.

1137
01:04:44,774 --> 01:04:46,606
Stopped by the
sheer difficulty of the climb.

1138
01:04:46,818 --> 01:04:48,104
As the razor-sharp handholds

1139
01:04:48,319 --> 01:04:49,775
tore the skin
off his fingertips.

1140
01:04:49,988 --> 01:04:51,319
So everyone's tuning in

1141
01:04:51,531 --> 01:04:53,613
in the middle of guys living
on the side of the Wall...

1142
01:04:53,825 --> 01:04:56,283
History is on hold
in Yosemite National Park.

1143
01:04:56,494 --> 01:04:57,859
...and one of them's stuck.

1144
01:04:58,079 --> 01:04:59,444
Argh!

1145
01:04:59,664 --> 01:05:01,996
Kevin Jorgeson is stuck.

1146
01:05:02,208 --> 01:05:04,165
- That was close, dude.
- I know.

1147
01:05:04,377 --> 01:05:07,335
You just started to
fall apart a little bit there.

1148
01:05:07,547 --> 01:05:09,629
It's a pretty
fascinating drama

1149
01:05:09,841 --> 01:05:13,425
unfolding in real time,
literally in front of our eyes.

1150
01:05:13,636 --> 01:05:16,253
People who I'm sure
had no idea what a pitch was

1151
01:05:16,473 --> 01:05:18,805
were now going, "Pitch 15!
Come on, Kevin! You can do it!"

1152
01:05:21,644 --> 01:05:23,510
You'll get it, dude.
That was really close.

1153
01:05:23,730 --> 01:05:26,313
I spent a few days
not climbing,

1154
01:05:26,524 --> 01:05:30,062
just belaying Kevin
over and over again on pitch 15.

1155
01:05:35,783 --> 01:05:38,866
It was harder than any pitch
of climbing he'd ever done.

1156
01:05:39,078 --> 01:05:40,660
Fucker!

1157
01:05:40,872 --> 01:05:43,614
He just kept falling
and falling.

1158
01:05:43,833 --> 01:05:46,996
I had honestly started to lose
hope that he was going to do it.

1159
01:05:47,212 --> 01:05:49,874
Last night
was my third day

1160
01:05:50,089 --> 01:05:52,751
of battle with pitch 15.

1161
01:05:52,967 --> 01:05:57,131
Still didn't do it.

1162
01:05:57,347 --> 01:06:01,932
After trying so many times,
I've destroyed my fingers.

1163
01:06:02,143 --> 01:06:07,388
So I decided to take a rest day
and let my fingers heal.

1164
01:06:12,946 --> 01:06:16,439
Meanwhile,
Tommy hasn't climbed for days.

1165
01:06:17,742 --> 01:06:19,028
And he has to be thinking,

1166
01:06:19,244 --> 01:06:22,453
I can't stay up here
indefinitely waiting for Kevin.

1167
01:06:22,664 --> 01:06:24,655
I mean, there's
very few people in the world

1168
01:06:24,874 --> 01:06:27,787
that have ever even spent
that much time on a wall.

1169
01:06:28,002 --> 01:06:30,790
Living on the Wall
just wears you down.

1170
01:06:31,005 --> 01:06:32,416
It's just harsh up there.

1171
01:06:32,632 --> 01:06:34,168
You can't even walk.

1172
01:06:34,384 --> 01:06:36,125
You're not sleeping great
at night.

1173
01:06:36,344 --> 01:06:40,258
You're not eating normal foods,
drinking enough water.

1174
01:06:40,473 --> 01:06:43,761
It's hard to climb your best
under those conditions.

1175
01:06:43,977 --> 01:06:47,345
Every day that goes by,
maybe Tommy suddenly gets sick.

1176
01:06:47,564 --> 01:06:48,804
Maybe the weather changes.

1177
01:06:49,023 --> 01:06:52,141
I felt like
I had to continue.

1178
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:54,647
So they devised a plan.

1179
01:06:54,862 --> 01:06:57,445
Tommy's going to press on
and try the Dyno pitch,

1180
01:06:57,657 --> 01:07:00,695
hoping that Kevin
eventually will get across 15

1181
01:07:00,910 --> 01:07:02,742
and he can catch up.

1182
01:07:02,954 --> 01:07:05,491
That night,
we go up our fixed lines

1183
01:07:05,707 --> 01:07:08,790
and I belay Tommy on pitch 16,
the Dyno pitch.

1184
01:07:10,211 --> 01:07:11,451
I had tried
the Dyno move

1185
01:07:11,671 --> 01:07:13,628
hundreds of times
over the years.

1186
01:07:17,885 --> 01:07:18,875
Never done it.

1187
01:07:19,095 --> 01:07:21,962
I'd rebuilt it on the shed
at my home,

1188
01:07:22,181 --> 01:07:25,890
so I could just practice
this one stupid move.

1189
01:07:26,102 --> 01:07:27,934
Just before we went
for our final push,

1190
01:07:28,146 --> 01:07:29,557
I was completely frustrated,

1191
01:07:29,772 --> 01:07:32,764
staring at these photos
of the Wall.

1192
01:07:32,984 --> 01:07:37,228
I started to notice cracks and
edges that go down and around.

1193
01:07:37,447 --> 01:07:39,529
So I came up with this idea

1194
01:07:39,741 --> 01:07:42,529
to do the most ridiculous
pitch of climbing.

1195
01:07:42,744 --> 01:07:45,532
His idea was to
just climb in a giant circle

1196
01:07:45,747 --> 01:07:47,909
around the Dyno.
I was like, "Really?"

1197
01:07:48,124 --> 01:07:49,865
So to get around
about eight feet...?

1198
01:07:50,084 --> 01:07:52,667
Yeah, climb like 200.

1199
01:07:52,879 --> 01:07:56,838
Tommy's currently working out
the world's hardest down climb.

1200
01:07:57,050 --> 01:08:00,793
We do hard moves going straight
up, hard moves going sideways.

1201
01:08:01,012 --> 01:08:02,047
I should add a down climb.

1202
01:08:02,263 --> 01:08:04,925
That way, we
just get the full package.

1203
01:08:06,559 --> 01:08:08,846
Down climbing,
it's so unnatural.

1204
01:08:09,062 --> 01:08:10,177
Falling.

