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The Dawn Wall: Episodes 1-12

One Day Hero

23-Dec-2013
6:45:52 PM

On 22/12/2013 Dave J wrote:
>Why do you put yourself through the pain then?

Well Dave, usually I don't. My general approach to climbing is to not buy into the 'delayed reward' bullshit. However, I occasionally make exceptions for the best routes in the world, which all seem to live in the Grampians and some of which are tantalisingly just within reach of my abilities (on the condition that I abandon my usual sensible idea of keeping climbing fun). Seriously, satan himself couldn't have done a better job of designing Taipan Wall as a tool to keep me dangling between desire and good judgement.

The other thing climbing is supposed to be is a sport. My idea of sport is something which contains an element of uncertainty regarding the outcome. From that perspective the projecting thing sounds great, cause you don't know at the beginning. And that whole 'figuring out' stage at the start is absolutely the bit I like best about hard projecting.........however, by the end, it's usually a slow grind towards statistical certainty. More like a job or marriage than a sport :)

Anyway, I just think that the 'climbing media' pushes an idea that happiness and mastery are waiting at the end of a long and difficult siege. This certainly isn't the case for me, nor (as far as I can tell) for lots of other climbers, though many haven't yet had the epiphany. Obviously the 'normal approach' works for some (including yourself and Phil) which is great.

>To tie it back to a mutual experience...Highly Strung...If that puppet had been 1 meter tall we would have pissed it >in. But we (mostly me) picked something hard enough that there was a good chance we couldn't do it. Then we >worked like bastards for months and squeaked through by the skin of our teeth.

Call me naive, but I (and the rest of the crew) had complete faith in your abilities. Never crossed our minds that it wouldn't work.............except for one especially strong wind gust on performance night, where I had a brief moment of thinking the tethers could break resulting in mass audience fatalities.


ajfclark

27-Dec-2013
7:37:00 AM

The Dawn Wall: Episode 9 from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

Kevin Jorgeson spends some down time bouldering in Camp 4 and reviewing how the 2013 campaign to free the Dawn Wall has focused and consolidated their efforts.

The Dawn Wall: Episode 10 from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

They call it Mecca for good reason, one of which is the sheer vastness of it's granite monoliths. In Episode 10 we see get up close and personal with Yosemite Valley, "natural home to the restless few with a rope and dangerous dreams."


ajfclark

8-Jan-2014
4:50:00 PM

Dawn Wall: Episode 11 from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

"The hardest pitch in Yosemite goes down." Desperately trying to outrun winter, Tommy Caldwell returns (after a three-week injury layoff) and redpoints pitch 15 at 5.14d. Only pitches thirteen and fourteen remain to be redpointed on the entire Dawn Wall Project.

Last one:

The Dawn Wall: Episode 12 from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

Winter finally shuts down Jorgesen and Caldwell’s 2013 season, their eighth on the Dawn Wall Project. With “the hardest pitch in Yosemite” ticked, and only two remaining leads to red-point (all sequences now climbed), the pair leave El Capitan with realistic hopes of a complete send (bottom-to-top push) in 2014.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

8-Jan-2014
5:54:29 PM

On 8/01/2014 ajfclark wrote:
>Dawn Wall: Episode 12 Winter finally shuts down Jorgesen and Caldwell’s 2013 season, their eighth on the Dawn Wall Project. With “the hardest pitch in Yosemite” ticked,
>and only two remaining leads to red-point (all sequences now climbed),
>the pair leave El Capitan with realistic hopes of a complete send (bottom-to-top push) in 2014.

The more I think on this, the more mind-blowing (to me), is their achievement...

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