The Dawn Wall

592 00:32:36,706 --> 00:32:39,793 Once the divorce fully happened, I... 593 00:32:42,254 --> 00:32:44,673 Yeah, I was just crushed. 594 00:32:46,466 --> 00:32:49,094 I drove to the rim of Yosemite Valley 595 00:32:49,302 --> 00:32:51,972 and was looking across at El Capitan. 596 00:32:53,849 --> 00:32:57,269 It felt like El Cap was all I had. 597 00:33:02,399 --> 00:33:03,733 Early in the morning, 598 00:33:03,942 --> 00:33:07,195 there's this one panel of the Wall that illuminates first. 599 00:33:14,286 --> 00:33:16,872 That's why it's called the Dawn Wall. 600 00:33:19,833 --> 00:33:23,503 The last unclimbed big swath of stone. 601 00:33:23,712 --> 00:33:25,797 I had looked at it a little bit before and knew 602 00:33:26,006 --> 00:33:28,758 that it was way too hard, I'd never be able to do it. 603 00:33:30,635 --> 00:33:32,387 But I was just hurting so bad 604 00:33:32,596 --> 00:33:34,264 that I had to figure out a distraction in life. 605 00:33:34,473 --> 00:33:38,018 I couldn't just sit there and feel the pain. 606 00:33:40,437 --> 00:33:43,315 I decided to go up there alone 607 00:33:43,523 --> 00:33:47,152 and beat myself up on the Wall as just a way to cope. 608 00:33:52,073 --> 00:33:54,784 I walked around the back to the top of El Cap. 609 00:33:57,370 --> 00:33:59,998 I started rappelling down from above. 610 00:34:00,207 --> 00:34:03,627 And I put in a camp so I could stay up there. 611 00:34:03,835 --> 00:34:06,129 And I started going through this process 612 00:34:06,338 --> 00:34:10,091 of searching for a way to climb this section of the Wall. 613 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:16,556 The specific path was totally unknown. 614 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,686 You look for weaknesses in the rock. 615 00:34:21,895 --> 00:34:24,856 Corners that you can wedge your body into. 616 00:34:25,065 --> 00:34:27,567 Cracks for your hands and toes. 617 00:34:27,776 --> 00:34:30,320 Little edges for your fingertips. 618 00:34:30,529 --> 00:34:32,531 Anything that you could possibly grab onto 619 00:34:32,739 --> 00:34:35,200 that would make this wall climbable. 620 00:34:39,746 --> 00:34:41,957 At first, it was just hanging on the rope, 621 00:34:43,583 --> 00:34:45,252 analyzing the surface of the rock 622 00:34:45,460 --> 00:34:47,420 to see if there was holds. 623 00:34:51,925 --> 00:34:54,261 Just finding something to obsess about 624 00:34:54,469 --> 00:34:57,847 so I wouldn't obsess about my divorce. 625 00:34:58,056 --> 00:35:00,267 I think it's probably important 626 00:35:00,475 --> 00:35:03,687 that it was an impossible level of rock climbing. 627 00:35:03,895 --> 00:35:07,524 When you absorb yourself in some magnificent challenge, 628 00:35:07,732 --> 00:35:10,569 there is no space to be thinking about anything else. 629 00:35:14,072 --> 00:35:15,699 You know, if you're heartbroken, 630 00:35:15,907 --> 00:35:19,953 just throw yourself into an impossible wall. 631 00:35:20,161 --> 00:35:22,163 So I was sitting up there through this storm. 632 00:35:22,372 --> 00:35:24,207 My wife has left me. 633 00:35:24,416 --> 00:35:26,585 She was the only person I had climbed with 634 00:35:26,793 --> 00:35:29,421 for, like, ten years. 635 00:35:30,672 --> 00:35:32,716 In my portaledge at night, 636 00:35:32,924 --> 00:35:35,385 weeping and really feeling sorry for myself, 637 00:35:35,594 --> 00:35:37,637 trying to find this elusive thing 638 00:35:37,846 --> 00:35:39,556 that probably didn't even exist. 639 00:35:42,142 --> 00:35:43,435 I was concerned. 640 00:35:43,643 --> 00:35:45,812 He just seemed to be suffering at that point. 641 00:35:46,021 --> 00:35:48,064 And I wanted to see what this was all about, 642 00:35:48,273 --> 00:35:51,735 so early on in the game I went up there with him. 643 00:35:51,943 --> 00:35:54,988 I convinced my dad to come up there and belay me, 644 00:35:55,196 --> 00:36:00,076 so I could start actually trying to climb sections of the route. 645 00:36:01,578 --> 00:36:04,497 What the heck? 646 00:36:04,706 --> 00:36:07,292 I really had my doubts as to whether it was going to be 647 00:36:07,500 --> 00:36:09,294 a viable climb. 648 00:36:09,502 --> 00:36:10,670 - Be safe. - I will. 649 00:36:10,879 --> 00:36:12,547 - Get strong. - Yup. 650 00:36:12,756 --> 00:36:14,674 But during that period of time, 651 00:36:14,883 --> 00:36:18,094 he became convinced that it was somehow possible. 652 00:36:20,305 --> 00:36:22,349 Tommy spent an entire year 653 00:36:22,557 --> 00:36:26,227 swinging around looking for a route up the Dawn Wall, 654 00:36:28,730 --> 00:36:30,440 trying to connect the dots 655 00:36:30,649 --> 00:36:32,901 from the bottom all the way to the top 656 00:36:33,109 --> 00:36:37,364 so you can someday hope to free climb the whole thing.