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I think
this would be, like,

the grandest adventure that
we've been on in our lives.

I'm doing this to
support my friend.

One. Go.

My turn.

Uh-oh. It's real.

It's real.
It's really happening.

I do worry
about how Tommy will hold up

on the Devil's Thumb.

It's gonna get steep.

Wow. This is crazy.

I'm pretty sure you're
uh, you're not on route.

Those are the types of risks
that I don't really wanna take.

You know the
only thing keeping you alive

is your trust in your
climbing partner,

and your best friend.

My name is
Tommy Caldwell and I've been a

professional climber
pretty much my entire life.

The Devil's Thumb has
always been there,

in the back of my mind.

It's kind of like
this mythical mountain.

It's got the biggest alpine
face in North America that's

never been climbed.

Only a few people have
even attempted it,

and a lot of the ones
that did, died trying.

And so I've been putting
it together in my mind,

and sort of logistically, for,
like, a year or something.

But I needed a partner
to help me pull it off.

So I called up Alex Honnold.

He's the guy that climbed the
3,000-foot face on El Capitan,

in Yosemite, without a rope.

Yeah, buddy.

He's probably
the best climber on Earth for

an expedition like this,

and I was like, "is there
any way that you'd wanna

do this whole trip with me?",

and his immediate
reaction was, like,

"No, Sanni's gonna
divorce me if I do that.

Like, there's no
way I could do it.".

But I got in his mind a little
bit and he called me back

a week later, and was like,
"yeah, we're gonna do it.".

I think this is,
this could be mega.

This could be really big.

This is definitely
not light duty.

It's hard to say, 'cause
we don't know what the rock

quality is or what the
weather's like, but from the

photos, it looks insane.

I mean, there's also the
possibility of just going

straight up from the bottom,

you know, climbing
the whole south face.

Yeah.

Most teams of recent history,

have just helicoptered
right to the base,

but that's
not really my style.

So I started trying
to imagine, like,

"what would be the grandest way
possible to do this trip?".

I've always wanted to do a long
bike tour, and I came up with

an idea for, like,
this epic road trip.

Biking from my house, across
nearly 2,500 miles of the

American West and Canada,

all the way to the
border of Alaska.

Honestly, I haven't done
a big adventure like this

in a long time.

Keep my aging body fresh.

So it's like,

"let's climb something
that's very challenging

and really earn
our stripes getting there."

Can I get you guys
to look in each others' eyes?

No.

.

What do you see?

I see fear and pain.

.

What do you see?

I mean, I'm slightly
concerned about Alex's

lack of empathy
on this kind of trip.

.

Three, two, one.

Go!

My turn.

I've been
sidelined for a few years with

an injury and
raising a family.

Go!

So the Devil's Thumb is
kind of, like, the biggest

challenge imaginable,
for making my comeback.

I don't know, I just hope
to have a great, you know,

a grand adventure together.

Because I'm supportive and
kind, really empathetic, too.

This is when Alex will
be who he is, you know?

It always works... it's's always
worked out in the past,

and hopefully it'll
work out again.

Uh-oh, it's real now.

It's real.
It's really happening.

This is gonna go
by really fast.

I am excited that Tommy gets
to go on an adventure,

'cause I feel like Tommy
is the most himself,

he's the most Tommy when he
gets to do this kind of thing,

and it's been a while since
he's gotten to do that.

But two months is
a really long time,

and they're climbing a mountain

that could potentially be
a dangerous climb.

I haven't made
it past that yet.

Bye. Have a good Summer.

I'll treat him so well,
don't worry.

Oh, no!

Love you.

Love you, baby.

This is what we
like to call a "downhill",

so we really like
doing some speed here.

Just try to make it look fast.

♪ Spent two years of my
life in a foreign land, ♪

♪ Came home to find my
mind still stuck in the sand ♪

Okay, so here's a rattlesnake
that I just biked by,

heard the rattle,

and then it jumped at Tommy,
who's on the other track.

Welcome to Wyoming.

♪ I had to tell myself,
"Did 'em all for you" ♪

Oh, yeah. Buffalo.

This is,
like, X-rated filming.

Most people think
X-rated means naughty,

you mean dangerous.

Yeah, dangerous.

♪ And oh, it shows ♪

♪ On the faces of
those who know ♪

Waiting for Alex to cruise by.

We got camera on the tripod.

Boom.

Taylor Shaffer from San Diego,

and I've been a fan
of Tommy and Alex

for a very, very long time.

My job is to take some
photos during this journey,

massage their sore
butts, you know,

when they're just on
the bike for hours on end.

Taylor was in my kitchen one
morning, and I said that

we were looking for somebody
who was young and hungry,

and ready to go on
a big adventure and support,

and he literally was like,
"I'm young and hungry.".

Yeah, Taylor.

You're looking
like a man right now.

This is what ice
axes are actually for.

And
I'm driving the van.

I like driving,
it's not too bad.

Oh, my gosh, is
that Alex Honnold?

Wow.

Dreams do come true.

Check back soon.

This is the content
we need, right here.

The whole youth group.

Alex can't go
anywhere these days.

Tommy, nobody
cares about Tommy.

See, the lonesome dad.

Then we've got
Alex, over here.

Tommy's like, "okay, I'm just
gonna start biking because

nobody cares about me."

The average
person might not recognize

Tommy in the crowd, but
in the climbing world,

he's a total legend.