1205
01:08:10,396 --> 01:08:13,229
It's like
running backwards.

1206
01:08:15,443 --> 01:08:17,025
That felt horrible.

1207
01:08:34,504 --> 01:08:36,040
Good, Tommy.

1208
01:08:37,340 --> 01:08:38,922
Nice.

1209
01:08:45,765 --> 01:08:47,472
Come on. Focus.

1210
01:08:49,811 --> 01:08:51,176
Good.

1211
01:08:53,356 --> 01:08:54,846
This loop pitch,

1212
01:08:55,066 --> 01:08:58,479
it's like walking around
the block to cross the street.

1213
01:08:58,695 --> 01:09:00,902
It is just a little bit
ridiculous.

1214
01:09:02,365 --> 01:09:04,447
But it's also kind of brilliant.

1215
01:09:04,659 --> 01:09:05,865
Come on.

1216
01:09:06,577 --> 01:09:07,738
Come on.

1217
01:09:10,081 --> 01:09:11,992
This thing that had been
shutting him down

1218
01:09:12,208 --> 01:09:13,448
for all these years,

1219
01:09:13,668 --> 01:09:17,457
and then he just looks at it
with a new set of eyes

1220
01:09:17,672 --> 01:09:19,788
and finds a new solution.

1221
01:09:20,007 --> 01:09:21,543
Yeah.

1222
01:09:21,759 --> 01:09:23,341
The Dyno!

1223
01:09:24,053 --> 01:09:26,010
Whoo!

1224
01:09:39,110 --> 01:09:40,692
How is the skin, dude?

1225
01:09:42,321 --> 01:09:45,313
It's not healing very quickly,

1226
01:09:45,533 --> 01:09:48,616
which is frustrating.

1227
01:09:48,828 --> 01:09:52,913
While Kevin's waiting
for his fingers to heal,

1228
01:09:53,124 --> 01:09:57,118
Tommy continued pushing
the route higher and higher.

1229
01:09:57,336 --> 01:09:58,872
What you do every day is,

1230
01:09:59,088 --> 01:10:00,999
you get to a high point,
and then you leave fixed ropes

1231
01:10:01,215 --> 01:10:02,671
that go back down to the camp.

1232
01:10:02,884 --> 01:10:06,127
The next day, you motor back up
the ropes to the high point

1233
01:10:06,345 --> 01:10:08,006
and then carry on.

1234
01:10:08,222 --> 01:10:10,054
So, even though
they might be working

1235
01:10:10,266 --> 01:10:11,973
on different parts of the Wall,

1236
01:10:12,185 --> 01:10:14,517
they're doing it together.
Kevin belays Tommy,

1237
01:10:14,729 --> 01:10:18,643
and once Tommy's done, they
both go back down to the camp.

1238
01:10:21,527 --> 01:10:23,393
Tommy's just forging on.

1239
01:10:32,747 --> 01:10:36,615
Every pitch gets him further
away from where I'm stuck.

1240
01:10:38,085 --> 01:10:39,416
One more down.

1241
01:10:39,629 --> 01:10:42,121
There's so much distance
between our high points

1242
01:10:42,340 --> 01:10:44,377
that I'm not going to be able
to close that gap

1243
01:10:44,592 --> 01:10:46,583
in a reasonable amount of time

1244
01:10:46,803 --> 01:10:48,385
unless I do this.

1245
01:10:48,596 --> 01:10:50,587
Every time I would
look over in his portaledge,

1246
01:10:50,807 --> 01:10:52,673
he would just be following
news updates,

1247
01:10:52,892 --> 01:10:54,803
staring at his fingertips,

1248
01:10:55,019 --> 01:10:56,430
mumbling to himself.

1249
01:10:56,646 --> 01:10:59,434
Trying to convince
myself these actually look good.

1250
01:11:03,277 --> 01:11:04,688
Tommy, do you have
the Ibuprofen?

1251
01:11:06,113 --> 01:11:07,979
Oh, yeah.

1252
01:11:08,199 --> 01:11:12,067
After two days resting,
I felt resolved.

1253
01:11:13,329 --> 01:11:15,320
This was the day
it had to happen.

1254
01:11:18,292 --> 01:11:19,657
It's still pretty warm out.

1255
01:11:19,877 --> 01:11:21,743
And so I'm going to wait
a few more hours

1256
01:11:21,963 --> 01:11:23,579
for the temperatures
to drop even more

1257
01:11:23,798 --> 01:11:26,961
to give myself
every bit of friction you can.

1258
01:11:27,176 --> 01:11:28,337
You ready?

1259
01:11:28,553 --> 01:11:31,386
Ready
as I'm ever going to be.

1260
01:11:52,451 --> 01:11:56,194
I've been waiting for days
for the skin to heal,

1261
01:11:57,582 --> 01:11:59,323
for this moment to come.

1262
01:12:08,092 --> 01:12:10,174
There's a nice cold breeze
blowing up the wall.

1263
01:12:11,804 --> 01:12:14,262
I felt weightless.

1264
01:12:14,473 --> 01:12:17,807
I was just floating
across the pitch.

1265
01:12:32,116 --> 01:12:33,698
Hold it together.

1266
01:12:44,670 --> 01:12:46,502
Come on, Kevin.
Do it, man.

1267
01:12:46,714 --> 01:12:47,954
You got it.

1268
01:12:48,841 --> 01:12:50,377
Come on.

1269
01:12:50,593 --> 01:12:52,425
You got it.

1270
01:12:52,637 --> 01:12:54,048
Come on. Find it.

1271
01:12:54,263 --> 01:12:55,799
Good.
Come on.

1272
01:12:56,682 --> 01:12:58,798
Argh!

1273
01:13:00,311 --> 01:13:02,552
Oh,
that was so good, dude.

1274
01:13:04,565 --> 01:13:09,025
Everything was perfect,
and I still didn't do it.

1275
01:13:10,571 --> 01:13:11,606
Come on, Kevin.

1276
01:13:11,822 --> 01:13:14,029
I tried four times
that night.

1277
01:13:15,326 --> 01:13:16,316
Fucker!

1278
01:13:16,535 --> 01:13:18,242
He's off.

1279
01:13:18,454 --> 01:13:19,990
I just kept falling.

