BURSTTommy Caldwell has repeated Empath in California and given it a personal grade of 5.14b. It was first climbed by Carlo Traversi and given a possible grade of 5.15a.
Prior to Caldwell, Empath was repeated by several climbers, including Jimmy Webb, Daniel Woods, Nathaniel Coleman, Keenan Takahashi, Connor Herson and Ethan Pringle. Herson later returned and climbed it on trad gear. Subsequent ascents
Caldwell, who’s one of America’s best big wall free climbers, with the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall to his name, has a long history of difficult redpoints. In 2003, he made the first ascent of Flex Luthor, which wasn’t repeated until 2021 when Matty Hong sent and graded it 5.15b – it’s since been graded 5.14d and 5.15a.
Watch Caldwell projecting Empath in a video released by Edelrid earlier this year below
Caldwell Projecting Empath
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