I was a ten-year-old
when I first

heard about Tommy Caldwell.

I was just a kid, going
to the climbing gym in

suburban California,

and Tommy was one of the
best climbers in the country,

and I mean really, one of the
best climbers in the world.

He was doing these insane
first ascents on some of the

hardest big wall
routes in the world.

He's like the Captain America
of rock climbing.

Basically, he was the
climber that I hoped to be.

I first heard
about Alex, you know, he was

kind of this budding, young
climber, and then he soloed

some big routes in Yosemite
before I ever met him, and

I was like, "whoa,
that's not normal.

He's doing stuff that
people really haven't done

at this point."

But it was in, kind of,
like, this angstful way,

in terms of needing to,
like, prove something.

I just remember talking to
him for, like, six hours

one night, which,

.

surprised me, 'cause that
wasn't kind of what I'd heard.

I'd head he was
super shy and awkward.

So we, like,
kind of connected.

The first big
climb that I did with Tommy

was the free trip on Yosemite.

It was something like a
24 hour climbing experience,

where we did the three biggest
and hardest walls together.

Okay, I got you good!

Nice, Tommy.

Climbing with Alex,

it's like a vice, in a way.

It's like smoking cigarettes
would be, or something.

It's like, you know
it could kill you,

but you do it anyway.

Dude, that was off the hook.

We had the
same sets of strengths and

weaknesses, basically.

It allowed us to climb in a
way that neither of us had

ever actually climbed before.

Climbing with
Alex, all the mountains shrunk

to about half their size.

We could climb things together

that we could never
do individually.

It was really addictive
right from the start.

Okay,
I'm making a movie.

Okay.

Okay, Tommy.
What are we doing?

I mean, so
we're looking at all these

awesome photos, trying
to figure out our route.

Turns out the walls are a
little three-dimensional,

it's a little bit
hard to figure out

until we get there and see it.

There's going to be
plenty of mysteries.

Okay, I'm
gonna look at more photos.

Whoa, big mountains.

Whoa, scary mountains.

Whoa, unclimbed big faces.

Unclimbed big faces.

Lots of rock.

Okay, well,
that's what we're gonna climb.

Cool, that's our mountain.

Okay, bye.

I first learned
about the Devil's Thumb

from Jon Krakauer's book,
Into The Wild.

It was, like, his formative
youth climbing experience,

going and trying to climb this
mountain, and his descriptions

of the mountain
captured my imagination.

It's an incredibly
beautiful mountain,

but it's just so remote,

and the weather is so terrible.

So I think it's gonna
be a big adventure.

Krakauer
attempted to climb the

north-east ridge of the
Devil's Thumb in 1977.

He made it about halfway up
when he realized there was

no way he could pull it off.

People have called it
"the last great problem"

in North American
mountaineering.

For Tommy and me, I think
climbing the Devil's Thumb

is really about the
chance to do something

that's never been done before.

I'm doing this to
support my friend,

I think that's kind of
the role of the partner,

is to keep you motivated,
to keep you moving,

to keep the team moving forward.

The bike ride, though,
not really my thing.

100 miles of, like, this.
I think I'm loving it.

Only my feet are numb.

This slowly
grinding our way across the

country, personally,
I think it's a bit much.

Like, just get me to
the climbing already.

You guys look beat.

Pretty tired now.

We look like beasts.

.

We
also got up at four.

Maybe tomorrow we should--

I'm gonna go take a shower
and look fresh as a daisy.

Tommy is known for his
good nature, his positivity.

Like, he's always upbeat.

You wanna wrestle?

No. Heck, no.

I think this was the stance.

Alex is sort of known for
being a bit of a grump,

sometimes, on the
way to the mountain.

But honestly, there's,
kind of, a bigger reason that

I need this time on the
bikes before the climb.

How's all the
legs, all the injuries doing?

I mean,
pretty good. Yeah.

I think, overall,
they're getting better.

Everything that I know
about life is, kind of, like

imbued through this lens
of being a climber.

All of my craziest experiences,
all of my hardest experiences,

all of my best
experiences are basically all,

somehow,
associated with climbing.

Year-and-a-half ago, I was
trying a climb in Yosemite.

I swung into the
wall really hard,

and it tore my Achilles tendon.

An Achilles injury, for any
professional athlete,

is very serious.

It can easily end
your entire career.

Biking is something I can do
before it's completely healed,

and so I started to conceive
this idea to do this big trip.

Which gives me about 50 days
to get ready for the climb.

My old man strength is
starting to pull through, here.

I'll take what I can get.

I'm usually
floundering behind you, so.

That's not,
that's not actually true.

You've got, like,
slightly flounder-y

in the last year or two,

and only because you
ruptured your, your Achilles.

I think Tommy's Achilles
injury has been hard for him,

for sure, especially for him
as a professional climber,

it's like, it's his
livelihood, in addition to the

thing he loves doing.

He needs to
be set free, physically,

to fully be himself.

And then you just wonder, too,
it's like, our, like, security

is kind of based on him being
physically able to do stuff.

And so, having that
threatened, there's that,

you know, just a little
bit of vulnerability.

Well,
they put bolts in there,

they put a cadaver
part in there,

they stitched the whole thing up
using all these crazy things,

and they completely
rebuilt the Achilles tendon.

Hopefully it'll hold up on the
Devil's Thumb, but we won't

really know until we get up on
a real mountain and test it.

