SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015 Duo at Yosemite about halfway through world’s hardest climb wo men are attempting what has been Free climbing should not be confused with called the hardest rock climb in the solo climbing, where a person goes alone Tworld: a free climb of a half-mile section and does not use ropes, harnesses or any of exposed granite in California’s Yosemite other protective gear. A fall can mean seri- National Park. Kevin Jorgeson, 30, of Santa ous injury or death. Rosa, California, and Tommy Caldwell, 36, of Estes Park, Colorado, are using only their Q: who are the climbers? hands and feet as they make their way up the A: Caldwell is a professional climber who has steep and difficult exposed granite on one free climbed 11 routes on El Capitan. He’s side of El Capitan. The attempt - their third been climbing since he was 17. since 2010 - has caught the world’s attention. His life has been peppered with some They have been climbing to the towering peril. In August 2000, Caldwell and three summit for two weeks and could finish this other climbers went to the former Soviet weekend or next week. If they do, they will be republic of Kyrgyzstan to scale the tower- the first people in the world to complete the ing rock walls of its southern mountains. free climb. Seventeen days in, they were captured by Here’s a look at the latest: the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Caldwell shoved a guard over a cliff (he Q: Why is this free climb on El Capitan’s survived), and the climbers bolted and dawn wall so difficult? eventually got to a Kyrgyz army outpost. In A: No one has ever free climbed the Dawn 2001, Caldwell cut off his left index finger Wall on El Capitan, the largest monolith of with a table saw. granite in the world, which rises more than Six months later, he scaled El Capitan in 3,000 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. 19 1/2 hours with only protective hard- For more than 27 days in 1970, Warren ware to stop any falls. Only once before Harding and Dean Caldwell-no relation to had anyone managed such a climb in less Tommy-climbed the Dawn Wall using har- than 24 hours. Jorgeson is also a profes- nesses and ropes, but they didn’t make it sional climber, speaker and instructor. On to the top. There are about 100 routes to his personal website he says he’s been the top of El Capitan. Of those routes, the climbing since he was born. hardest and steepest is the Dawn Wall, “At first, it was fences, cupboards, lad- which faces east toward the rising sun. The ders and trees.” “Climbing was always a climbers are using only harnesses and very natural thing for me to do, so when I ropes that catch them if they slip from the found rock climbing, it felt perfect. I can’t wall during a pitch from one area to the imagine a sport that fits my personality next. any better,” he writes on his website. Q: what is free climbing and how does it Q: What are the hazards of the climb? differ from other types of climbing? A: Climbers’ fingers take a beating. Jorgeson A: In free climbing, athletes use only their battled with one section so many times physical strength and their hands and feet that the razor sharp holds ripped both the to scale the glacier-polished granite. The tape and the skin off his fingers. Caldwell’s cracks that they grip are as thin as razor fingers are so beat up that he sets his blades, some the size of a dime, and the alarm to reapply a special product to his footholds are nothing more than an inden- skin. The two must grip cracks as thin as tation on the wall. They are harnessed to razor blades and maintain footholds on ropes, which are there to catch them if Photo provided by Tom Evans, Kevin Jorgeson ascends what is known as Pitch 8. mere indentations on glacier-polished they fall. granite. Photo provided File photo shows by Tom Evans, the climbing Kevin Jorgeson face of El climbs Pitch 15. Capitan in Yosemite National Park..