{"id":1301937,"date":"2018-12-30T06:21:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T13:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=439654"},"modified":"2018-12-30T06:21:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T13:21:20","slug":"tommy-caldwell-man-who-free-climbed-el-capitan-opening-winter-words-series-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tommy-caldwell-man-who-free-climbed-el-capitan-opening-winter-words-series-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Caldwell, man who free-climbed El Capitan, opening Winter Words series in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"

After his\u00a0historic free-climb ascent of the El Capitan\u2019s Dawn Wall<\/a>\u00a0in Yosemite National Park in early 2015, Tommy Caldwell stared down a nearly as daunting challenge: a blank page.<\/p>\n

To write his memoir, published last year as \u201cThe Push,\u201d Caldwell used the same tools he\u2019d used as a climber to revolutionize his sport and accomplish the seemingly impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith climbing, I\u2019m not super naturally talented physically and I\u2019m kind of in the same boat intellectually,\u201d Caldwell, who will open\u00a0the Winter Words author series<\/a>\u00a0Jan. 8, said in a recent phone interview from his home in Boulder. \u201cI always struggled as a student. But I have this ability to apply pretty incredible discipline and to feel impassioned toward things. That\u2019s what I do with my climbing. That\u2019s what I did with the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focused on the book for a year, Caldwell set his alarm for 4 a.m. to wake up and start writing no matter how he was feeling or whether he had anything to say. Eventually, \u201cThe Push\u201d started taking shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love digging that deep into things and committing and making it as great as I can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And, just like he needed Kevin Jorgeson as his climbing partner for the Dawn Wall, he needed editors and co-writer Kelly Cordes to creatively belay on the book. Once he committed and prepared, he knew what to do.<\/p>\n

\n

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\u201cIn climbing you have to analyze things, but at some point you have to go for it and go all in,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I did with the writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Push\u201d again proves Caldwell, 40, can do just about anything when he commits to it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an honest and surprisingly vulnerable memoir from the world-famous climber \u2014 not some chest-thumping recitation of mountaineering glory. The book offers tactile physical and emotional detail about what it\u2019s like to climb the Dawn Wall \u2014 the wind, the fear, the feel of rock on fingers \u2014 and also digs thoughtfully into big question of \u201cwhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was writing the book I tried to think as little as possible about the fact that a bunch of people were going to read it in the end,\u201d he explained. \u201cI was just trying to create the best piece of literature that I could. That required being very vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book offers an unflinching look at some of the thornier sides of Caldwell\u2019s private life and the backdrop of his very public inner life. He doesn\u2019t shy away from his father\u2019s fanaticism as an outdoorsman and some of the questionable and dangerous ways he pushed Caldwell as a teen prodigy climber. It details the Colorado native\u2019s harrowing experience of being captured by armed militants while climbing in Kyrgyzstan, his dramatic escape, and how the traumatic event may have led to the dissolution of his first marriage. It shares the story of Caldwell cutting off his left index finger in a table saw accident and pushing ahead with elite climbing with nine fingers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe part that is harder is the personal relationships with people who didn\u2019t necessarily choose to be characters in my book,\u201d he said. \u201cI tried to be as true to my heart as possible and hoped that they would understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His father, Caldwell said, was upset when he first read the book. But he\u2019s come around and now regularly asks his son to sign copies for friends.<\/p>\n

This fall, the documentary \u201cThe Dawn Wall\u201d about the climb was released. Caldwell said the film marks a sort of end to three years of reacting to public demand to hear about the Dawn Wall \u2014 in speeches and public appearances like his 2015 presentation at the 5Point Film Festival, in the book, and then in the documentary.<\/p>\n

And, of course, there\u2019s another recent movie about another historic climb that\u2019s kept Cladwell in the public eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cFree Solo,\u201d Jimmy Chin\u2019s vertigo-inducing and genre-smashing documentary about Alex Honnold\u2019s free solo ascent of El Capitan\u2019s Freerider route, has signaled a rare cross-over from the mountain movie circuit to the mainstream. Caldwell, who Honnold tapped to assist with preparations on the death-defying and controversial climb, is the major figure in the film after Honnold and girlfriend Sanni McCandless. Caldwell, with his two young kids and his ambivalence toward Honnold\u2019s wish to do El Cap without ropes, emerges in the film as a voice of relative reason.<\/p>\n

One of the most acclaimed features of 2018, \u201cFree Solo\u201d appears poised to be nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards. It screens Friday at Aspen Film\u2019s Academy Screenings. Honnold and the creative team have been swept up into awards season campaigning, but Caldwell said he\u2019s mostly been able to sit out the glad-handing and schmoozing of the awards circuit. He attended the world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and the red carpet premiere in New York, but otherwise has been able to stick with his ongoing tour for \u201cThe Push\u201d and \u201cThe Dawn Wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing to watch the whole thing,\u201d he said of the \u201cFree Solo\u201d phenomenon. \u201cEverybody involved in the thing are such huge performers and trying to achieve excellence in this incredible way. \u2026 The whole tuxedo scene has taken some adjusting for Alex, but I think he has adjusted quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Caldwell was writing \u201cThe Push,\u201d his wife gave birth to their second child \u2014 they\u2019re now 2 and 5 \u2014 and the onset of fatherhood, he said, animated every word of his memoir. The self-examination in the book, Caldwell sees now, resulted from his transition into being a dad and out of the inherently selfish life of a professional climber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book is really introspective and I think that\u2019s a reflection of where I was,\u201d he said. \u201cI was trying to figure out how I lived, what were the good decisions I made, what were the bad decisions I made and all that was an effort to be a better father. You\u2019ve got to understand yourself before you can pass that on.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After his\u00a0historic free-climb ascent of the El Capitan\u2019s Dawn Wall\u00a0in Yosemite National Park in early 2015, Tommy Caldwell stared down a nearly as daunting challenge: a blank page. To write his memoir, published last year as \u201cThe Push,\u201d Caldwell used the same tools he\u2019d used as a climber to revolutionize his sport and accomplish the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1301937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 22:57:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}