We've made
it about halfway on our

bike journey to Alaska,

and we're stopping off
at a mountain range called

"Bugaboos", in Canada.

It's a famous climbing
spot in North America,

and a proving ground
for bigger alpine climbs,

like in Alaska.

It'll be kind of a
climbing boot camp to

test Tommy's Achilles,

and ease back into full-on,
like, elite rock climbing.

We are up early 'cause
we're gonna go climb today.

Right now, we're just having
a nice, early breakfast,

enjoying the stars.

Giant rockfall in
the middle of the night.

Sounds big.

That sounds really big.

Nothing like
just starting the day

hearing this massive rockfall...

as you head off
into the mountains.

5:00 a.m.

We're here.

It's a big jumble of
rock above us, huh?

El Cap size.

Ready to blast off.

Our
objective, today, is to climb

a 3,000-foot granite wall.

Alex climbed the first 100 feet
in like four minutes.

Gonna have to go fast.

Pretending my toes
aren't about to fall off,

and start crying like a baby.

Alex is leading
and he's going really fast,

and honestly, I'm struggling
to keep up with him,

especially with being
injured for the last year.

The
micro's on, Tommy.

Okay.

I'm gonna
keep going up the next ridge.

Whoa!
This whole thing is loose,

that I'm standing on.

Was is strenuous
climbing past this?

- Is it strenuous?
- Yeah.

The
crux is hard, at the top.

Man, that was
a little more physical than

I was hoping.

How's
the Achilles, Tommy?

How do you feel?

Umm...

You know, like this has been
a bit of a journey.

Did have two Advil 'cause of
the bolts they put in my heel.

Hey, you
ready to take us to the top?

- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.

Woke up today,
might as well be bad-ass.

Yeah,
that's the spirit.

Alex is being
pretty patient with me,

but we both know the partnership
to take on the Devil's Thumb

together doesn't really
work if I can't keep up.

Nice, Tommy.
Come on.

Nice, Tommy.

Nice, dude!

Nice effort.

Thank you.

Solid, Tommy.
Come on.

I do wonder if he's
more beat than he lets on.

I mean, I think he's kept
shockingly high spirits,

but truly, it's taken a toll.

Tommy just took the lead after
a year-and-a-half of injury.

What a boss.

Tommy Caldwell,
childhood hero, you know?

Getting off belay, Alex.

Nice job.

Alright, Tommy. Come on.

So high up
there that you can't even see

the mountains anymore.

Oh, my God.

.

Just amazing.

After nearly two years of
recovery, where, at times,

I didn't know if I'd ever
climb big mountains again,

honestly, it just
feels incredible.

.

Oh man.

Yeah!

Yeah, Tommy!

High-fives.
What a boss.

Yeah, good work.

Bam, the summit.

- Yay, the summit!
- I have no idea if this is...

Tommy gets to
the summit and I can immediately

see that he seems
pretty emotional,

and, and we celebrate.

It's really freaking cool.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I think that
was a great day.

Pretty psyched.

You know, I've had enough
big setbacks, in my life,

that I've almost
become addicted to

the progression that
happens as I come back.

I think, somehow,
Kyrgyzstan built that in me.

When I was 21-years-old,
I did my first big,

international trip to these
wild mountains in Kyrgyzstan.

A small war broke out.

We got kidnapped, held hostage
in the high mountains

for six days.

Went six days, basically,
without food and water.

We saw people get
shot point-blank

right in front of us.

One of the kidnappers was
escorting us to a new location,

one day, and we
ultimately escaped that guy

by me pushing him off a cliff.

When I pushed him,
he fell 20 or 30 feet,

bounced off a ledge,

and then we just saw him
disappear into the blackness.

And so, yeah, I figured,
in that moment,

that I just killed someone.

And we ran six-to-ten miles
down to a military base,

and then ultimately made
our way out of there.

I think that affected
me in a lot of ways.

We experienced, like,
fear in a way that

still doesn't feel real.

Not long after that,
I was back home,

just trying to get my
life back together,

bought this little, tiny,
rundown cabin.

Didn't know how to use
power tools or really remodel.

And I chopped off my
finger with a table saw.

My doctor said my
climbing career was over.

But through both
those experiences,

I built this intense drive
to not lose climbing.

I basically learned
that climbing can

save me from anything.

.

Our climbing
the Bugaboos was definitely a

big step, but I do still worry
about how Tommy will hold up

on the Devil's Thumb.

You know, he turned
45 on this trip.

I mean, for a professional
athlete, that's old.

I think Alex
walks this interesting line of,

like, supporting
me and pushing me.

You know, he's not, like,
a hugely sympathetic

climbing partner,
that's for sure.

He makes these off-handed,
kind of, harsh remarks,

at times, and he's actually
said to me, he's like,

"maybe I should find somebody
younger and more hungry,"

and I don't know whether
that's tongue-in-cheek,

whether that's truth.

I don't know.

I think I wanna show Alex I
still have it, but I think,

more than that, I wanna show
myself that I still have it.

Hey, dude.
We made it to the ocean.

We
made it to the ocean.

We are in
Prince Rupert, British Colombia.

There's no roads beyond here,
so this is where we ditch our

bikes and sail to a place
where we can start our final

approach, on-foot,
to the mountain.

Alex is, unfortunately, passed
out in the bottom of the ship,

face-down, trying not to puke.

