Torre Central All-Free in a Day, with Siebe Vanhee and Tommy Caldwell episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 4, 2026 · 1H 12M

Torre Central All-Free in a Day, with Siebe Vanhee and Tommy Caldwell

from The Cutting Edge · host The American Alpine Club

The east face of the Central Tower in Chile's Torres del Paine is one of the great walls of the world. The first route up the face, climbed in 1973 and 1974 by a South African team, had only been freed twice. In February, Belgian Siebe Vanhee (a veteran of two other free ascents on the Central Tower) and American Tommy Caldwell (a newcomer to Torres del Paine but not to Patagonia) completed the third free ascent in remarkable style. On their third attempt, the two climbers raced up the 1,200-meter 5.12 route in exactly 24 hours—in an area where most big-wall ascents take weeks. Host Jim Aikman interviewed both climbers, as well as American Ben Ditto, who was on the first free ascent of the South African Route back in 2009. It's an episode about risk, the ups and downs of multiple efforts on a serious objective, and a partnership that perfectly balances the strengths of two amazing climbers.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jun 4, 2026

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Torre Central All-Free in a Day, with Siebe Vanhee and Tommy Caldwell

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