1280
01:13:25,002 --> 01:13:26,083
Shit!

1281
01:13:26,837 --> 01:13:28,623
Tonight...

1282
01:13:31,008 --> 01:13:32,749
...didn't go so well.

1283
01:13:35,179 --> 01:13:38,171
It was a battle,
and I didn't win.

1284
01:13:38,391 --> 01:13:40,553
It was pretty clear
that that was it.

1285
01:13:40,768 --> 01:13:42,975
Like, you had your chance.

1286
01:13:43,187 --> 01:13:45,178
You weren't good enough.

1287
01:13:45,398 --> 01:13:47,264
Yeah, it's pretty fucked.

1288
01:13:49,902 --> 01:13:53,486
Now you're the guy that
almost climbed the Dawn Wall.

1289
01:13:53,698 --> 01:13:55,689
So how much did you enjoy
that process?

1290
01:13:55,908 --> 01:13:57,865
Because that's all you get.

1291
01:14:04,959 --> 01:14:06,575
Editors and I
started talking.

1292
01:14:06,794 --> 01:14:08,626
Is it now time to do a story
about what happens

1293
01:14:08,838 --> 01:14:10,294
if he doesn't make it?

1294
01:14:10,506 --> 01:14:12,042
We all want happy endings, but
as a journalist, you're like,

1295
01:14:12,258 --> 01:14:13,874
"That's an incredible story."

1296
01:14:14,093 --> 01:14:16,676
What's the ethos in climbing?

1297
01:14:16,887 --> 01:14:19,345
Do you say,
you go ahead without me?

1298
01:14:19,557 --> 01:14:21,047
Do you leave a guy behind?

1299
01:14:21,267 --> 01:14:22,803
Are they having
this conversation

1300
01:14:23,019 --> 01:14:25,135
in the portaledge at night?

1301
01:14:37,950 --> 01:14:39,987
This would be nice
to check the radar.

1302
01:14:43,706 --> 01:14:47,324
The next day, the
weather was starting to get bad.

1303
01:14:49,128 --> 01:14:50,960
And I knew what I needed to do.

1304
01:14:51,964 --> 01:14:53,420
20%.

1305
01:14:53,632 --> 01:14:54,963
Today?

1306
01:14:55,176 --> 01:14:57,838
Next like four days.

1307
01:14:58,054 --> 01:14:59,965
I'm just going to
throw in the towel

1308
01:15:00,181 --> 01:15:02,218
and support Tommy to the top.

1309
01:15:05,895 --> 01:15:06,976
From here on out,

1310
01:15:07,188 --> 01:15:08,678
Kevin's just
going to belay Tommy

1311
01:15:08,898 --> 01:15:10,434
and follow him up the ropes.

1312
01:15:12,693 --> 01:15:14,684
So they go up
to Tommy's high point,

1313
01:15:14,904 --> 01:15:16,986
where he starts up
the last hard pitches

1314
01:15:17,198 --> 01:15:19,189
of the long run to Wino Tower.

1315
01:15:25,831 --> 01:15:28,448
There I was,
watching Tommy

1316
01:15:28,667 --> 01:15:30,658
climb with so much confidence

1317
01:15:30,878 --> 01:15:33,540
toward the completion
of this dream.

1318
01:15:37,384 --> 01:15:40,718
Even if I can't do this,
I was really happy for Tommy.

1319
01:15:44,725 --> 01:15:46,466
What a special moment

1320
01:15:46,685 --> 01:15:48,642
to witness
this piece of history.

1321
01:15:54,652 --> 01:15:57,269
And I was there to help Tommy
realize this vision.

1322
01:16:05,371 --> 01:16:08,113
After everything
he went through,

1323
01:16:10,543 --> 01:16:12,500
so much struggle,

1324
01:16:13,629 --> 01:16:15,916
the injuries, the doubts.

1325
01:16:17,633 --> 01:16:20,921
For Tommy it was like,
this is it.

1326
01:16:26,058 --> 01:16:27,514
Come on, Tommy.

1327
01:16:29,937 --> 01:16:31,223
Boom!

1328
01:16:33,399 --> 01:16:35,891
Woo-hoo!
Feels good.

1329
01:16:37,319 --> 01:16:38,730
I'm down in the meadow

1330
01:16:38,946 --> 01:16:41,153
watching Tommy
trying to get to Wino Tower,

1331
01:16:41,365 --> 01:16:43,902
which is the next big feature
above them.

1332
01:16:44,118 --> 01:16:45,904
It's this mythical landmark

1333
01:16:46,120 --> 01:16:49,078
about two-thirds of the way
up El Capitan.

1334
01:16:49,290 --> 01:16:53,124
This three foot pedestal
2,000 feet up the Wall.

1335
01:16:53,335 --> 01:16:55,451
The first horizontal ledge

1336
01:16:55,671 --> 01:16:58,834
where you can stand up,
sit down, lie down

1337
01:16:59,049 --> 01:17:00,835
on the entire route.

1338
01:17:01,051 --> 01:17:04,169
And it signifies
the end of the hardest climbing.

1339
01:17:06,724 --> 01:17:08,840
One more hard pitch
to get to Wino Tower.

1340
01:17:09,059 --> 01:17:10,515
That's crazy!

1341
01:17:10,728 --> 01:17:14,517
For years, I'd envisioned this
moment of getting to Wino Tower.

1342
01:17:14,732 --> 01:17:16,188
So I'm freaking out inside.

1343
01:17:16,400 --> 01:17:17,890
Good, Tommy. Come on.

1344
01:17:18,110 --> 01:17:21,319
Climbing really tense
and kind of shaking nervous.

1345
01:17:21,530 --> 01:17:22,861
Keep breathing, dude.

1346
01:17:29,038 --> 01:17:30,244
Come on.

1347
01:17:32,249 --> 01:17:33,239
Good.

1348
01:17:37,338 --> 01:17:40,080
Just trying
to calm myself down enough

1349
01:17:40,299 --> 01:17:42,711
to make it through
the final last little bit.

1350
01:17:48,974 --> 01:17:50,430
Yeah!

1351
01:18:06,450 --> 01:18:08,236
Ow!

1352
01:18:23,133 --> 01:18:25,500
Oh!
I feel a little shaky.

1353
01:18:25,719 --> 01:18:27,505
Yeah, I might pass out.