Somebody's gotta
captain the ship.

Yeah, it's starting to
get a little bouncy.

Well,
we're sailing, there's whales.

Oh, yeah.

That was sick.

Alex doesn't seem sold.

I love doing
trips with Alex, but he is a

little bit of an enigma,
I would say.

Every time we are out doing
something that, I think,

is kind of incredible,
Alex is, oftentimes,

pretty grumpy about it.

I always thought that it
was just kind of a shtick,

like, he was just being funny,

but I think, now, there's, like,

a little bit more
to it than that.

He gets the most happy
when we find a scrappy,

little climbing gym.

That's when he's
the most joyful.

I mean, I'm realizing that he
needs to pull hard on

small holes, all the time,
to feel right in the world.

We should do what we did
before, which would be you

leading the free blast.

Back in 2016, Alex was
prepping for his big Free Solo

climb in Yosemite,

which was really putting
his life on the line,

and I was trying
to help him get ready.

He used to periodically go
through existential crises,

he would blow up
his relationships.

You'd call him and he'd
just seem dark and conflicted.

Can you read me your
journal entry for today?

Says, "Today 7-C
plus one fall on crux,

too pumped, need more fitness.

Do you
ever put things like,

"miss my dog,
and my mom?"

I don't know.

- No, no.
- No?

I think I
felt like I could only perform,

as a climber,

with a certain amount of
angst or kind of aggro energy.

You know, that I needed some
darkness in order to achieve.

When I grew up, nobody in
my family hugged, full-stop.

And so I didn't really start
hugging until my mid-20s,

and it was a conscious
effort to, sort of,

learn how to touch other people.

Some people look at me
and they're like,

"oh, he's, you know, an
emotionless robot," like,

"he feels no fear, he's
just like a climbing machine."

I feel emotions, I would
just say that I'm probably

less emotive than,
than the average person.

With Alex,
there's always a

protective wall.

I think it's hard for him to
let down his guard of this,

like, persona of
the fearless climber.

You ready?
One, two, three.

Alex, you should do it.

No
chance I'm jumping in.

.

I'm also here, hoping for a
transformative experience.

And hoping to figure out
what a trip like this actually

means for me, as well.

I think I'll feel a little
more at ease once we get some

real intel on what the
climb and the mountain

actually looks like.

Hey Dieter.

Finally.

Yeah so great to meet you.

Great to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Thanks for having us.

My pleasure.

Dieter Klose is
probably the most prolific and

knowledgable climber
on the Devil's Thumb.

He's one of the few people
on Earth who can give us

real info on the
potential climbing routes,

and on navigating
the maze of obstacles

between here and the mountain.

The Devil's Thumb
is very remote.

You're totally alone.

It's only climbers that
are really drawn, I think,

because it's so forbidding.

These are awesome.

I thought
you'd like this one.

It gives you a good, you know,
view of the north-west face.

Makes
it look very ominous.

- It's terrifying.
- Yeah.

So there's no routes on

any of this part of
the north-west face?

Negative.

- So there's nothing over there?
- Yeah.

There are three
potential routes, that we're

considering, to reach the
top of the Devil's Thumb.

The south face is
the cleanest route.

It's a good option in bad
weather, but doesn't offer

much in terms of
climbing objectives.

A much more impressive option
would be to do a full traverse

of the entire
Devil's Thumb massif,

which means to summit
each of these incredible

needle-like spires

on our way to the top of
the Devil's Thumb itself.

The final option is to summit
via the massive wall of the

north-west face, which
has never been climbed.

It might
never get climbed,

because it's so fickle.

It's like, everybody that's
gone there, you know,

high-end climbers,

don't even go
onto the face at all.

But why don't they try?

It's avalanching.

Yeah.

Normally, you don't go to a
climbing destination that's

also a good place to go
avalanche-watching.

I know.
They're beautiful, right?

If they don't hit ya.

Can't wait.

I was on the west
buttress, I got hit by rockfall,

and my daughter was
six-months-old, and for me,

that was a total wake-up.

Like, it was, "you're a dad now,

you're not doing
dangerous climbs anymore."

I don't think there's any
advice, that I can give you,

that you don't already know.

I mean, it's like, I would say,
"stay alive, you have a family."

It'll have
to just be, like, a

game-day decision, I think,
on which route we actually take.

You won't know until
you're right there.

Yeah, totally.

The next
step is figuring out how to

actually get to the mountain.

Navigating this
new approach, up a new valley,

that nobody has
really travelled through.

So this
approach route is kind of

your brain child?

Yeah.

So if it's terrible,
we can blame you?

Absolutely.

That does
look hard to get through.

It's just miserable walking.

It's rocks on ice.

Oh, my God,
just like this nice rain,

there's the mountain,
somewhere, in the distance.

Yeah. You picked a
place to climb.

I know.

Up the river,
across, and then zigzag on

the ledges, hopefully.

Look it, we see it!

What?!

Here we are,
the Devil's Thumb.

Yeah, whoa.

Oh, wow.
This is cool.

Oh, my God,
it looks so crazy right now.

So beautiful.

We've journeyed all
the way from Colorado,

and first view
of the mountain.

That looks so epic.

It's awesome.

This is, like,
insanely pretty.

We're about
to hike over a glacier,

and then we have to go

all the way around
the corner, over there.

This is
what Dieter calls,

the witch's cauldron.

