Honnold and Caldwell Link Big Routes in 40 km 36.5-Hour Push

Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold teamed up once again for a huge 40-kilometre 36.5-hour linkup of mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park from Mount Meeker to Mount Notchtop. They dubbed it the Continental Divide Ultimate Linkup or CDUL which is pronounced “cuddle.”

They logged over 20,000 vertical feet in 65 pitches in 11 routes. Their support team included Adam Stack and Maury Birdwell. Honnold and Caldwell missed a stash which left them cold at night and their headlamp batteries died, forcing them to jam a phone in their hats so they could see.

Despite taking a few weeks to prepare and being in top shape, Caldwell vomited after the long night out. The siuml-climbing nearly all of the technical pitches.

The routes and peaks they climbed in order: Flying Buttress 5.9 on Meeker, Casual Route 5.10 on Longs Peak, Pagoda, The Barb 5.10 on Spearhead, Birds of Fire 5.11- on Chiefshead, Central Ramp 5.8 on Mount Alice, Arrowplane 5.11 on Arrowhead, McHenry, Powell, Taylor, The Petit 5.8, Southwest Corner 5.10 on Spearhead, Sharkstooth 5.6, Otis, The Culp/Bossier 5.8 on Hallet Peak, Flattop, Ptarmigan and The Cool Crack 5.9 on Notchtop.

In February 2014, they made the first ascent of the Fitzroy Traverse in Patagonia, a five-kilometre route. They also have the current speed record up The Nose on El Cap at 1:58:07.

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@tommycaldwell and I just climbed what he’s calling the Continental Divide Ultimate Linkup (CDUL, pronounced cuddle, for how you stay warm during the night…). We climbed 11 classic climbing routes and summitted something like 17 named peaks across RMNP. We traveled from Meeker to Notchtop, which required basically 36 hours of constant movement with roughly 20k ft of vertical and 35mi of scrambling between the peaks. Though the stats don’t mean much because the terrain is so rugged that it’s hard to characterize it as “hiking”. Huge thanks to @maurybirdwell and @adam_stack for supporting us during the journey with key resupplies. And thanks Adam for this cool pic of us on the summit of Sharkstooth at sunrise. Big day out!!

A post shared by Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold) on Jul 20, 2020 at 9:57am PDT

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99.9% of people would have given up when they did not have a headlamp or food for part of the night. The quote of the night “Soloing by iPhone is not that sweet.” Alex Proud of @alexhonnold and @tommycaldwell for an epic effort and setting a new bar for what is possible when you combine ultra running and climbing. Around 35 miles, 65 pitches, for a total of 20k in vert. I think it will be a while until the CDUL gets repeated. As a parting thought, I’ve always wondered if Tommy was human. I had to include the 2nd photo as proof he is. Love you buddy, way to push through the pain.

A post shared by Adam Stack (@adam_stack) on Jul 20, 2020 at 3:25pm PDT