1354
01:18:32,226 --> 01:18:34,183
I can't believe
I'm here right now.

1355
01:18:43,988 --> 01:18:47,731
I know it's not over yet,
but that's big.

1356
01:18:48,993 --> 01:18:50,575
I'm at Wino Tower.

1357
01:18:59,336 --> 01:19:01,953
What are you feeling?

1358
01:19:02,172 --> 01:19:05,130
I want Kevin to experience this,
too, for sure.

1359
01:19:09,388 --> 01:19:11,129
It was this huge victory.

1360
01:19:11,348 --> 01:19:12,838
But it's totally trumped
by the fact

1361
01:19:13,058 --> 01:19:15,550
that Kevin wasn't going
to do it with me.

1362
01:19:15,769 --> 01:19:17,976
Suddenly, I just felt alone.

1363
01:19:19,315 --> 01:19:21,647
I think Kevin probably did, too.

1364
01:19:25,946 --> 01:19:28,608
What a crazy experience
this has been.

1365
01:19:29,950 --> 01:19:31,657
It crashed down on me

1366
01:19:31,869 --> 01:19:35,737
that going to the top without
Kevin was gonna be devastating.

1367
01:19:35,956 --> 01:19:37,788
Just got to get KJ up here now.

1368
01:19:39,043 --> 01:19:40,533
So I decided in that moment

1369
01:19:40,753 --> 01:19:43,415
that we were going to get
to the top together.

1370
01:19:43,630 --> 01:19:46,839
- What will you do?
- Everything I can to help him.

1371
01:19:47,051 --> 01:19:48,337
Yeah.

1372
01:19:48,552 --> 01:19:51,920
I'm going to go
into full-on support mode.

1373
01:19:54,725 --> 01:19:58,468
That night, we both
go back down to the camp.

1374
01:20:02,274 --> 01:20:03,685
We were cooking dinner.

1375
01:20:03,901 --> 01:20:06,643
It was real quiet.

1376
01:20:06,862 --> 01:20:09,980
And I knew it was
this emotional moment for Tommy.

1377
01:20:11,909 --> 01:20:14,697
But he's not very good
at verbalizing.

1378
01:20:37,976 --> 01:20:39,967
Yeah.

1379
01:20:40,187 --> 01:20:43,600
Tommy just told me,
in classic Tommy style,

1380
01:20:43,816 --> 01:20:48,561
I don't care how long it takes
for you to get through pitch 15,

1381
01:20:48,779 --> 01:20:51,487
because I can't imagine
a worse outcome

1382
01:20:51,698 --> 01:20:53,530
than doing this alone.

1383
01:20:55,244 --> 01:20:56,826
I don't want to hold you back,
is the thing.

1384
01:20:57,037 --> 01:21:00,325
You're three days
from the top now or some shit.

1385
01:21:05,129 --> 01:21:06,711
It's a pretty special moment.

1386
01:21:09,383 --> 01:21:10,544
I know I can do that pitch.

1387
01:21:10,759 --> 01:21:12,796
Yeah, for sure.

1388
01:21:13,011 --> 01:21:16,504
And I feel like if I can do that
pitch, I'd be so fucking psyched

1389
01:21:16,723 --> 01:21:17,963
that there's nothing

1390
01:21:18,183 --> 01:21:20,424
that's going to stop me
between there and the top.

1391
01:21:20,644 --> 01:21:22,760
I think that's true.

1392
01:21:22,980 --> 01:21:24,641
Just keep stretching.
Make sure...

1393
01:21:24,857 --> 01:21:27,895
I think I need to do
some arm lengthening stretches.

1394
01:21:28,110 --> 01:21:31,523
So we decided that I
would rest two consecutive days

1395
01:21:31,738 --> 01:21:33,320
so that my skin could heal

1396
01:21:33,532 --> 01:21:35,022
and try again.

1397
01:21:37,494 --> 01:21:39,485
The idea
of Tommy waiting,

1398
01:21:39,705 --> 01:21:41,787
to risk your own success

1399
01:21:41,999 --> 01:21:45,367
in the hopes that maybe
by some miracle Kevin can do it,

1400
01:21:45,586 --> 01:21:46,997
that's a partner right there.

1401
01:21:47,963 --> 01:21:50,796
Coffee for KJ.

1402
01:21:51,008 --> 01:21:53,716
But there's no guarantee
that Kevin's ever gonna make it.

1403
01:21:53,927 --> 01:21:57,966
I mean, I thought that Kevin
was maybe not going to make it.

1404
01:21:58,182 --> 01:22:00,139
And I was hoping that,

1405
01:22:00,350 --> 01:22:02,216
since this had been
a dream of Tommy's

1406
01:22:02,436 --> 01:22:04,643
a lot longer than it had been
a dream of Kevin's,

1407
01:22:04,855 --> 01:22:08,314
that Tommy would find a way
to complete this climb.

1408
01:22:08,525 --> 01:22:10,983
As Tommy's friend, selfishly,

1409
01:22:11,195 --> 01:22:13,061
I'm thinking to myself, like,

1410
01:22:13,280 --> 01:22:16,147
"Kevin, dude, time to throw in
the towel and support Tommy."

1411
01:22:16,366 --> 01:22:19,154
Somebody less gracious than
Tommy Caldwell might have said,

1412
01:22:19,369 --> 01:22:21,076
"I've got to go on without you."

1413
01:22:21,288 --> 01:22:23,700
But he was
committed to Kevin.

1414
01:22:23,916 --> 01:22:25,406
"We're doing this together."

1415
01:22:25,626 --> 01:22:30,416
And he wouldn't have been Tommy
if he'd done it any other way.

1416
01:22:30,631 --> 01:22:32,417
This just in.
Those two American climbers...

1417
01:22:32,633 --> 01:22:35,170
- Kevin Jorgeson.
- Kevin Jorgeson.

1418
01:22:35,385 --> 01:22:36,967
Stuck for seven straight days.

1419
01:22:37,179 --> 01:22:38,465
Caldwell
determined to wait...

1420
01:22:38,680 --> 01:22:39,795
One of them
refusing to move higher

1421
01:22:40,015 --> 01:22:42,222
without his partner
stuck below.

1422
01:22:42,434 --> 01:22:43,549
So will they make it?