What used to be, relatively
benign, snow fields, have now

melted out into shattered
glaciers and exposed rock.

We are now on the
glacier-glacier.

We have to watch out
to not fall in holes.

Oh, jeez.

I think I'm gonna do it
different, just 'cause

I'm an old man.

The terrain
that we're navigating is

exactly the kind of
thing that you probably

don't wanna be doing
on an Achilles injury.

His greatest risk are, sort of,
acute stresses while hiking.

After
my surgery, I, like,

convinced myself that
I was totally fine.

I got in the walking
boot and I was like,

"oh, I can actually climb
in the walking boot.".

So I started climbing again
in my orthopedic boot,

I resoled the front with
climbing shoe rubber.

I was like, "oh, I'm just
gonna get back after it.".

So I went out with Alex,
one day, to test it,

and just, like,

pushed into this foothold really
hard and felt it go again.

It just, like,
catastrophically exploded,

like, audibly, like,
pow, you could hear it.

I mean, sadly,
I was belaying Tommy when he

re-ruptured his Achilles.

He re-ruptured it either three
or four times through the

recovery process, and had
another surgery, and had,

I mean, all kinds of,
it was quite a saga.

It makes me feel
slightly complicit.

I don't think it's totally my
fault, but I was like,

"oh, maybe we should've been
reining him in a little

instead of urging him on."

So I think, for me, this trip
is less about, sort of, like,

a personal drive,

and more like a certain
feeling of obligation.

If I can help him accomplish
this big climb, and make his

official comeback to climbing,

I think that'll mean
a lot to both of us.

Hit it with speed, Tommy.

Is that really better
than pitter patter?

Yeah, 'cause
I can't, like, I can't jump on

to the toe of my foot,
I gotta land on my heel.

It's probably, like, the
hardest terrain imaginable

on a healing Achilles tendon,

and we're trying
to go fast because

we don't want
it to last all night.

One, two.

Yes, Tommy.

It is fully dark now.

A little terrifying.

We still have everybody?

Okay.

Even Taylor, back there?

We
finally reach a place to camp

at around midnight.

The bolts in my heel get, I
think, just, like, walking,

just, like, tugs on them, and
given, you know, 13 hours of it,

tugged on
them a fair amount.

Alright, we
did 13-and-a-half hours today.

The watch says it's
three-and-a-half days

till we recover, so let's set
the alarm for a couple hours

and go again.

Should be fine, huh?

After nearly two
months, and over 2,000 miles,

we're finally here.

♪ Alex and Tommy ♪

♪ About to climb the
Devil's Thumb. ♪

♪ We're up high
on a glacier ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

♪ Man, this has been so fun ♪

.

Racking up,
putting together our tiny kit

to go across all
the mountains.

The weather,
right now, looks fine.

So we're gonna go
rock climbing soon.

The Devil's Thumb is notorious
for bad weather, and yet,

when we get here, a huge
high-pressure system comes in,

and we get a good forecast.

Alex racked,
I usually let him do it,

'cause then, if I do it,
he just takes half the

stuff off anyways.

That's not even true. Look how
big that rack is, it's huge.

The thing is, we wanna be
prepared for rappelling,

we wanna be prepared for
anything, and we're simul

climbing huge blocks really,
so we want a lot of gear.

Yeah.

And we're both,
you know, we're both young

fathers, we're
trying to keep safe.

Yeah.

Our luck with
the weather means we have a

chance to really go big

by attempting the
first one-day traverse

of all five peaks
in the Devil's Thumb massif.

We'll have
to move really fast and light

to basically race up and down

each of the five
peaks before sunset.

It's over
3,000 feet up and down the

first two peaks,
called, the witches.

Then, another 800 feet straight
up this incredible spire,

called The Cat's Ears.

Potentially the most dangerous
section is this insane

600-foot rappel down to notch
between the Cat's Ears and

the Devil's Thumb.

The final climb up
the Thumb itself

is 1,500 feet of
vertical rock.

- Let's go for day packs.
- Yeah.

Just going for it.

The Devil's Thumb
is the main objective,

but the spires next to the
Devil's Thumb are equally

impressive, from a
climbing perspective.

They're, like, the stuff from
fantasy, like, slender,

little needles
sticking in the sky.

The fact
that we're gonna try and just,

like, blast the whole
traverse, basically, in a day,

sounds kind of
intimidating to me.

I wonder how it's gonna go.

But I like the strategy,
you know, you gotta, kind of,

go for broke sometimes.

The key to
our partnership, and taking on

crazy climbs like
this, is speed.

When you can move faster
together, you can climb

further before you
run out of things

like daylight, or supplies.

Over the years, Tommy and I
have, sort of, refined our

technique to allow us to
climb pretty darn fast.

Simul climbing is when both
climbers climb simultaneously.

Come on, Tommy!

Come on!

Bah!

Yeah.

And it's contrast to normal
climbing, where one climber

goes up and brings the
other climber to them.

Done climbing, Alex.

Both climbers
are moving in tandem, which is

way faster, but also
a bit more dangerous.

The leader
is, oftentimes, climbing 50,

60 feet above their last piece
of protection, which means,

if they fall, they're gonna
fall twice that distance.

120 feet.

Whoa, you okay?

Whoa, jeez.

Yeah, yeah. I'm fine.

The stakes are high, so you
need to be very aware,

very on top of your game.

