OT: Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson about to finish the first free ascent of Dawn Wall, Live Stream
You've probably heard about these two the last couple weeks. They are attempting to be the first team to free climb (climbing without using gear to ascend past sections) the Dawn Wall on El Cap in Yosemitie. For reference the hardest single pitch ever climbed is 5.15c. The Dawn Wall route has six pitches rated in the 5.14 range, with two rated 5.14d, just 3 steps below the hardest single pitch anyone has ever done.
You can watch the last push here and history in the making.
http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/watch-the-final-push-of-the-dawn-w…
They just finished up pitch 30 and swung leads and Tommy Caldwell is starting up pitch 31. (EDIT: Actually they're starting up the final pitch!!). There are 32 pitches total.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
Wow... can't tell what is more impressive these guys or the French Spiderman dude who climbed to the top of the Petronas Towers lightning antenna without safety gear.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:26 PM ^
It's hard to top French Spiderman.
But wow--these guys aren't joking around, either.
I wonder if they've had as many falls as French Spiderman. It doesn't appear their wrists and forearms are held at quite such strange angles.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:55 PM ^
Of the free soloers out there, Alex Honnold is probably the one I'd compare to them. Not French spiderman. Urban climbing is definitely loads different from rock. I think Alex was at the top waiting for them which is a nice show of solidarity.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:34 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 8:22 PM ^
Well I was saying that Honnold has more in common to Caldwell and Jorgeson than the French guy does to the two of them. Not saying that Honnold and French Spiderman don't have anything in common. But Honnold is known for his (repeated) ascents in Yosemite (both free solo and free climbing) and he has partnered up with Caldwell and Jorgeson in the past for other climbs (ie. Fitz Roy last February). The free solos that Honnold does do are probably easier, but at the same time, that must mean his climbing level must be a lot higher to be able to do them without roope. IIRC, Honnold's climbed up to 5.14c, but don't quote me on that.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:04 PM ^
This was pretty cool....
January 14th, 2015 at 6:02 PM ^
At least you said it was OT...
January 14th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 6:05 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 14th, 2015 at 6:27 PM ^
Why do people suck so bad and downvote funny comments like this? Stay miserable peeps.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:47 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 7:54 PM ^
As a climber, I would learn to embrace it and respond to "Why do you climb?" with either "Because it's there" or "I have a crippling fear of walking uphill, so I must propel myself upwards with my popeye-esque forearms!"
January 14th, 2015 at 8:44 PM ^
than I do---those are not "popeye-esque forearms" on that robot avatar of his.
He'd be better off being retro-fitted for some booster rockets to propel him to the top. Would be easier (and much more sci/fy-entific) for a robot to be able to propel himself that way, rather than climbing like a mere mortal.
January 15th, 2015 at 11:40 AM ^
my bad, i assumed this was actually chris sharma lurking on mgoblog
January 14th, 2015 at 9:48 PM ^
Ah, I see your point. I'm imagining not many here are in the climbing niche and the humor, or lack there of, might not be as wasted on us!
January 14th, 2015 at 6:25 PM ^
I would have thought that you were describing some video-game accomplishment.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:36 PM ^
Thanks OP! It was great to catch the end of the climb! That was truly awesome and remarkable!
Here's the route if anyone is interested.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:43 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 6:45 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 7:55 PM ^
they finished all the hard stuff days ago
January 14th, 2015 at 6:45 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 6:45 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 6:45 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 6:45 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 7:57 PM ^
Amazing.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:48 PM ^
The most interesting launch point is to learn about Elizabeth Hawley. Allison Ott did a wonderful documentary about Hawley which initially presented at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival a few years ago. You should be able to grab that one through NetFlix or the like. I am an alpinist and was fortunate to watch the Hawley film debut and then go climbing the next day with Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin. Elizabeth Hawley is a credit to the University, she has led an extraordinary life and her story will appeal to just about any person, climber or not. Climbing rocks!
January 14th, 2015 at 7:09 PM ^
Since you're from Michigan they probably let you lead, right?
