Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Tommy Caldwell chats with Adam Ondra
|
Apologies if this was already posted elsewhere, but I thought this conversation was really interesting and answered a lot of questions I've had for a long time about the Dawn Wall and other experiences from these top two climbers. It's over an hour long but really a good listen, imho. |
|
Caldwell mentions Messner lamenting their dawn wall climb- does anyone know where Messner said this, or what Caldwell is talking about? |
tobias bundle wrote: Didn't he say he was traveling on the talk circuit with Messner when he said this? If so, it may not have been recorded anywhere. |
|
It wouldn't surprise me, as the siege tactics with hundreds of meters of fixed ropes used on the Dawn Wall are pretty much the antithesis of the self-contained alpine style ascent that he pushed so hard for in the Himalaya. I've definitely seen some other hard-core traditionalists complain about that climb for the same reasons. They see a ground-up clean aid ascent as far more worthy than a complex free ascent, however hard, that resulted in the placement of bolts and the presence of lots of fixed ropes for months at a time. |
|
Super interesting interview! And very well done production too. |
|
Reinhold Messner didn't "lament" Tommy Caldwell and the Dawn Wall, Messner chided Caldwell about adding 38 bolts to the Dawn Wall. In case you don't know Reinhold Messner is not a fan of bolts as documented in Murder of the Impossible. |
|
May you live in interesting times.... Hey Ben Chapman, Dawn Wall sure has an interesting history huh? :) Some of the greats from a few generations now! |
|
I am waiting for what the Super Team of Ondra, Honnold, and Caldwell will accomplish (if they every team up)! |
HughC wrote: Fixed that for ya |
Benjamin Chapman wrote: Lol. Sorry - do you know where Messner “chided” Caldwell? Like.. where I could read Messners words? (I’m aware of Messner’s stance. I just was curious about what was said in this specific instance) |
|
It's interesting to see how little multi-pitch and trad experience the worlds strongest sport climbers have. In the interview with Caldwell, Ondra mentioned how few trad pitches he'd accomplished before taking on the dawn wall, and supposedly the red bull tower promo was one of Janja Garnbret's first multi-pitches. Different strokes I guess. |
Jesse Martin wrote: Both the promo film and interviews state that is was genuinely her first multipitch -- which I found unbelievable at first but it has yet to be contradicted on any source. |
Ben Podborski wrote: While learning multipitch systems in the gym, she states that she has done none & Domen says he did one many years earlier. They are later shown on at least one real rock multipitch for training before they do the chimney. I was also shocked to hear that, but I wonder if that's totally normal for high level comp climbers? Ondra climbing the Dawn Wall with not even a handful of trad pitches under his belt is insane. Also consider that only 2 years later he nearly onsighted the Salathe Wall. |
|
Mikey schaefer seems like another really cool all arounder |
|
I am no trad expert by far, but hearing about these climbers going up there with not a lot of experience makes me think of this tragedy - youtube.com/watch?v=WUEUbdd… |
Dylan Colon wrote: I really appreciate this post. Can I climb the Dawn Wall? No. Do I respect the ability of those who did? Yes. Am I in heat over an ascent that took years of rehearsals on fixed lines and multiple failed attempts at the crux now being heralded as some super-human achievement? Nope. Am I in awe of Fred Beckey heading up into the unknown with shit gear and shit weather on what may ultimately have turned out to be just 5.6? Yes. |
|
Finally took an hour out of my work day to watch :-) I really enjoyed the way these two legends really respect each other and genuinely seem to admire the other person's achievements. |
Robert S wrote: TC won a Piolet d'Or award for the Fitz traverse in the same year. |
|
Ondra isn't a complete all-arounder in the sense that he doesn't engage in alpinism/montaineering, ice, free-solo, etc. But the fact that he's among the best in the world at several fairly distinct types of rock climbing (bouldering, single-pitch sport, hard trad, hard mutli-pitch, both boulder and lead on plastic) is super impressive. While some may consider that to be a fairly narrow range of climbing, being among the world's best in these is just insane. Ondra:
But zero alpinism, AFAIK. Rock/Comp climbers do sometimes venture into alpinism... David Lama being the best example I can think of. But that shit is super dangerous so I can understand why most stick to rock climbing. |
|
I think the majority of people who criticized TC's tactic on freeing the Dawn Wall missed the main point they brought out in this two-way interview: that TC believing the route was still possible for him after all those seasons of failure was a tremendous achievement in its own right. Like he had said, even up to the week before their scheduled filming of a push from the bottom, he had still not done the dyno move, not once (and he hadn't known about the alternative way). I think the vast majority of humans would have given up. He would have been a hero in the movie, regardless whether he freed the whole climb or not. |
|
Anyone else have a good chucle when Ondra was talking about speed climbing? He's just so disinterested in it. |
