By Andrew Travers,Aspen Times
After hishistoric free-climb ascent of the El Capitan’s Dawn Wallin Yosemite National Park in early 2015, Tommy Caldwell stared down a nearly as daunting challenge: a blank page.
To write his memoir, published last year as “The Push,” Caldwell used the same tools he’d used as a climber to revolutionize his sport and accomplish the seemingly impossible.
“With climbing, I’m not super naturally talented physically and I’m kind of in the same boat intellectually,” Caldwell, who will openthe Winter Words author seriesJan. 8, said in a recent phone interview from his home in Boulder. “I always struggled as a student. But I have this ability to apply pretty incredible discipline and to feel impassioned toward things. Thatap what I do with my climbing. Thatap what I did with the book.”
Focused on the book for a year, Caldwell set his alarm for 4 a.m. to wake up and start writing no matter how he was feeling or whether he had anything to say. Eventually, “The Push” started taking shape.
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