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 Jorgeson at the 2015 Toyota/Save Mart 350 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Jörg,[ citation needed ] K. J. |
| Born | October 7, 1984 Santa Rosa, California |
| Occupation | Rock climber |
| Website | www |
| Climbing career | |
| Type of climber | |
| Known for | Free climbing The Dawn Wall |
Kevin Jorgeson (born October 7, 1984) is an American rock climber. In 2015, with Tommy Caldwell, he successfully completed the first-ever free climb of The Dawn Wall on the southeast face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Jorgeson was born to Eric and Gaelena Jorgeson. His father was an employee of the Santa Rosa Parks and Recreation Department, and helped to instill Kevin and his younger brother Matt with a love of the outdoors, and encouraged an 11-year-old Kevin to pursue climbing when an indoor climbing facility opened in the city. [1] He began competing in international climbing contests at 16. [1] Jorgeson is known for being able to free climb, using no equipment other than gear to protect from falling, and is well known for being able to high ball large boulders. [1]
Jorgeson and his climbing partner Tommy Caldwell were the first two climbers to successfully complete a free climb of The Dawn Wall on the southeast face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, completing the 3,000 ft climb between December 28, 2014, and January 14, 2015. The Dawn Wall is one of the most difficult big-wall climbs in the world, with multiple pitches rated 5.14 in the Yosemite Decimal System. [2] The climb had been planned since shortly after the release of the documentary film Progression in 2009, in which Caldwell, who had previously free climbed other, easier routes on El Capitan, surveyed the Dawn Wall to consider if it was possible to free climb. Jorgeson wrote to Caldwell after seeing the film, and the two men began to plan out and practice for the ascent. [3] [4]
The Dawn Wall , a documentary following Jorgeson and Caldwell on their free climb of The Dawn Wall, was released on September 19, 2018. The documentary was directed by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer. [5]
Kevin Jorgeson is sponsored by Adidas and Five Ten.[ citation needed ]
As of July 2019, Jorgeson was working toward opening a new climbing facility called Session, in Sonoma County, California. The project broke ground in 2018. [6] [7]
He is also a cofounder of 1Climb, an organization focused on introducing children to climbing. [8] [9]
In addition to climbing, Jorgeson performs as a keynote speaker for various corporate events, such as for The Gap, Samsung, and Alcon Laboratories. [10]
Carolynn Marie Hill is an American rock climber. Widely regarded as one of the leading competitive climbers, traditional climbers, sport climbers, and boulderers in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s, she is famous for making the first free ascent of the difficult sheer rock face of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, and for repeating it the next year in less than 24 hours. She has been described as both one of the best female climbers in the world and one of the best climbers in the history of the sport. One of the first successful women in the sport, Hill shaped rock climbing for women and became a public spokesperson, helping it gain wider popularity and arguing for sex equality. Hill has publicized climbing by appearing on television shows and documentaries and writing an autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World.
El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is about 3,000 feet (914 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is a world-famous location for big wall climbing, including the disciplines of aid climbing, free climbing, and more recently for free solo climbing.
Multi-pitch climbing is a type of climbing that typically takes place on routes that are more than a single rope length in height, and thus where the lead climber cannot complete the climb as a single pitch. Where the number of pitches exceeds 6–10, it can become big wall climbing, or where the pitches are in a mixed rock and ice mountain environment, it can become alpine climbing. Multi-pitch rock climbs can come in traditional, sport, and aid formats. Climbers have also free soloed multi-pitch routes.
Tommy Caldwell is an American rock climber who has set records in sport climbing, traditional climbing, and in big-wall climbing. Caldwell made the first free ascents of several major routes on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Royal Robbins was one of the pioneers of American rock climbing. After learning to climb at Tahquitz Rock, he went on to make first ascents of many big wall routes in Yosemite. As an early proponent of boltless, pitonless clean climbing, he, along with Yvon Chouinard, was instrumental in changing the climbing culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s by encouraging the use and preservation of the natural features of the rock. He went on to become a well-known kayaker.