1423
01:22:43,769 --> 01:22:45,476
Can you imagine?
This really is no joke.

1424
01:22:45,687 --> 01:22:47,303
The media started
to sound like a tabloid.

1425
01:22:47,523 --> 01:22:49,639
Is Jorgeson
spoiling Tommy's dreams?

1426
01:22:49,858 --> 01:22:53,601
Down below, the
crowd is waiting and watching.

1427
01:22:56,031 --> 01:22:58,568
Hey, Tommy,
what's the weather look like?

1428
01:22:58,784 --> 01:23:01,697
Oh, wait. That's right,
you dropped your phone.

1429
01:23:01,912 --> 01:23:03,619
Dropped my phone last night.

1430
01:23:03,830 --> 01:23:06,822
I had my chest pocket unzipped.
It just fell out.

1431
01:23:07,042 --> 01:23:09,409
Hopefully, I didn't kill anybody
down there.

1432
01:23:09,628 --> 01:23:11,244
I'd heard that Tommy dropped
his phone, and I said,

1433
01:23:11,463 --> 01:23:12,999
"Did he really drop his phone?"

1434
01:23:13,215 --> 01:23:15,377
"Or is he just saying,
don't call me anymore?"

1435
01:23:15,592 --> 01:23:18,209
So fed up with the media circus.

1436
01:23:18,428 --> 01:23:20,260
I think he didn't drop it.

1437
01:23:20,472 --> 01:23:22,759
He threw it off.

1438
01:23:22,975 --> 01:23:26,309
Yup. Guess we've got to just
enjoy the view now.

1439
01:23:29,856 --> 01:23:31,472
Over the next few days,

1440
01:23:31,692 --> 01:23:35,230
Tommy was content
right where we were,

1441
01:23:35,445 --> 01:23:37,436
for however long
it was going to be.

1442
01:23:38,907 --> 01:23:40,648
He's just stoked to be up there,

1443
01:23:40,867 --> 01:23:43,450
and it's no big deal if it takes
another rest day or two

1444
01:23:43,662 --> 01:23:45,699
or three or five or whatever.

1445
01:23:45,914 --> 01:23:48,497
Yeah, I feel like I've
just been appreciating things

1446
01:23:48,709 --> 01:23:51,451
a little bit more
the last few days.

1447
01:23:52,546 --> 01:23:54,583
Ah, sun.

1448
01:23:54,798 --> 01:23:57,711
Tommy basically said,
"No hurry. I'm patient."

1449
01:23:57,926 --> 01:24:00,463
They're going to get through it.
Don't freak out.

1450
01:24:00,679 --> 01:24:02,841
Don't worry about the rest
of the world that's watching.

1451
01:24:03,056 --> 01:24:04,546
Let's tune them out.
It's just you and me.

1452
01:24:04,766 --> 01:24:05,972
It became the two of them.

1453
01:24:06,184 --> 01:24:08,972
I think I have to
try to front-step more,

1454
01:24:09,187 --> 01:24:12,646
because when it comes time
to step on that middle foot,

1455
01:24:12,858 --> 01:24:15,065
I can't front-step it or in-step
it cos this foot's in the way.

1456
01:24:15,277 --> 01:24:16,517
A couple of your falls last time

1457
01:24:16,737 --> 01:24:18,603
were just cos you couldn't find
that right foot.

1458
01:24:18,822 --> 01:24:20,859
So even if it's a little bit
harder, it's going to be better.

1459
01:24:21,074 --> 01:24:26,240
Tommy's attitude helped
take a bit of the pressure off.

1460
01:24:26,455 --> 01:24:30,824
But I was still gonna have to do
the hardest thing I've ever done

1461
01:24:31,043 --> 01:24:33,034
for this to end well.

1462
01:24:36,214 --> 01:24:37,375
Trying to make history

1463
01:24:37,591 --> 01:24:39,673
on one of the hardest climbs
in the world.

1464
01:24:39,885 --> 01:24:41,341
<i>'N, what's the story'?</i>

1465
01:24:41,553 --> 01:24:42,964
<i>U.“ Here's the story.</i>

1466
01:24:43,180 --> 01:24:46,047
I'm only about 30 feet up,
and I've called my momma twice.

1467
01:24:46,266 --> 01:24:47,472
Alright?
Can you imagine?

1468
01:24:47,684 --> 01:24:49,391
I'm on what's called
a portaledge

1469
01:24:49,603 --> 01:24:50,968
that's secured to this wall.

1470
01:24:51,188 --> 01:24:53,225
These two climbers
are using one of these

1471
01:24:53,440 --> 01:24:56,102
secured to a flat surface.

1472
01:24:56,318 --> 01:24:58,229
They're having to sleep
on one of these things,

1473
01:24:58,445 --> 01:25:00,732
for weeks possibly, trying
to make an impossible climb.

1474
01:25:00,947 --> 01:25:03,905
And me? I have holds here
I can use to climb the wall.

1475
01:25:04,117 --> 01:25:06,654
Scaling the jagged
cliff known as El Capitan...

1476
01:25:06,870 --> 01:25:08,531
Who is that, Fitz?

1477
01:25:08,747 --> 01:25:10,579
- Daddy.
- Daddy.

1478
01:25:10,791 --> 01:25:13,453
Getting on the airplane.

1479
01:25:15,754 --> 01:25:17,165
Fitz and I have been home

1480
01:25:17,381 --> 01:25:21,090
waiting for our moment to get
on a plane and get out here.

1481
01:25:21,301 --> 01:25:23,417
And it's finally come.
We're here.

1482
01:25:24,763 --> 01:25:27,346
Hey, Fitz, do you see
way up high on El Cap?

1483
01:25:27,557 --> 01:25:29,673
- Yeah.
- Yeah? Can you see Daddy?

1484
01:25:29,893 --> 01:25:31,349
After failing
for so many years,

1485
01:25:31,561 --> 01:25:34,474
there was times when I
definitely felt like giving up.

1486
01:25:34,690 --> 01:25:38,183
But it was actually Becca
who helped me to keep going.

1487
01:25:38,402 --> 01:25:40,234
Seeing him
in his element,

1488
01:25:40,445 --> 01:25:43,733
I saw this focus
and this purpose.

