Tommy Caldwell

In January 2015, the climbing world watched, enthralled, as Tommy Caldwell, along with climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson, completed the first-ever free climb of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park. The feat brought climbing out of the periphery and into the mainstream when major national news organizations, including The New York Times and NPR, followed the duo throughout the journey. Caldwell is an Estes Park, Colorado-based big-wall climber with a handful of El Cap first free ascents: Dihedral Wall, The Nose, East Ledges and Freerider. In 2014, he and Alex Honnold completed the first ascent of the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia, a seven-summit climb spanning four miles and 13,000 feet across snow-and-ice-covered rock.