May 17, 2024
Found in “Community news”
This year was another record-breaker: tickets sold out in 1:27 minutes – that’s how you know you’re in for a good time.
MEC and Edelrid were so stoked to host Tommy Caldwell for his 5th year at MEC Vancouver to speak at his event, Tommy Caldwell Talks: Ride for the Planet. With MEC Climbing Ambassadors, Emma Contaoe and Sean McColl hosting, Vancouver’s climbing community came together to raise a whopping $5994.70 for Van Queer Climbers and Climber’s Access Society of British Columbia – that’s massive!
Big thanks
It truly takes a village. We welcomed Squamish Access Society, Van Queer Climbers, Climber’s Access Society of British Columbia to the MEC Vancouver store, along with our sponsors Edelrid, R&B Brewing and Humblebee Meadery. A huge thank you to all for making this an unforgettable evening of prizes, silent auctions, refreshments and rad stories.
With great power comes great responsibility
Following the success of his hugely popular film, The Dawn Wall, Tommy Caldwell found himself with a new title: movie star. The attention was a little uncomfortable for someone who, “hates wearing a suit,” but this new-found mass popularity meant Tommy had a bigger platform to help him advocate for environmental issues, like forest conservation, which would spark, “what was maybe the coolest trip of [his] life.”
“One of my main purposes in life is trying to get different people and groups to care about environmental issues,” said Tommy. “I hate politics, but they put together this event, meeting with senators and politicians on Capitol Hill. If you want to make change, it really is all about policy.”
Hungry for a big adventure
“I was hugely adventure starved. I was like, I gotta go big.” And boy, did he ever.
The mission: Help protect the Tongal National Forest and raise awareness of deforestation by cycling across the country from Tommy’s home to climb the Devil’s Thumb, located along the Alaska – British Columbia border.
The plan: “I really just typed ‘Devil’s Thumb’ into Google Maps from my house and hit the ‘bike’ option,” he laughs. “Then I called up my buddy Alex [Honnold] and asked him to join me. He originally said no, you know we both have young families, and we were going to be going for 6 weeks. Then 2 days later he called me back.”
Green pointing
Green pointing means to travel somewhere with lower carbon emissions, like opting to take a sailboat instead of an airplane. This inspired Tommy to cycle to the Devil’s Thumb, instead of flying. “I’m not a biker, I had never done a long bike tour. Beforehand I did two 100-mile bike rides and got completely obliterated,” Tommy says. “We did have a helicopter following us with our gear, so it wasn’t quite a low carbon trip, but more of a proof of concept.”
Along the way, Tommy and Alex witnessed firsthand the destruction of deforestation. “We’re doing this trip about saving the forest, we climb up to the top of these mountains and we could just see [them] burning. It really impassioned us to keep going.”
Type 2 fun
It may have started as a cycling and climbing trip, but pretty quickly sailing and bushwhacking joined the daily agenda. En route to the Devil’s Thumb: “It started off kind of easy for an hour or two. Then we started getting into thicker and thicker bush – Devil's Club, which is this planet just covered in spines. We spent four days bushwhacking at ¼ mile per hour.”
*I think we can rethink of climate degradation as a means of using our creativity and energy in life. I think that’s what it’s going to take.
Reaching the Devil’s Thumb
“Finally seeing the Devil’s Thumb was one of the most joyful moments of my life ‘cause we had travelled six weeks to get there. If you bushwack and bike a thousand miles, it brings this feeling of joy that’s just unmatched.”
After six weeks of travel, Tommy and Alex ended up climbing all the peaks in a single day, including the Cat’s Ear, which features an extremely exposed summit with a 7000ft drop over the side.
“One of my favourite parts about this trip is it actually became such an incredible opportunity. It really combined political activism with big adventure.”
Q&A highlights
Q: What’s changed the most in your climbing career?
A: “When I started climbing I was very objective-focused. I wouldn’t really think about the people involved. Now, it’s all about the people, I pick the person and then we figure out what we want to do. It’s about having this adventure with this person.”
Q: After climbing everything in a day [at The Devil’s Thumb], did you have to retrace your steps, bushwhacking for 6 weeks on the way out?
A: “We took a helicopter out. I was like ‘I gotta get home or I’m going to get divorced’.”
Big laughs for this one.
Q: What aspect of climate advocacy resonates the most with you? Where does your focus live?
A: “My niche right now is land protection. It overlaps with climbing the most.”
Q: What makes a good adventure?
A: “If you plan too much it’s not really an adventure. You gotta strike the right balance. Big trips like that there’s a lot of suffering involved, you gotta have that type 2 fun mentality because in the moment it’s not always fun.”
“For big adventure it needs to have magnitude and creativity,” said Tommy.
“I think that was my favourite answer of the night,” said MEC Climbing Amabassador, Emma.
We have to agree.