1489
01:25:43,949 --> 01:25:45,690
I really respected him.

1490
01:25:45,909 --> 01:25:48,492
And we fell in love.

1491
01:25:48,704 --> 01:25:52,117
Becca became
my biggest supporter.

1492
01:25:52,332 --> 01:25:53,538
We got married.

1493
01:25:53,750 --> 01:25:56,617
And then we got pregnant
shortly after.

1494
01:25:57,921 --> 01:25:58,956
Hi.

1495
01:25:59,172 --> 01:26:01,459
We had a little boy
named Fitz.

1496
01:26:01,675 --> 01:26:04,007
Hi, Fitz.

1497
01:26:04,219 --> 01:26:07,302
The first day that I had
this little baby in my arms,

1498
01:26:07,514 --> 01:26:09,755
I was overcome with the emotion.

1499
01:26:09,975 --> 01:26:13,639
I thought, how am I going to be
a good example to Fitz?

1500
01:26:13,854 --> 01:26:16,346
How great it is
to be a Caldwell boy.

1501
01:26:18,650 --> 01:26:21,563
Tommy had always viewed
his dad as a superhero,

1502
01:26:21,778 --> 01:26:26,113
and he wanted to be
a superhero for Fitz.

1503
01:26:26,324 --> 01:26:30,033
I wanted Fitz to look at
me with that same sort of awe.

1504
01:26:34,750 --> 01:26:38,118
I wanted to show Fitz
how to be passionate...

1505
01:26:38,336 --> 01:26:39,371
Boom!

1506
01:26:39,588 --> 01:26:40,953
...and how to dream big.

1507
01:26:41,173 --> 01:26:42,538
He already does.

1508
01:26:42,758 --> 01:26:44,248
The Dawn Wall
embodied that.

1509
01:26:44,468 --> 01:26:47,381
And so it made me
want it even more.

1510
01:26:47,596 --> 01:26:50,008
I told him,
you can't stop now.

1511
01:26:50,223 --> 01:26:52,635
You have to do everything
to make this happen.

1512
01:26:58,815 --> 01:27:03,480
One, two, three,
four, five.

1513
01:27:12,120 --> 01:27:13,485
Sometimes you zoom out

1514
01:27:13,705 --> 01:27:17,198
and you think about
what a process it's been,

1515
01:27:17,417 --> 01:27:20,330
this wild six-year journey
with Tommy.

1516
01:27:20,545 --> 01:27:22,206
Did Kevin start already?

1517
01:27:22,422 --> 01:27:25,665
And now here we are

1518
01:27:25,884 --> 01:27:27,625
at the moment of truth.

1519
01:27:27,844 --> 01:27:30,461
And we've just been
mesmerized.

1520
01:27:30,680 --> 01:27:33,263
Hard to put into words
something so big.

1521
01:27:33,475 --> 01:27:35,091
He's not going to give up.

1522
01:27:57,999 --> 01:27:59,364
I couldn't imagine

1523
01:27:59,584 --> 01:28:03,122
what he must have been
going through at that moment.

1524
01:28:33,702 --> 01:28:36,194
I don't remember
the first 50 feet of that pitch.

1525
01:28:42,961 --> 01:28:44,793
I watched him
go into the section

1526
01:28:45,005 --> 01:28:47,121
where he had fallen
so many times.

1527
01:28:47,340 --> 01:28:49,331
I just hold my breath.

1528
01:29:02,564 --> 01:29:04,601
You pull
as hard as you can.

1529
01:29:08,236 --> 01:29:09,726
Move your feet.

1530
01:29:14,034 --> 01:29:16,901
Argh!

1531
01:29:17,120 --> 01:29:19,157
You're just trying
not to tip over backwards.

1532
01:29:24,377 --> 01:29:26,664
Put the heel on.

1533
01:29:26,880 --> 01:29:28,621
Slide the hand up.

1534
01:29:28,840 --> 01:29:30,831
Take the heel off.

1535
01:29:31,051 --> 01:29:32,507
Drop the right hand in.

1536
01:29:33,470 --> 01:29:35,256
Heel back on.

1537
01:29:35,472 --> 01:29:36,962
Left hand down.

1538
01:29:41,853 --> 01:29:43,594
Heart rate starts to go up.

1539
01:29:46,524 --> 01:29:48,891
My adrenaline starts
going, cos he's still hanging on

1540
01:29:49,110 --> 01:29:51,977
in this place that he had fallen
so many times.

1541
01:30:32,529 --> 01:30:34,145
Yeah, Kevin!

1542
01:30:36,533 --> 01:30:38,774
Yeah!

1543
01:30:39,703 --> 01:30:40,534
Yes!

1544
01:30:46,835 --> 01:30:49,577
Watching him do it,
I was just awestruck.

1545
01:30:49,796 --> 01:30:52,879
I was like, I can't believe
that just happened.

1546
01:30:54,384 --> 01:30:55,715
He did it.

1547
01:30:55,927 --> 01:30:58,419
Freaking guy actually
did this thing, right?

1548
01:30:58,638 --> 01:31:00,879
You're like, "What?"

1549
01:31:02,684 --> 01:31:04,095
After seven days,

1550
01:31:04,310 --> 01:31:06,677
Jorgeson got past
the most difficult...

1551
01:31:06,896 --> 01:31:09,479
Past the toughest
section of the climb.

1552
01:31:09,691 --> 01:31:10,931
Yes, he made it.

1553
01:31:11,151 --> 01:31:12,641
And now it's upward.

1554
01:31:12,861 --> 01:31:15,398
And you start thinking, are his
fingers OK? Can he do 16, 17?

1555
01:31:16,156 --> 01:31:17,567
Is this over yet?

1556
01:31:17,782 --> 01:31:20,194
I had just finished
the hardest pitch of my life,

1557
01:31:20,410 --> 01:31:22,026
and I couldn't even celebrate.

1558
01:31:22,245 --> 01:31:24,407
I just need to catch up.

1559
01:31:24,622 --> 01:31:26,454
The next pitch
is this big Dyno

1560
01:31:26,666 --> 01:31:28,156
that's so hard
that Tommy can't do it,

1561
01:31:28,376 --> 01:31:29,616
he's got to climb around it.