A fall like that on
the Devil's Thumb

would probably be fatal.

Hi, dada.

Hey, Ingrid.
How you doing?

Hey, Fitzy.
What's up, buddy?

Awesome.

.

Hey baby.

How's it going?

Ready for tomorrow?

Yeah, getting
all geared-up, psyched.

Everybody's getting
ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow's the big day.

I think I always question the
risk side of adventures

like this, especially
these days, as a father.

That makes me a little bit
nervous, but on the other hand,

this is, like, what we do,
this is what Alex and I do.

Ingrid, dad's
talking to you and he's about

to go up a mountain, so
pay attention, please.

Yep.
I love you, sweetie.

Don't go!

Back in a few days.

Okay, here we go.

Have a good day.

Oh, yeah.
See you guys later.

Bye.

Oh, yeah.

Finally going rock climbing.

Off they go,
into the darkness.

I just hope everything
goes safe and sound.

No-one has
ever attempted climbing

all five peaks of the
Devil's Thumb massif

in a single day.

Honestly, I'm not
sure we can pull it off.

Wow.

We have to move
super fast, and Tommy's body

just isn't what it used to be.

But I also know how badly
he wants this climb

to be a success.

This is Tommy's trip,
Tommy's idea, Tommy's goal.

I just hope I can
help make it happen.

There's
always part of you that says,

"What if this doesn't work?

What does that mean for me,
for my career, for my life?"

There's only one
way to find out.

.

Good morning mountains.

I think this is the official
start of the route,

I'm starting my timer.

We have now begun
the outward traverse.

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Seeing the whole thing up
here looks amazing.

Yeah,
I was just taking it in.

Doing a one-day ascent
adds a sense of urgency

to the whole day.

If we don't make it during the
daylight hours, we're either

gonna have to keep
questing through the dark,

stop and shiver through the
night, or bail altogether.

So we normally start climbing
big mountains in our tennies.

Yeah.

No rope?

Yep.

Alex starts
climbing up to the base of the

first spire without a rope,
because it's faster.

There's Tommy,

soloing up the
beginning of the route.

Tommy climbing carefully.

I'm just not
comfortable climbing without

safety gear the way Alex is.

I feel like he's already pushing
me over that line of risk,

but I also don't wanna slow us
down right out of the gate.

We ended up climbing, unroped,
almost half of the first route.

But it does get us into
position to start the

first pitch a little
head of schedule.

Okay,
I'm freaking repacked.

Are you ready to go?

Tommy Caldwell is starting
the first section of

technical rock climbing.

There's the top of
the Witches teat.

Okay, you're tied in.

Line's on, you
have all your things.

Take me to the summit.

The first spire is 2,000 feet
of vertical, with no clear

route to the top.

Tommy sets off in the lead,

and he quickly
climbs out of sight.

Okay.
Traction's on!

Nice, I'm climbing.

When we simul climb, we try to
go for really long stretches

at a time, without stopping.

Which means that we place
protection less frequently.

I mean, sometimes you're going
100 feet in between pieces of

gear, so that means you could
take a 200 foot fall, which,

on this type of terrain,
would probably be fatal,

because you hit ledges,

and bounce off things,
and you'd probably die.

The thing with simul climbing
is it requires total trust

from your partner,
because, oftentimes,

you can't hear your partner and
you can't see your partner,

but you just have to know that
they're doing the right thing.

I come around the corner and
see Tommy up, below this big

chimney system that
we're aiming for, and I can

immediately see that
he's fully off-route.

I'm pretty sure
you're uh, you're not on route.

What, do you think I'm
supposed to be over left more?

Yeah, I know
you're getting into all kinds of

weird [bleep] over there.

Seemed like the way, but.

No, uh, uh, uh.

I mean, I kind of think you
just, if you can reverse what

you just did, just down-climb
and quest back over, into it.

I get to a
place where the rock is wet,

the cracks go away, things
seem dangerous and loose.

And so I resign to the
fact where I actually have to

down-climb about 100 feet,
and get back on route,

which probably adds another
20 minutes to our day.

Oh, my God,
there's rocks falling.

Tommy's crossing.

We all get lost sometimes.

I find it a little bit
frustrating, though, because

you know that those things just
compound themselves over a day,

and if you think you're
gonna be out for a 24-hour

push in the mountains, any
time you waste 20 minutes,

like, that stuff adds up.

Sorry.

I got lost for a
minute, there.

No worries.

Tommy, back on track.

Is that you, Alex?

Yeah, I'm climbing.

I'm feeling
the pressure to move fast.

This feels like the moment
when I have to, kind of,

dig deep and prove
I've still got it.

Honestly, I'm just
gritting it out.

That's why I've gotten
where I am, and so

part of me wants
that to be kind of like,

as strong and as fierce
as it can be, always.

Yeah, buddy.

Yeah!

Woo!
I'm on the top, Alex!

Oh, yeah.

That was pretty good.

We make it to
the summit of the first peak,

which is only the beginning,

but it feels like
a big success to me.

Look at this.

This feels like, freaking,
straight out of

Lord of the Rings to me.

Menacing mountains everywhere.

There's the Devil's Thumb,
we're going over there soon.

There's Alex, just, you know,
walking around unroped.

Motored up this.

Yeah, right now,
I'm feeling like we're,

we're making good life choices.

Hopefully it stays
that way all day.

