The Dawn Wall ★★★½
THESE rock climbers are fascinating characters.
They’re a strange breed, kind of like Clark Kent and his alter-ego Superman, in their own words socially awkward and generally most at ease within themselves, but incredibly focused, determined and, of course, supremely fit.
You can add to that brave as hell, although some people would describe them as foolhardy or even crazy.
Personally, I can’t stand heights, but that probably makes me even more interested in what makes a person want to climb a 3,000 foot sheer rock face and, more importantly, how the hell they do it.
Two recent documentaries – the Oscar-winning Free Solo from 2018 and The Dawn Wall (2017) – are great companion pieces that provide great insight into two individual stories.
I’ve previously reviewed Free Solo so let’s look here at The Dawn Wall which focuses on the same challenge but from a different perspective and solutions.
El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Canada, is an awesome sight from ground level so imagine what it’s like dangling from the side half way up.
Alex Honnold was the first man to climb El Capitan ‘free solo’, meaning without any ropes, and his amazing 2017 feat, completed in six, unbelievably tense hours, is captured in Free Solo.
The Dawn Wall, on the other hand, follows Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson who spent several weeks in 2015 living on a different face of the same rock that had never been climbed.
It takes them weeks because in many sections previously considered unpassable they were testing and eventually traversing sections for the first time.
Caldwell has a fascinating back-story, including being kidnapped by rebels in Khyrghzstan and accidentally cutting half his left index finger off.
How he fights back from both these events makes for extraordinary and compelling story-telling, even before we follow Tommy and Kevin as they begin their ascent of the wall after several years studying and practising.
Unbelievably, Kevin had never attempted El Capitan when he agreed to accompany Tommy on such a feat of endurance, strength and concentration.
It’s amazing to watch them end a day’s climbing by fixing small porta-ledges to the wall, making dinner on a stove and settling in for the night. Nerves of steel!
The attempt is also made in the winter, to assist with the ability to properly grasp the tiny crevices available to them, but also meaning they have to endure 50mph winds and ice showers.
In one section, a 300 ft lateral traverse, they have to execute ‘The Dyno Leap’, literally flying through the air Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible style.
If you’ve ever wondered and marvelled at the limits of human ability, take a look at The Dawn Wall and Free Solo.