World-class climbers Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold embark on one of their most challenging expeditions yet as part of The Devil’s Climb. Cameras follow the two adventurers for the new National Geo documentary as they attempt to reach the summit of Alaska’s treacherous Devils Thumb.
Before even putting life and limb on the line ascending the 9,000 ft. peak, they must venture through more than 2,500 miles by bicycle, sailboat, and foot. The journey takes them through the American West, Canada, and Alaska right up to their ultimate destination, a mountain known for its appearance and notorious for its level of difficulty.
Here Caldwell and Honnold open up about their ‘crazy’ grueling buddy trip.
Do you remember the first time where you two really got to know each other?
Tommy Caldwell: When did we do the “Triple” (Yosemite’s three tallest formations: El Capitan, Half Dome, and Mt. Watkins)? Do you remember the year that was?
Alex Honnold: We did that in 2012, but we knew each other I want to say the year before that. We’ve known each other casually for several years, but we did that one meaningful climb in 2012 and that kicked off our climbing together.
This latest journey is very much about friendship and a bond. What kind of meaning did this trip have for you?
Tommy: When we come up with what to do together, we come up with the objective. It’s about doing something awesome together. Then it just so happens one of us goes in to support the other a little more. Alex made this trip to be there for me after this big injury I sustained and to be a good friend, which really meant a lot to me. I was glad that was brought out in the edit of the film everyone will see.
Alex: With this trip, it was Tommy’s idea to bicycle to Alaska and climb these walls along the way. I wanted to do all the climbing with Tommy and do it on the Devils Thumb. I thought the climbing objective was incredible. Then it seemed weird if I just flew in to join him and left him to bike by himself across the whole Western part of the continent. It was like, “If we’re doing it, we should have the whole experience together because it seemed like the whole package. That’s part of why I wanted to do it with him. It just made sense. It was all or nothing.
Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell took a break from riding and went for a hike while on the Devils Thumb expedition. (National Geographic/Taylor Shaffer)
Even though you’ve been friends for so long, did you find you got to know each other on a deeper level by sharing this experience?
Tommy: I think this trip was the biggest adventure we’ve had together. In a lot of ways, it’s the same elements of other climbs we’ve done together. We know we have similar risk profiles and handle the mountains in similar ways. We make the same choices. We already know each other really well. I just think this trip was on a deeper level because we lived together for two months in challenging conditions, sharing hotel rooms, and going across the West. You really get to know each other a little more in that way.
Alex: One thing I thought was a little bit different about this trip was we had a tremendous amount of time biking, in the van, just together to just chat. I realized we could chat endlessly. We would just dive into all these various topics. You know you have a good friend when you don’t run out of stuff to talk about, which is really cool.
Talk about the challenges you face on the way. Tommy, you had to work through an Achilles injury. That couldn’t have been easy.
Tommy: We’ve done a lot of 24 up to 36-hour climbs together where you get destroyed, but then you get as much time as you need to recover after that. This trip was grinding for two-and-a-half months but we didn’t have time to recover ever. My Achilles was interesting because I was at the tail end of recovering the thing but not recovered. I was hoping the trip would heal me. I think it pretty much did. That was a challenge I was worried about, and it did slow us down a lot at times but overall it did heal me, which was really cool.
Alex: Did it slow us down much? I didn’t think there were many days where the Achilles was really a problem.
Tommy: There were some days.
Alex: Those would have been hard days either way. For me, it was the obvious challenge you would expect. The bicycling nonstop, the constant physical toil, the weather, the conditions for two months. It was hard for all the reasons you expect it to be hard. It was just a long way to travel.
What was the takeaway from this?
Tommy: I think the film highlighted a few things very successfully. I think it highlighted the danger involved, maybe too successfully. It highlighted the friendship in a great way that feels very genuine and exactly like it did. I’m glad it brought that forward.
Alex: I would hope viewers take away from it a sense of grand adventure. The idea you can go out and have a cool trip like this. Not necessarily like this and remote places in Alaska, but do a big outing with a friend to have an adventure.
Tommy: I think Alex and I have been lucky to do these a lot of our lives and go to these beautiful places. It was cool to show them to people. The Devils Thumb and the forests are shockingly menacing at times, yet a beautiful place. For people to see that in this way, I think the film does a great job of capturing that beauty and hopefully makes them realize special places are out there.
Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell take a break from riding while on the Devils Thumb expedition that included biking, hiking, sailing and climbing. They rode just shy of 2,300 and the expedition took 55 days. They had a support van that they lived out of for the duration of the ride. (National Geographic/Taylor Shaffer)
How is it inspiring the next generation? Perhaps even within the family?
Alex: With my kids, they are really small. Who knows what they will grow into? It would be great if they were interested in climbing. If not, that’s fine too. I hope they find something they are really passionate about and get them really excited. One thing I have thought about with projects like this is wanting my kids to grow up seeing me as someone who sets big goals for myself and someone who keeps pushing myself. I don’t want to raise my kids in the line of thinking that I used to do rad things before, and now I just parent. I can still be a parent and still challenge myself and show them what real adventure is all about.
Tommy: I was thinking the exact same thing about my kids. The idea you can come up with crazy ideas like this and do them. Not that much of the world does that. I wanted to be an example for my kids. Whatever is the passion for them. I wanted to show I could come up with an idea and go for it. I might fail. I might succeed. Who knows? That journey toward whatever journey I have is where the beauty and wonder are. That’s what I want them to learn and feel like they could do.
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What’s next?
Alex: There are a few more TV projects that may come together for next year. We’ll see what happens. I plan to go to Yosemite for the season, so I’ll just be climbing
Tommy: Both of us have been doing these smaller climbs and objectives that don’t make it into major films. A lot of my life these days is this conservation work that overlaps with climbing. I’m excited to go to this place Cochamó in Chile. I will do some big climbs down there and work to help raise $78 million [with the Chilean NGO Puelo Patagonia] to help buy from a developer to keep [325,000 acres in Chilean Patagonia] from being destroyed. Hope we can write some articles and make a film about it.
The Devil’s Climb premiere, October 17, 9/8c, Nat Geo (next day on Disney + and Hulu)
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