Tommy Caldwell is one of the most accomplished adventurers of the 21st century. Over the past 25 years, the climber from Colorado has etched his place among the mountaineering immortals while undertaking death-defying excursions from the Dawn Wall in California’s Yosemite National Park to the dangerous valleys of Kyrgyzstan.
Most recently, Caldwell partnered with his “Free Solo” climbing buddy, Alex Honnold, for an extended biking trip through British Columbia to Alaska that was filmed for a National Geographic special. The adventure culminated with the pair summiting the formidable Devil’s Thumb peak in the Stikine Icecap.
On April 3, Caldwell is set to appear at the Edmonds Center for the Arts to share stories from his life and speak about the perspectives he’s gained from his many adventures. The Seattle Times chatted with Caldwell recently about his thoughts on fired federal workers, the importance of preserving land for future generations and a crucial tent-book recommendation.
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
How is life these days?
Things are going great. I just got back a couple weeks ago from a trip to the “Yosemite of South America.” It’s a place called Cochamó. It’s actually up for sale, so it was part of a fundraising trip to help purchase that place into protection.
Tell me more.
Patagonia is my main employer these days. My job technically is “global sports activist,” so I’m supposed to help people get impassioned about environmental issues. This is a huge part of that. Patagonia, a few years ago, they changed their whole legal structure. All the money goes to the planet, or more specifically, environmental nonprofits. So, they’re donating a big chunk of money to this project.
That’s really cool.
It was really the local people and the climbers, though, that banded together and negotiated with this billionaire who had bought up all the land there and was going to turn it into a hydroelectric project and build housing. It’s this big effort to raise, ultimately, $75 million. About ($40 million) is secured so far. It’s an amazing place. It’s got some of the oldest trees on Earth, these trees called the Larissa trees. It’s got these big granite walls, kind of like Yosemite. When I was there, I was kind of, like, “I can’t believe this kind of thing can be bought and sold.”
You’ve dedicated a lot of time to projects aiming to protect public land. How do you feel about what’s going on in the federal government right now in America?
I do get the news, and I get super disgruntled. The kind of stuff that I do is advocate for people to care. People are caring right now, one way or another. With all the (President Donald) Trump firings of national forests (workers), national parks (and) the DOGE firings, it’s been this crazy time. They fired 5,000 people, and everybody went up in arms. Then they announced 5,000 hires. So, in some ways, it feels like the kind of work that I and other people are doing to help people understand how much we care about these places is at least having some effect, even in the current administration.
As someone who spends a lot of time in national parks and forests, can you speak to the real-world impact that these firings can have on the ground? How important are they?
I mean, they’re pretty freaking important. I’ve dug pretty deeply to figure out who exactly is getting fired. It’s a little bit of everything. The Yosemite search and rescue program is really in jeopardy of not being there anymore. That’s something that we’ve relied on for a long time.
In some ways, I am excited for a little tightening because I did feel like maybe things like timed entry were just getting a little too regulated. It was just getting way harder for me to even get into the national parks. But for the most part, it’s (people) like firefighters, rescue people and the administration. Every day I come across some story where I’m, like, “This person was doing this very critical job and they got fired, and how is this even going to happen going forward?”
Have you spent much time in the Pacific Northwest climbing?
I haven’t spent tons of time up there. I’ve climbed a little bit in Index. I actually have a brother-in-law that just moved to North Bend. There’s some really good climbing areas right there that I’m excited to go to. I’ve climbed in Mazama. I’ve done some of the stuff around Mazama, and yeah, it was super beautiful. I mean, it’s one of these places that there’s so much there and it’s so good.
You recently appeared in a National Geographic documentary, “The Devil’s Climb,” where you biked across Canada with Alex Honnold and summited a pretty fearsome mountain in Alaska. What was that experience like for you two?
It was a really incredible climb. I’ll probably talk about it at the event at Edmonds, but it actually came out of conservation work. Part of my job with Patagonia is to figure out where these environmental issues are. When I (learned) that the Devil’s Thumb sits in pockets of national forest, I was, like, “Oh, my God, these two parts of my life are aligning perfectly.” And so that’s how the trip was conceived.
What was it like being at the top of the Devil’s Thumb? How did biking all the way there change the experience from past summits you’ve made?
It’s interesting. I think the fact that we biked all the way there, it just changes your relationship with the landscape. It changes your excitement when you see it. Imagine seven weeks of 14 hours a day of approaching this mountain. The first time I saw it was literally one of the most joyful moments you could imagine. I was giddy with excitement. It was so beautiful and very moving.
In this phase of your life, what kind of goals do you still have for yourself that you want to accomplish?
I feel like I want one big expedition every two years or so at least now while my kids are young. When they are off in college or whatever, maybe I’ll do one a year or something. They’re sitting there, like, “No, don’t go.”
My son is saying, “Only if you bring us!” Pretty soon I’ll be able to start bringing them, so that’ll be great.
Do you have any book recommendations you’ve enjoyed over the years?
One of my favorite books that I just reread with my son, Fitz, is (Alfred Lansing’s) “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.” It’s a crazy adventure story that’s about as good as it can get.
