But while this push began on Dec. 27, when the two men last touched the floor of Yosemite Valley, it took root nearly a decade ago. The Dawn Wall, so named because its sheer face catches the morning sun, was first climbed in 1970 by Warren Harding and Dean Caldwell (no relation to Tommy). They drilled hundreds of bolts and pulled themselves up ropes to reach the top.

The idea of free climbing the 3,000-foot rock formation — to use nothing but hands and feet to move upward, relying on ropes only to stop falls and pull equipment — was thought to be virtually impossible. Caldwell thrives on the virtually impossible.

“I have a very distinct goal all the time that I’m working toward, and I love the way it makes me live,” Caldwell said Sunday from the midcliff camp that he and Jorgeson have, 1,200 feet up El Capitan. “Most of the days of the year I wake up with this on my mind, thinking, What am I going to do today to get one step closer? It gets me outside every day in the mountains in beautiful places, pushing myself. It makes me live at a higher level, having this as part of my life.”

When he first considered the Dawn Wall, Caldwell and his wife at the time, the professional climber Beth Rodden, rappelled its vertical face, exploring if it could be free climbed despite its featureless surface.