Two weeks ago, I got a text from Tommy Caldwell asking if I wanted to climb in Yosemite. I hadn’t climbed in two months and was feeling pretty out of shape after spending most of that time doing an abnormally minimal amount of exercise. But when you get a text from Tommy asking to climb, you don’t say no.

I suggested Quarter Dome, thinking it would be a good objective for our collective skill set. Selfishly, I was also hoping for a route that wasn’t too sustained for my out-of-shape self, while giving myself a chance at redemption after my previous attempt ended in an epic bail.

I had no plans to take my camera or film the day out, but the day before, Tommy mentioned he was interested in seeing how I make these videos, so here we are.

The approach went incredibly quickly, especially compared to my previous experience, and we reached the base in just under three hours from leaving the car at the Yosemite Stables. At the base, we collected the old rope I had left behind from a previous attempt and packed it into the follower pack.

Unfortunately, I had brought the wrong size climbing shoes, making for a pretty uncomfortable ascent. Luckily, I had a rope gun. Tommy took the first block, linking four or five pitches, and I took the second block up to the large bivy ledge. Tommy then took the third block up to the 5.12 crux, which felt like a wild ride. After Tommy sent the crux, I somehow managed to climb it clean on top rope, using a static move instead of the dyno at the end of the pitch. Two more incredibly sandbagged pitches brought us to the top, followed by a mellow hike down the Mist Trail that got us back to the car just before we needed headlamps.

The total car-to-car time was about 14 hours, and we climbed the route in six pitches. Wild. What a treat to climb with TC. The best part was seeing his psych for adventure climbing and his complete lack of concern for bushwhacking or long approaches. I’m already very much looking forward to the next time we get to rope up.