Tommy Caldwell Quotes

#1. Stand at the base and look up at 3,000 feet of blankness. It just looks like there's no way you can climb it. That's what you seek as a climber. You want to find something that looks absurd and figure out how to do it.

Tommy Caldwell

#2. I travel and climb about eight months a year. That's pretty great training in itself. When I am home, I do a lot of bouldering, gym climbing, and specific strength training in a effort to get stronger for climbing.

Tommy Caldwell

#3. If you don't own your grunt work, can you really say you've done the climb?

Tommy Caldwell

#4. The Dawn Wall and the Fitz Traverse were super-satisfying climbs. But I will always be searching for the next thing - the need to accomplish and explore are just woven into the fabric of who I am.

Tommy Caldwell

#5. El Capitan is the most chapping environment in the world: windy, cold, super dry. I wake up twice a night and reapply lotion to my hands. We sand our fingertips to keep them smooth.

Tommy Caldwell

#6. Through climbing, I've learned to find goals and work toward them. That's just the way I love to live.

Tommy Caldwell

#7. For me, I love to dream big, and I love to find ways to be a bit of an explorer. These days, it seems like everything is padded and comes with warning labels.

Tommy Caldwell

#8. In some ways, climbing in the clouds is comforting. You can no longer see how high off the ground you are.

Tommy Caldwell

#9. I have been to Switzerland a handful of times, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to climb.

Tommy Caldwell

#10. In rock climbing, people get strong enough, and then they pick goals they can do with their strengths at that moment.

Tommy Caldwell

#11. I have a very distinct goal all the time that I'm working toward, and I love the way it makes me live.

Tommy Caldwell

#12. I pretty much bailed on high school. I mean, I graduated, but I wasn't even there for my own graduation.

Tommy Caldwell

#13. I have always let my motivation guide me, and that has served me well. Climbing has taught me how to thrive and created a life that I feel incredibly lucky to have.

Tommy Caldwell

#14. I grew up a clumsy kid with bad hand-eye coordination. Yet here on El Cap, I felt as though I had stumbled into a world where I thrived. Being up on those steep walls demanded the right amount of climbing skill, pain tolerance, and sheer bull-headedness that came naturally to me.

Tommy Caldwell

#15. I am at a climbing area called the Wendenstock in Switzerland. This area has some of the best quality multi-pitch climbing I have seen on limestone. There is about a two-hour approach on one of the steepest grass slopes I have ever seen. The setting is amazing.

Tommy Caldwell

#16. My wife always says that I function better up on a big wall than I do anywhere else in life.

Tommy Caldwell