Seriously, those guys are world class climbers. I'm curious, who looked smoother?
January 14th, 2015 at 7:46 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 8:15 PM ^
BTW, check out the weird climbing story about Vern Tejas and Makalu Gau, just a few posts below.
Belay on!
January 14th, 2015 at 6:49 PM ^
Did part of our honeymoon at Yosemite last June. What an amazingly beautiful and awe inspiring part of the United States and world. I wanted to stay forever.
That being said, I sure as hell didn't try this.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:51 PM ^
As someone who's climbed rock, ice, glaciers, trees, and pretty much everything else in the Pacific Northwest, including putting up new, previously unclimbed routes, I think that this is a marvel of PR. I've seen more press about this FFA (first free ascent, meaning they protected themselves from falls with ropes, but did not use the ropes or other equipment to climb the rock) than any other non-disaster mountaineering story since Hillary and Norgay got up Everest.
These guys are talented and strong and determined, but they also essentially climbed this route as a series of single pitches, not in continuous, ground-up style. For the better part of a week, one was about 10 pitches ahead of the other, in terms of what he'd managed to "free" climb.
So yeah, nice job to these guys, but in terms of a mountaineering accomplishment, the guy that just completed the first ever January solo climb of Denali gets more cred with me.
January 14th, 2015 at 8:18 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 8:28 PM ^
In 1988 Vern Tejas was the first person to make a solo winter ascent of Denali. But he did it in March. Heck, that's easy. Anybody could do that. Right?
BTW, a married couple who I climbed Mt. Ritter (13,149 ft; not very high) with in the Sierra Nevada had Vern Tejas as their guide when they attempted to climb Mt. Denali. They said he's a down-home, friendly guy.
That couple did not make it to the top. When they were climbing, a Taiwanese climbing party of five that was led by Makalu Gau, who is prominent in the movie "Into Thin Air", got into trouble. Two of them died, and two others had bad frostbite. So my climbing buddies with Vern Tejas had to escort Makalu Gau down the mountain to basecamp.
Now here's the weird part. They said that Makula Gau, who had just led two people to their death and had two others lose fingers and toes, was shouting to people on the way down: "Victory! Victory! We climb Denali!" They wanted him to shut up, but he wouldn't.
Then, as you can see in the movie "Into Thin Air", Makalu Gau got stuck in the storm overnight on Everest (Chomolungma) at 27,200 ft., and lost most of his hands and feet to frostbite. Amazing that he survived.
January 14th, 2015 at 9:02 PM ^
Have you read Vern's book about that climb? It was outright brutal. And he was alone. No cameras, no support teams, no people hanging on fixed lines 20 feet away cheering him on. He was utterly alone, and the climb took him twice as long as he'd planned.
He dug trenches in the snow and used his paraglider wing as a roof. He intended to FLY from the summit but thought better of it and walked down. Much of the climb he was strapped into the middle of a section of extension ladder so that he would be less likely to fall to the bottom of a crevasse.
What these two are doing on El Cap requires phenomenal physical strength. But relative to Denali in the winter or K2 or the Rupal Face it's pretty cush.
January 14th, 2015 at 10:41 PM ^
While Caldwell and Jorgeson are off the charts for strength, stamina and skill, their risk factor is a lot less than walking around downtown Columbus at night wearing a Michigan sweatshirt and baseball cap.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:03 PM ^
Awesome. I would have thought their gigantic balls would have gotten in the way.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^
My understanding is that they are not free climbing the whole wall, but simply free climbing each pitch of the wall. If they wanted to truly free climb the entire thing, they would have to re-start at the very bottom of El Cap each time they fell off. They are not doing this, but restarting at intermediate points each time they fall.
Because they fall a lot and re-start at intermediate points, the ropes are a fundamental part of the climb itself and not just backup for safety.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:56 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
eh, the definition of a successful free climb gets pretty murky on a big wall. the important part was that they climbed every pitch free (at some point).
January 14th, 2015 at 7:49 PM ^
How peculiar.
January 14th, 2015 at 7:58 PM ^
January 14th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
the red or the new?