The Hardest Climb Ever: 19 Days on the Dawn Wall

The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Spartan Races

Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, 792700

4.7 • 870 Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What kind of mindset does it take to train 7 years for one climb? Tommy Caldwell did exactly that before finally conquering the Dawn Wall in a 19-day climb that changed the sport forever. He also survived a kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan that tested his endurance in ways no mountain ever could. Tommy shares the lessons he learned through fear, pain, and grit.

Tune in now and learn how to build the mindset to push past your own limits.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:27 Meet Tommy Caldwell

01:47 Growing up climbing with his dad

02:33 Free climbing vs. free soloing explained

03:13 Climbing the Dawn Wall

04:50 Seven years of training for one climb

05:43 Physical and mental training routines

06:38 Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan the full story

10:24 How the climbers escaped captivity

11:19 Losing a finger in a construction accident

11:45 Building “obstacle immunity” through adversity

15:34 Endurance sports and human limits

16:14 What’s next for Tommy

17:59 Mindset & finding strength in community

20:52 The Dawn Wall bool & film

Connect to Tommy:

Website: tommycaldwell.com

Instagram: instagram.com/tommycaldwell

Facebook: facebook.com/1tommycaldwell

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tommy-caldwell-0472a98a

Twitter/X: x.com/tommycaldwell1

Transcript

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0:00.0	Climbing is a lot about overcoming pain and fear.
0:04.0	We're always doing these giant climbs where you're out there for sometimes 50 hours at a time.
0:09.0	Climbing these huge mountains, it's cold, it's hot, you know, whatever.
0:12.0	There's so much pain and it's scary for most people.
0:15.0	And so at some point I started to realize that I could use that to my advantage.
0:19.0	It almost had acquired a bit of a superpower or something.
0:22.6	Spartans, listen up.
0:24.6	We need to sleep better.
0:25.6	How do you sleep better?
0:26.6	Never thought about it before.
0:28.6	And so I met Jack.
0:29.6	I met Ascentia.
0:30.6	I had attention to the mattress to sleep on because it's loaded with chemicals.
0:34.6	Recovery, cooling, and pressure relief. All in one mattress.
0:39.3	Up to 60% more deep and REM sleep.
0:42.3	Less inflammation, faster bounce back.
0:45.3	No toxins.
0:46.3	No EMFs. No BS.
0:48.3	My buddy Jack, over at Ascentia, he's kind enough to give us a code for the Spartan community.
0:53.3	That's Decca. That's tough mother of Spartan community. That's Deca, that's
0:54.5	top mother of all of us. Use Spartan 25, get a discount, prioritize your sleep so you can sleep
0:59.9	faster, you can do more burpees, you can train more, you can get healthier. When you sleep well,
	...

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