Tommy Caldwell Quotes

When you're climbing at high altitudes, life can get pretty miserable.

Every climb is different. The Dawn Wall was so dry and aggressive that my fingers would dry out to the point where they would crack. So I actually had to add as much moisture as possible.

The mountains are a demanding, cold place, and they don't allow for mistakes.

To anyone writing about #dawnwall, this is not an effort to 'conquer.' It's about realizing a dream.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

One of the reasons the Dawn Wall climb went so viral is that you get great Internet access on El Cap. It's like the best Internet access in all of Yosemite, so we had our phones with us.

The Dawn Wall is so obviously the hardest big-wall climb in the world, so that was the challenge.

Nineteen hundred meters up there is completely different from1,900 any place else. There's no air, there's no oxygen. There's no vegetation, there's no life. There's no life. Rocks. Any other climb there's vegetation, grass and trees. Not there on the Ventoux. It's more like the moon than a mountain.

I want to solve a climbing problem in the mountains, not in the sporting goods store.

Personally, I would rather climb in the high mountains. I have always abhorred the tremendous heat, the dirt-filled cracks, the ant-covered foul-smelling trees and bushes which cover the cliffs, the filth and noise of Camp 4 (the climbers' campground), and worst of all, the multitudes of tourists which abound during the weekends and summer months.

This is one of my definitions of mountaineering: to go where others do not.

It's real difficult to sing out in the elements at 2 in the morning in 35-degree weather while you're dancing in a sleeveless chiffon dress.

Right now, I'm just focused on the 8,000-meter peaks. I don't know what's next. I don't think I will get tired of climbing.

The mission of professional mountain climbers is almost impossibly difficult by design: Their very livelihood is based on achieving the unprecedented. Their expeditions are complicated, exhausting, often life-threatening. Risk is the fuel that keeps them going.

There's big granite walls up toward the Argentine border, but the weather's serious, and a lot of the rock is mossy and wet.

When I took on Everest, I'm not there for the views.

I've got this weird thing where I wake up and put lotion all over, and when I go to sleep, I put lotion all over. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but it's shameless.

You can show up at Everest having never really climbed before, because it's like hiking, basically. You can't show up on Meru and start up the thing unless you have years and years of experience. Climbing and spending time on the mountains is really the only way you can train.

I think my favourite beauty mantra would be getting a good night of sleep - it works wonders for your skin. And once you wake up, post your shower, ice your face. It really, really helps your skin.

I think it's possible to climb the Dawn Wall in a single day. No matter what, it would be really, really hard.

I finished my degree so I'm definitely hoping I have some more time to climb.

The best climbers no longer go to the 8000ers, but to the most difficult mountains in the world which are 6000 or 7000-meter-peaks. There they find any kind of playground. But it is a pity that the really good climbers have fewer opportunities to finance their expeditions because so much attention is taken away by the Everest tourists.

The climbs up the Hand of Fatima, which is 2,000 feet, and Naga Parbat, which is just over 15,000 feet, were spectacular. The Hand of Fatima and the Kaga Tondo, in Mali, is a personal favourite of mine.

I was 5 when I went up my first 10,000 ft mountain, with my parents, and I have been climbing ever since.

The Nose is a beautiful route. The best thing is that, in one day, you get to climb so much. You climb and climb and climb the whole day.