1562
01:31:29,836 --> 01:31:31,122
There's no way in hell

1563
01:31:31,337 --> 01:31:33,954
that I'm going to try
Tommy's crazy loop pitch.

1564
01:31:34,174 --> 01:31:38,543
So that same night I start
trying the 8 and 1/2 foot Dyno.

1565
01:31:39,471 --> 01:31:41,087
Argh!

1566
01:31:50,482 --> 01:31:51,813
Yeah!

1567
01:31:52,025 --> 01:31:55,768
Kevin, through some kind
of magic or levitation,

1568
01:31:55,987 --> 01:31:59,855
actually does this Dyno
that Tommy was never able to do.

1569
01:32:00,075 --> 01:32:02,191
- So good.
- Tonight, Kevin...

1570
01:32:02,410 --> 01:32:04,902
...now just a few
hundred feet behind Caldwell.

1571
01:32:05,121 --> 01:32:07,362
All these hard pitches
just keep coming.

1572
01:32:07,582 --> 01:32:09,118
17,18,19.

1573
01:32:11,086 --> 01:32:13,748
It was like a fight
to the death.

1574
01:32:14,923 --> 01:32:16,413
- Oh, no.
- Rock!

1575
01:32:16,633 --> 01:32:18,044
That is a bad hold to rip off.

1576
01:32:18,259 --> 01:32:19,499
Oh, man.

1577
01:32:19,719 --> 01:32:22,427
I think
it's a lot harder now.

1578
01:32:22,639 --> 01:32:24,346
That didn't take him too long
to figure it out.

1579
01:32:24,557 --> 01:32:25,638
Nice, KJ!

1580
01:32:25,850 --> 01:32:27,557
It's just
a little more tension.

1581
01:32:27,769 --> 01:32:31,683
Like we need more of that
on this route.

1582
01:32:31,898 --> 01:32:34,185
The last pitch
getting to Wino Tower,

1583
01:32:34,400 --> 01:32:37,688
this crazy fog came in.

1584
01:32:37,904 --> 01:32:39,486
Kevin sends this pitch
right now,

1585
01:32:39,697 --> 01:32:41,904
he's going to be
caught up with me.

1586
01:32:49,707 --> 01:32:50,697
Yes!

1587
01:32:50,917 --> 01:32:52,248
Nice one, Kevin.

1588
01:32:52,460 --> 01:32:54,997
I just remember
seeing Tommy at the anchor

1589
01:32:55,213 --> 01:32:58,922
and having such a huge wash
of gratefulness.

1590
01:32:59,134 --> 01:33:02,752
Oh! I can't believe
we're here.

1591
01:33:03,721 --> 01:33:06,383
So good, man.

1592
01:33:06,599 --> 01:33:09,216
We're reunited
at our high points now.

1593
01:33:09,435 --> 01:33:11,392
I can't believe we did it.

1594
01:33:11,604 --> 01:33:15,097
Going up from there on out
together to the top.

1595
01:33:22,031 --> 01:33:24,568
Come on, Jorgeson.
Come on.

1596
01:33:24,784 --> 01:33:27,617
He was sitting on five
days' rest while I caught up.

1597
01:33:27,829 --> 01:33:30,821
Pretty sure he's going to
pull me up the wall today.

1598
01:33:31,040 --> 01:33:35,034
From here on it's just
a matter of grinding it out.

1599
01:33:35,253 --> 01:33:38,120
So we get up and we stay
300 feet from the top.

1600
01:33:43,761 --> 01:33:46,298
We wake up this last morning.

1601
01:33:46,514 --> 01:33:48,551
The sun comes on the Dawn Wall.

1602
01:33:51,561 --> 01:33:52,892
It hits the top
of the Wall first,

1603
01:33:53,104 --> 01:33:56,438
and we're the only thing
in Yosemite actually in the sun.

1604
01:33:56,649 --> 01:33:57,889
So happy-

1605
01:33:59,694 --> 01:34:02,061
This is a good moment
right here.

1606
01:34:02,280 --> 01:34:04,271
This is definitely
a good moment.

1607
01:34:07,952 --> 01:34:09,943
Does it get any better
than this?

1608
01:34:10,163 --> 01:34:12,780
I'm just enjoying
my last day

1609
01:34:12,999 --> 01:34:14,831
being up here with my friend.

1610
01:34:15,043 --> 01:34:17,375
I think we should just stay.

1611
01:34:18,671 --> 01:34:19,877
Just cancel the whole thing.

1612
01:34:20,089 --> 01:34:23,502
We're going to camp here
for another day.

1613
01:34:23,718 --> 01:34:26,255
Living on a wall
where everything is so simple

1614
01:34:26,471 --> 01:34:27,586
for 19 days,

1615
01:34:27,805 --> 01:34:29,842
we were going to miss
that experience.

1616
01:34:30,058 --> 01:34:31,344
Good morning
to our viewers.

1617
01:34:31,559 --> 01:34:34,051
It's been an exciting 24 hours
here in Yosemite.

1618
01:34:34,270 --> 01:34:35,886
Tommy Caldwell
and Kevin Jorgeson

1619
01:34:36,105 --> 01:34:37,595
spent 19 days on the Wall.

1620
01:34:37,815 --> 01:34:40,432
There were 15 TV trucks,
reporters from all over.

1621
01:34:40,652 --> 01:34:41,983
There was a webcam.

1622
01:34:42,195 --> 01:34:44,027
Millions of people were actually
watching this live.

1623
01:34:44,239 --> 01:34:45,855
Like a moon landing
or something.

1624
01:34:48,409 --> 01:34:52,323
A lot of their friends
and family had come out.

1625
01:34:52,538 --> 01:34:55,496
A number of people hiked up
El Cap the back way,

1626
01:34:55,708 --> 01:34:58,700
and you could watch these guys
go up the final pitches.

1627
01:34:58,920 --> 01:35:00,376
And they're cheering them on.

1628
01:35:00,588 --> 01:35:02,920
I love you! Whoo!

1629
01:35:04,467 --> 01:35:05,923
It's gonna be awesome.

1630
01:35:07,887 --> 01:35:09,969
Seeing Tommy
do the Dawn Wall,

1631
01:35:10,181 --> 01:35:12,138
I was super happy for him.

