Corey Rich
Tommy Caldwell free climbing El Capitan’s Dawn Wall.
Madison audiences will have one chance to experience two of the world’s most daring climbers on the big screen — and hear some great local music along with it.
The Dawn Wall, which has a nationwide theatrical release on Sept. 19, follows climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they ascend the Dawn Wall, a nigh-impossible route of the storied El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
For nearly three weeks in 2015, Caldwell and Jorgeson climbed and lived on the 3,000-foot rock face. Their ascent of the Dawn Wall route is considered one of, if not the, most difficult accomplishments in climbing.
Long a marquee figure in the world of professional climbing, Caldwell in 2000 was held hostage along with three climbing mates in Kyrgyzstan. They escaped after six days, when Caldwell attempted to kill their guard by throwing him from a cliff. A year later, Caldwell severed half of his left index finger with a table saw.
The Colorado-produced film about the California climb brings with it a piece of Madison — a soundtrack featuring local band Searchlights. The trio’s song “Search and Rescue” is featured in the film, and the band has a personal connection to the climbing community.
“I’ve been climbing since I was about 15,” says drummer Mike Fienen. “I climbed El Cap via an infinitely easier route with my childhood friend and climbing partner Brady Robinson.”
Today, Robinson is the executive director of the Access Fund, a nonprofit organization working to preserve and expand natural spaces for rock climbing. Robinson passed along Searchlights’ 2017 album Phototropic to the film’s producers. It turned out Searchlights’ “post-rock” sound was the perfect fit for the material. “So much of the intensity of climbing is internal and slow,” Fienen says, “our music is similar — we build soundscapes slowly and emotionally.”
