Young Hollywood, what's up? Hanging out with the stars of the movie The Dawn Wall, Kevin Jorgenson, Tommy Caldwell. Tell me about the process of making this movie. It was a seven-year process, correct? Yeah. And what was like the inception of it and then to the end? What how did that process work out?

It was just a big climb on El Capitan and Yosemite that I really wanted to do and I started climbing on it and then the filmmakers came because it was an interesting thing in the climbing world and they started filming it.

I also heard that it took you about seven years, right? To to make your points on the wall until you finally climbed it? Is that correct?

Yeah, it was like a big puzzle we had to solve. We had to figure out all the all the individual like the way to climb up this vast huge wall and you know, that style of climbing is really, really tiny holds. We just had to figure out how to do it and that took seven years and then get strong enough to do it.

And one of the most interesting things I found was that you guys lived on the mountain for 19 days on this, the portaledge, right? That's right. You guys each had your own individual portaledge that after you guys would make about two climbs on the mountain, stop and create this bad boy on the wall.

Yeah, this whole thing packs up into like a bag that's about this big and so you attach it to ropes and you haul it up the wall as you climb.

How many how many hours did you guys spend in one of these?

Oh, man, we would spend like I mean, basically like 12 hours, if not 18 hours a day, sometimes in those. I mean, but then we'd also belay. I mean, we're pretty much always in it except for when we're actually climbing. It's all in there, man. It's comfy.

I'll get in here, but I feel I feel nervous on like

There you go. Right here from a foot down. Just don't roll out of it, you know? You just got to stay

Tell me what what is it like living in one of these thousands of feet up in the air. Do you ever get scared like you didn't put in uh the anchors into the the mountain?

When big storms come in or ice is falling, you're always like, Yeah, there's moments of fear.

The wind?

The wind?

Yeah. The wind. Yeah, when it starts.

Does this thing blow ever?

Yeah, it can blow around and

So it's

Cuz the wind blows up the wall. It'll it blows so hard that you'll levitate.

I was going to say, are are you even heavy enough to kind of

Yeah, sometimes not. Sometimes you start to hover like on a magic carpet and the wind stops and you kind of crash and the strap the straps are like snap tight and the fly, the you know, like the tent around it will like start vibrating against the wall and it's super loud.

Your first time ever uh sleeping in one of these overnight, what was that experience like for you guys? Were you nervous? Were you scared or was it like

I I remember that experience and it was cozy.

Cozy.

Yeah, I liked it. I mean,

Is it because you spend all day climbing and just having somewhere to rest felt amazing?

Exactly. Yeah, I mean, generally you're out, you're like on the surface of the rock, you're holding on. It's real strenuous. You get in there and comparatively, it feels amazing.

So, tell me what was like the most challenging part of this climb for you guys?

Probably sticking with it over the seven years. Because there were times where we didn't think it was going to happen. We had to talk ourselves back into it.

I can only imagine what was going through your head. One push, cuz most people don't take breaks, is that correct? You guys did one push all the way to the top.

I mean, most people just don't climb roots this hard, so it's so it doesn't take them as long. Like we were just on the wall for a lot longer than really people generally are.

How do you guys top this?

The climbing world, it's hard to top it.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll see.

Is there anything circling in your head right now that you're thinking about doing next?

I mean, I think we're both like addicted to climbing and we're going to be looking for other like awesome adventures, but uh topping this, that would be a tall order. And that's to come from a really primal place of motivation though to keep you going the way that this one did. You know, it can't be an arbitrary goal. It has to be like really rooted inside of you that you want to get after it.

Yeah, a lot of times you don't know how big of a thing it is until you're deeply entrenched.

That's one thing I enjoyed about the movie is I I always hear you guys encouraging each other.

Yeah.

Yeah. And the positivity out of you guys, even though you guys had a hellacious climb and struggle after struggle, but you guys always found the courage to kind of make that person push each other.

Yeah, I mean, it's cool because it like it's an emotionally like a crazy environment. It seems like you should die. It seems scary, but the ropes and the systems allow it to be actually kind of safe.

We are in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest. Uh the tagline of Austin is Keep Austin Weird. Have you guys seen anything weird?

We haven't been here. I've barely been here. We showed up.

So you're just touching the surface.

Yeah, but I think we're going to see some weird stuff.

Is there anything you guys are looking forward to?

Seeing the film.

Seeing the film.

Was this your first time seeing it?

Yeah.

Oh, wow. A lot of anticipation leading up to that.

We should go climbing while we're here.

Oh, take me.

Yeah.

All right, let's go. Even if it's just a wall, rock climbing. Yeah. I need some tutorials.