1632
01:35:12,350 --> 01:35:14,717
Just knowing how much
was emotionally wrapped up

1633
01:35:14,936 --> 01:35:16,677
in the route for him,

1634
01:35:17,814 --> 01:35:21,352
I was really proud of him.

1635
01:35:21,567 --> 01:35:24,810
Actually seeing he was
going to complete this climb,

1636
01:35:25,029 --> 01:35:27,646
it was just, wow.

1637
01:35:30,535 --> 01:35:32,492
After 19 days,

1638
01:35:32,704 --> 01:35:35,366
Tommy Caldwell pulling himself
over the edge of the Dawn Wall.

1639
01:35:40,837 --> 01:35:43,955
Followed minutes later by
climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson.

1640
01:35:59,397 --> 01:36:00,933
And the crowd cheered

1641
01:36:01,149 --> 01:36:04,642
as the two men accomplished
a feat many said was impossible.

1642
01:36:18,458 --> 01:36:20,495
There aren't a lot
of moments that choke me up

1643
01:36:20,710 --> 01:36:23,372
in sports anymore.
I've been doing this too long.

1644
01:36:23,588 --> 01:36:26,455
I'll never forget a scene
of them rejoicing.

1645
01:36:32,638 --> 01:36:35,721
This is the moment that's been
so many years in the making.

1646
01:36:35,933 --> 01:36:37,719
Now forever enshrined
in history.

1647
01:36:37,935 --> 01:36:39,846
Inspiring millions
around the world,

1648
01:36:40,063 --> 01:36:41,178
even at the White House,

1649
01:36:41,397 --> 01:36:44,264
where President Obama
gave a thumbs up.

1650
01:36:47,320 --> 01:36:48,685
It's done. It's done.

1651
01:36:48,905 --> 01:36:49,986
You are shaking like a leaf.

1652
01:36:50,198 --> 01:36:51,609
Are you cold
or are you emotional?

1653
01:36:51,824 --> 01:36:53,531
- I'm emotional.
- OK.

1654
01:36:53,743 --> 01:36:56,405
He's worked so hard
for this.

1655
01:36:56,621 --> 01:37:01,036
That moment
he describes as bittersweet.

1656
01:37:01,250 --> 01:37:06,541
This whole experience
that drove him for so long,

1657
01:37:06,756 --> 01:37:08,212
it was over.

1658
01:37:10,259 --> 01:37:13,126
Anything that you'd like to say
about El Cap?

1659
01:37:13,346 --> 01:37:16,759
I've totally fallen in love
with that piece of rock.

1660
01:37:16,974 --> 01:37:19,011
It's been a big centerpiece
of my life.

1661
01:37:19,227 --> 01:37:21,719
And I just feel so thankful
every day.

1662
01:37:38,329 --> 01:37:40,912
Tommy and Kevin
join us now on SportsCenter.

1663
01:37:41,124 --> 01:37:43,331
I know Tommy's lost his voice
a little bit.

1664
01:37:43,543 --> 01:37:46,285
It drove me
every day for seven years.

1665
01:37:46,504 --> 01:37:47,494
Sorry.

1666
01:37:49,048 --> 01:37:53,007
What did your first real shower
in 19 days feel like?

1667
01:37:55,179 --> 01:37:58,342
I, like the entire world,
was watching you.

1668
01:37:58,558 --> 01:38:00,970
And I just thought, why?

1669
01:38:03,312 --> 01:38:06,930
Throwing out today's
first pitch, Kevin Jorgeson.

1670
01:38:11,863 --> 01:38:15,072
Tommy Caldwell's
new autobiography, "The Push".

1671
01:38:15,283 --> 01:38:18,696
You were captured
by militants in Kyrgyzstan?

1672
01:38:21,164 --> 01:38:22,370
Turns out

1673
01:38:22,582 --> 01:38:25,415
the militant
actually survived the fall.

1674
01:38:25,626 --> 01:38:27,162
The rebel
was put on trial

1675
01:38:27,378 --> 01:38:31,793
and found guilty of terrorism,
murder, and kidnapping.

1676
01:38:32,008 --> 01:38:35,751
♪ I have been to the mountain

1677
01:38:36,888 --> 01:38:39,721
♪ And I have walked on his shore

1678
01:38:42,101 --> 01:38:46,095
♪ I have seen

1679
01:38:47,064 --> 01:38:49,271
♪ But I can't see him no more

1680
01:38:58,743 --> 01:39:01,360
♪ I have been to the valley

1681
01:39:03,706 --> 01:39:05,538
♪ And I have sung all her songs

1682
01:39:05,750 --> 01:39:07,240
You can do it.

1683
01:39:08,961 --> 01:39:13,421
♪ Watch me sing

1684
01:39:13,633 --> 01:39:14,919
Look“.

1685
01:39:15,134 --> 01:39:16,795
Mantle.

1686
01:39:17,011 --> 01:39:19,002
Mantle. Come on, try hard.

1687
01:39:19,222 --> 01:39:21,463
You've got to work hard
and focus.

1688
01:39:23,935 --> 01:39:25,596
♪ And I have walked
on his shore... ♪

1689
01:39:25,811 --> 01:39:28,052
You can do it.
You're working really hard.

1690
01:39:29,357 --> 01:39:30,722
Focus.

1691
01:39:30,942 --> 01:39:33,650
Come on, Fitz. You got it.
You can do it. Come on, buddy.

1692
01:39:33,861 --> 01:39:34,896
Come on.

1693
01:39:35,112 --> 01:39:37,149
Remember, push up strong.

1694
01:39:37,365 --> 01:39:39,481
Yeah.

1695
01:39:39,700 --> 01:39:41,282
Don't forget to breathe.

1696
01:39:44,872 --> 01:39:47,739
Come on. Yeah.
Try hard. Try hard.

1697
01:39:47,959 --> 01:39:51,372
Come on, Fitz.
You got it. Yeah.

1698
01:39:51,587 --> 01:39:54,249
Way to focus in.

1699
01:39:54,465 --> 01:39:56,251
Good perseverance.

1700
01:39:57,593 --> 01:40:00,005
Whoo!

1701
01:40:01,514 --> 01:40:03,596
Nice mantle, buddy.

1702
01:40:03,808 --> 01:40:05,094
High five.

1703
01:40:06,143 --> 01:40:07,383
Boom!