Okay.
I'm rapping.

Let's see where we get.

We're making good progress,

but we need to keep up the pace

if we wanna avoid getting
stuck up here in the dark.

I mean, depending
how uh, how that feels,

we could basically just solo.

Yeah.

Yeah, let's
just solo as far as we can, huh?

Yeah.

Wow.

I mean, it looks easy,
but it's super exposed.

Pretty exciting.

Are we roping up there, Tommy?

Yeah.

Uh-oh, Tommy got scared.

Yeah, I
kind of wanna rope up.

It's a little unnerving.

I'm climbing.

I know
that Alex wants to just stay

unroped, you know,
he's a free soloist.

But he stops, and we rope up for
the next section of the climb,

which is kind of nice.

I was like, "oh, he's
taking it seriously.

He kind of cares
about me a little bit."

You're on, Tommy!

Okay, I'm climbing, Alex!

Oh, man.

Just looks so sketchy.

Yeah, Tommy!

Oh, my God.
That's a good shot.

What should I do?
Should I pray?

Should I throw my
hands in the air?

.

What are we?
Where are we?

Oh, my God, the wind.

This is kind of unnerving.

Okay, let's start rappelling.

We descend the other
side of the ridge,

down into a shoulder on the
side of the Cat Ear spires,

which is over 800
feet of climbing.

Alright, you
wanna lead this one?

Uh no,
you should lead it.

No, no.
I think you should.

We start working our way up
the side of the first spire,

and we find our rhythm,

and we just fly.

Nice job, Tommy!
Cruising.

Thank you.

Yeah!

You're on belay, Alex!

Yeah.

Pretty crazy spot.

Woo!

Yeah, buddy.

Oh, yeah.

This might be the craziest
summit I've ever been on.

Oh, I can't wait.

Wow.

Boom, good work.

That's a good summit.

This is
something I kind of don't feel

like dancing around on top of.

I'm like, "Oh, my God."

You could do that.

Maybe
I'll do a handstand.

Here I'll shoot some video.

Does it look epic?

I mean, it'd
be more epic if I could take,

like, two steps
further back, but I'll die.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say
this is one of the craziest

summits that we've been on.

Oh, my God, yeah, don't fall.

Hi, mom.

.

Hi, Becca.
Hi, Sanni.

On the top
of the Cat's Ears spires.

Cat's Ears spires. This is
a totally insane summit.

My adrenaline
is peaking standing here.

I know, I feel a little shaky.

This is how you do PT
for the Achilles, right?

Yeah, totally.

Just one-foot balance on
top of the Cat Ear spire.

Jeez.

What do you think of the
Devil's Thumb behind us?

The north-west
face looks imposing.

That's the face of death, huh?

God, it does kind of look
pretty deathly, actually.

Look at that.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my God.

Giant avalanche.

Wow.

That is why we're not gonna
climb the north-west face.

Look at all the
consecutive lines of

debris down here.

There have been some big
avalanches down there.

That thing seems like death.

I know that
avalanches have killed several

people on the north-west face
of the Devil's Thumb, and so

in the back of my mind,
it just feels unsettling.

I'm definitely glad we didn't
go that way, but we still have

to figure out how to get to
the top of the Thumb itself,

which is another
1,500 feet straight up,

and we have no
idea how to climb it.

Check out that, that shield of
rock, with the zigzagging crack,

that black crack.

That looks cool, huh?

I guess we'll
see if there're holds,

we'll see if it goes.

Come on, huh,
do you wanna finish this off

with a bang or what?

No, I
just wanna get to the top.

Before we can start the climb,

we have to do our
biggest rappel yet.

It's like 600 feet straight
down, which is insane,

and potentially very dangerous.

Okay, we are now totally
detached from the mountain.

There's no anchor.

Can you actually see
over the edge there,

like where the
we're going?

I mean, no.

Sick.

We're working
against the clock, so Alex and I

are doing some very
advanced techniques for speed.

And one of those techniques
is simul rappelling,

which means we put the
rope through an anchor,

and then we counter-balance
each other, on our two ropes,

as we rappel down.

I mean, do we
think that thing looks good.

It, like, seems good enough.

It's just basically,
like, a one-nut anchor.

The problem
with simul rappelling is that,

if somebody loses control of
their rappel, both people die.

Okay, ready to weight.

Ready to weight. Weighting.

The scariest part of alpinism,
for me, is rappelling because

it's the one time
where one simple thing

could kill you both.

You're completely trusting
your life to your equipment.

Okay, there's no way
we can knock that off.

There's sharp edges.

There's always the chance that
a rope can get damaged, or,

you know,
worst-case-scenario, even cut.

This is so far.

It's 600 feet of
free hanging space,

and it's really quite scary.

Wow.

This is freaking crazy.

It's gonna get steep.

You are 100%
trusting your life to

your very skinny rope.

Only slightly thicker
than a shoelace, really.

And this very skinny piece
of hardware, that you

left behind, to rappel off of.

This is
kind of [bleep] scary.

Oh,
my God, the wind.

The
wind is, like, taking me.

This is the craziest
thing we've done all day.

This is,
like, an insane rappel.

Rappelling
like this is always

a little stressful.

So what just happened?

We just
did 600 feet of rappelling.

It was very scary.

It's, like,
intimidating to do that stuff.

Yeah,
it's real intimidating.

Well, I mean, the thing about
it is that, if a piece of gear

blows, you die.

