Plan B Forum

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Whatever part inside of Tommy Caldwell that made him attempt the seemingly impossible — a free climb of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall — might have been born in 2000 when he and three others were kidnapped by militants while climbing in the Pamir-Alai range of Kyrgyzstan. They escaped after six days on the run when Caldwell shoved an armed guard over a cliff.

Or it might have come shortly after, when Caldwell severed his left index finger with a table saw during a home renovation.

As with a concert pianist or a surgeon, the index finger is a useful digit for a world-class rock climber, and some worried that Caldwell’s career was over.

Instead, his biggest climbs have been performed with nine fingers.

Two climbers trying to scale the sheer face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park are inching towards the top of the 3,000ft (914m) peak.



Kevin Jorgeson, 30, and Tommy Caldwell, 36, are expected to reach the summit on Wednesday.

They are attempting to be the first climbers to do so without aids, except for harnesses and ropes to prevent deadly falls.

They began the half-mile ascent on 27 December 2014.

Spokeswoman Jess Clayton said the men will not give interviews at the top but will discuss the climb on Thursday.

Eric Jorgeson, Kevin Jorgeson's father, told local media his son has always been a climber and watching him fulfil a long-time dream makes him proud.

"He climbed everything he could think of. It made us nervous early on as parents, but we got used to it," he said.

He and his son had begun climbing the other routes to El Capitan's peak in California when Kevin was 15, making it a birthday tradition each year.

HaveIGotNewsForYou ‏@haveigotnews 1h1 hour ago

Caldwell and Jorgeson, who endured a 19 day climb up El Capitan, say they'll never use Apple maps again.

HaveIGotNewsForYou ‏@haveigotnews 6h hours ago

The Middleton family to contest Caldwell and Jorgeson's claim to be the world's most successful climbers.