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In 2008, Tommy Caldwell looked across Yosemite Valley at the 3,000 foot rise of El Capitan,

and that's when the crazy idea came.

He'd already climbed El Cap about 60 times. That's when the crazy idea came.

He'd already climbed El Cap about 60 times, but this time he focused on the Don Wall.

He describes it as the biggest, steepest, blankest wall on El Capitan.

Reflecting back on the moment he said,

its sheer improbability fascinated me.

The Don Wall had been climbed once before in 1970, but the pair of climbers had to use

bolts and ropes to support and even hoist themselves up on portions of the featureless

rock face.

Tommy Caldwell wouldn't have it so easy. He was a free climber.

Yeah, he used ropes, but only to catch himself in a fall.

The rest of the time, he had to rely on his fingertips and the rubbery soles of his shoes alone.

The climb was a long process.

In 2009 he started repelling down from the top to identify possible routes up the wall. He explained that's how you solve the puzzle.

He explained that's how you solve the puzzle of a big free route.

You figure out a move, link a sequence of moves together,

then connect those sequences until you come to a logical stopping

point that marks the end of the pitch. The route up the dawn wall had 32 of these individual pitches.

...