Do you
ever think, when that happens,

like, "why do I do this?"

Well, those are the
types of risks that

I don't really wanna take.

'Cause, you know, like, if the
flake ripped and both pieces

came out, and we both
just die, you'd be like,

"well, that was friggin stupid."

Yeah.

So we finally made it to
the Devil's Thumb itself,

and it's massive.

From its base, this thing is
nearly five times taller than

the Empire State Building.

We're in the notch
below the Devil's Thumb.

Alex is taking us to the top.

Well, we'll see.

Here we go.

Tommy asked me to
take the lead and...

Oh, yeah!

...I think part of it is
because Tommy just isn't

quite feeling 100% gung-ho.

The bolts in his heel
might be hurting.

Basically, he wants me to
step up and lead us to the top,

and we don't have a
lot of time left to do it.

Woo!

Micro's on, Tommy!

Okay, cool.
Thank you!

The wall is huge.

It's thousands of feet
straight down below us.

Does it look easy above you?

Like, should I gain?

If you want to,
this middle part's kind of hard.

This is next level.

Yeah.

We climb
the first 400 feet

relatively quickly,

and Alex actually stops,
which surprises me.

Starting
to get a little tired.

Also, don't fall on this part,
we're on a one-piece anchor.

Okay.

Yeah,
I was really like,

not bad at climbing.

A little scary, though.

Yeah, a little wet.

I had one foot slip, but,

luckily, I had a
good hand jammed in.

At least we're
higher than the Cat Ears again.

Now, I wanted to
go over there...

Yeah.

...But it's
not good, so we're going around.

As we're climbing up,
I run into a section of,

somewhat difficult,
tricky climbing.

We still got
like a ways to go.

I mean, it's like way, way up.

We could
go straight up those zigzag

cracks, I think it would work.

Tommy yells up
that he wants to go straight

through this really
imposing head wall.

It's this huge, overhanging
section of rock jutting out

from the face, blocking our
final approach to the summit.

Let me just figure out how to
uh, how to make this work!

Looking up at the summit, in
this moment, it's almost like

time slows down.

I realize the summit means
a lot more to me than

I would've expected
from just the climb.

It's like the trip has
never been just about

climbing the Devil's Thumb,

the trip's about spending
two months with Tommy,

and helping him
achieve his dream

of making his big comeback.

That's the reason I'm here.

Come on, Tommy!

Come on!

Woo!

In the world of climbing,

a partnership that
is as special as this

is not easy to find.

Yeah!

Woo!

I said, at the start of this
trip, I was worried about

Alex's lack of empathy,

but he's supported me
every step of the way.

He's not lacking in anything.

He's my best friend.

This is the
moment of truth, to get Tommy

to the top.

Suddenly,
I see him go out, onto this

shield of rock.

You are going that way?

Yeah, yeah I'm gonna try.

Yeah.

I shout
up at him, I'm like,

"you're doing the shield,
you're going up the gash!"

We're gonna end this whole
climb in the most

heroic way possible,

which is climbing up
the most spectacular

section of the wall.

Climbing
really freaking scary troughs.

Very scary.

As Alex is
climbing that final shield,

I see him, sort of, working his
way back-and-forth up these

zigzagging cracks.

He's getting in them at times,
and then he's coming out, and

finding little gear placements,

and balancing on
the little edges.

This is
pretty freaking mega.

Yeah, nice work!

There's
one last pitch above me,

and then it's a clear
shot to the summit.

Ho!

We're on top of a
freaking big wall.

Heroic way to end.

After such a
long journey, after such a

long adventure,
I'm surprisingly,

like, I mean, moved is the
only word, I don't know.

And particularly seeing
Tommy below me,

powering up the final stretch.

I've spent a
life of, kind of, overcoming

adversity, and, sort of,
harnessing the angst from

setbacks to push me forward.

I was worried about my
Achilles, just being, kind of,

an old man, being able to
keep up with Alex, but

I'm turning back into, like,
a mountain athlete,

in a way that I haven't
in a few years.

You're on the lip, Tommy!

Enjoy yourself,
this is freaking mega!

Woo!

I know that
the summit of big journeys,

like this, marks the end of
this, almost, love affair,

and I, I'm not quite
ready for that.

I'm feeling just incredibly
lucky to be in this place

on such a beautiful day,
with such a good friend,

and have things go so well.

Yeah, Tommy!

Yeah!

Wow!

That was incredible.

Two months.

Good work.

Oh, my God.

What do you think?

Look at this place.

It's
pretty cool, huh?

Pretty amazing.

Your triumphant
return expedition climbing.

You're back!

Yeah, I'm back.

I mean, I think I've gotten to
the point, on this whole trip,

where I was like,
"well, you know,

if we climb the Devil's Thumb,

it'll just be
the icing on the cake."

This is pretty sweet.

.

Usually, it's not about the
destination, but this is about

the whole
freaking destination.

Scary.

I think the real power of an
expedition is the fact that

you condense years of life
into a single month or two.

But at the same time, you know,

I think I'm maturing my spirit.

The relationships in my life,
and the friends that I keep.

When I was younger,

it was just so glamorous
to be dark, and broody,

and conflicted,
but now, I'm like, yeah,

I think I'm kind of
getting it, you know?

Like, why not do the
same hard things,

but be happy while
you're doing them?

It's like, why not?

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.