Scaling Sheer Heights: Lessons Learned from the Dawn Wall Climbers

Everyone familiar with the story knows the pair nearly didn’t make it to the summit. Five days before achieving their moment of glory, Jorgeson was stuck halfway up El Capitan, unable to get through Pitch 15. A pitch is a segment of a climb that can be protected by one rope length; there are 32 pitches along the Dawn Wall route. His troubles began before he got to Pitch 15 because he split open the tip of his right index finger on the second day of the climb, and did the same to his right middle finger the next day. The climbers knew this was a concern because of the cold, dry weather in Yosemite. While the weather conditions are perfect for big-wall climbing and good for protecting fingers because they harden up in the cold, once the skin tears it heals very slowly.

So, Jorgeson taped his fingertips, overcame the pain, and continued his climb. That is, until he hit Pitch 15, an 80-foot lateral that runs right to left across the face of El Cap. Bridging that traverse requires a climber of average height, like Jorgeson, to fully extend his arms outward from the shoulder while balancing on a precarious foothold. One handhold in that position requires the climber to place heavy weight on the index and middle fingers of the right hand, precisely the ones that Jorgeson had ripped open. Time after time, as Jorgeson’s fingers squeezed downward on a knife-edge of granite, the rock ripped the tape off his fingers, then cut through the skin.

While Caldwell completed Pitch 15 successfully, Jorgeson fell off the pitch ten times in a seven-day period. Twice he took days off for rest—long days during which he had to battle negative thoughts. So, while Caldwell continued ahead on the route, Jorgeson fought his doubt by staying busy studying the footholds on Pitch 15. Using a jumar, a mechanical system that climbers use to ascend a rope, he got a better look at the footholds where he kept falling. He took a climbing shoe with him and tried stepping on the holds at different angles to see if that would help. (Mind you, some of the finger holds were only the width of three credit cards.) Jorgeson also stayed in his tent applying different salves to his battered fingers and taking lots of ibuprofen. To combat his mental doubt, he spent hours visualizing a successful run on Pitch 15. “Every single move. I probably climbed the pitch a hundred times in my head over those rest days,” he said.

The climbing partners had worked together on the Dawn Wall route for seven years, and were committed to finishing the climb together. They knew that if Jorgeson couldn’t get through Pitch 15, Caldwell faced a tough decision: either go on without his partner or not go on and know that both athletes would be done for the season. He didn’t want to abandon his friend. Yet, he also didn’t want to miss his opportunity to climb the Dawn Wall, which he was well on his way to completing.

Jorgeson’s breakthrough came from viewing clips of his previous eight falls on Pitch 15 filmed by a sports videographer covering the climb. As he watched the eight failures, he noted that the position of his right foot altered ever so slightly on the rock so that he could not get the grip and push he needed to successively push on. “I knew that I had to change that foot angle, and once I figured out the sequence that would allow me to do that, I was confident I would make it happen,” he said.

After resting, physically and mentally, Jorgeson decided to give Pitch 15 another shot, and fell two more times. But, on the final attempt of the day, he desperately pushed away from the rock, cutting his right index finger again in five different places, and stuck the move! Finally, he had completed the toughest pitch along the route. He moved through the next 17 pitches and finished the climb successfully with his climbing partner.

We ended Assembly with a short video clip of an interview with the two climbers, and I asked students to consider the lessons we can take away from the experience of these two courageous men as we sat in silence.

Cindy Rodenbaugh
Dean of Faculty and Students