In the history of rock climbing, the three main sub-disciplines—bouldering, single-pitch climbing, and big wall climbing—can trace their origins to late 19th-century Europe. Bouldering started in Fontainebleau, and was advanced by Pierre Allain in the 1930s, and John Gill in the 1950s. Big wall climbing started in the Dolomites, and was spread across the Alps in the 1930s by climbers such as Emilio Comici and Riccardo Cassin, and in the 1950s by Walter Bonatti, before reaching Yosemite where it was led in the 1950s to 1970s by climbers such as Royal Robbins. Single-pitch climbing started pre-1900 in both the Lake District and in Saxony, and by the late-1970s had spread widely with climbers such as Ron Fawcett (Britain), Bernd Arnold (Germany), Patrick Berhault (France), Ron Kauk and John Bachar (USA).
Beth Rodden is an American rock climber known for her ascents of hard single-pitch traditional climbing routes. She was the youngest woman to climb 5.14a (8b+) and is one of the only women in the world to have redpointed a 5.14c (8c+) traditional climbing graded climb. Rodden and fellow climber Tommy Caldwell were partners from 2000 to 2010, during which time they completed the second free ascent of The Nose. In 2008, Rodden made the first ascent of Meltdown, one of the hardest traditional climbs in the world and the first time in history that a female climber matched the peak of the highest climbing grades.
Dean Spaulding Potter was an American free climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, and highliner. He completed many hard first ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. In 2015, he died in a wingsuit flying accident in Yosemite National Park.
Adam Ondra is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. In 2013, Rock & Ice described Ondra as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation. Ondra is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year (2014) and is also the only male athlete to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines.
Big wall climbing is a form of rock climbing that takes place on long multi-pitch routes that normally require a full day, if not several days, to ascend. Big wall routes are typically sustained and exposed, where the climbers remain suspended from the rock face, even sleeping hanging from the face, with limited options to sit down or escape unless they abseil back down the whole route. It is therefore a physically and mentally demanding form of climbing.
The Nose is a big wall climbing route up El Capitan. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.
Lost Arrow Spire is a detached pillar in Yosemite National Park, in Yosemite Valley, California, located immediately adjacent to Upper Yosemite Falls. The structure includes the Lost Arrow Spire Chimney route which is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. The spire is the location for a dramatic Tyrolean traverse, which has since become an iconic slackline.
Alexander Honnold is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a climb described in the New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." Honnold also holds the record for the fastest ascent of the "Yosemite Triple Crown", an 18-hour, 50-minute link-up of Mount Watkins, The Nose, and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. In 2015, he won a Piolet d'Or in alpine climbing with Tommy Caldwell for their completion of the enchainment of the Cerro Chaltén Group in Patagonia over 5 days.
Sender Films is an American film production company based in Boulder, Colorado. Productions include outdoor adventure films, television shows, and commercials.
The Stonemasters were a group of rock climbers and adventurers in the 1970s, roughly 1973 to 1980, who originally climbed in Southern California—principally Tahquitz, Suicide Rock, Joshua Tree—and later, Yosemite National Park further north. The initial group were those of the first ten ascents of Valhalla on Suicide Rock.
La Sportiva is a footwear brand founded in 1928 by Narciso Delladio in Italy. He started his business by manufacturing boots and clogs for farmers and lumberjacks. In World War II, he helped to provide Italy's soldiers with custom mountaineering boots. In the 1950s, he began to make ski boots and first introduced the brand name of La Sportiva.
Free Solo is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin that profiles rock climber Alex Honnold on his quest to perform the first-ever free solo climb of a route on El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, in June 2017.
The Dawn Wall is a 2017 American-Austrian documentary film directed by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer about Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's successful attempt to create the first-ever big wall free climbing route—which they christened The Dawn Wall—on the historic southeast face of El Capitan in the Yosemite National Park, which had hitherto only been ascended by aid climbing.
Brad Gobright was an American rock climber known for free solo climbing.
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