Jenn Flemming in DevilsTower

Professional climber Jenn Flemming had always wanted to climb Devils Tower, the otherworldly volcanic formation that was featured in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Devils Tower National Monument is located in eastern Wyoming, a day’s drive from Jenn’s home in Colorado, where she has achieved several first female ascents. Jenn grew up in Massachusetts and has climbed in top U.S. destinations and in China, Iran, South Africa, Bolivia and other countries. She loves climbing that is very technical, and credits her parents with instilling a passion for the outdoors by taking her on many family trips to America’s National Parks.

Tommy Caldwell Climbing Pitch 15 | The Dawn Wall

On January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson made the first free ascent of The Dawn Wall on Yosemite s El Capitan. Watch Tommy climb pitch 15 (5.14c) in this first footage released by the film crew on the wall. “The crux holds of pitch 15 are some of the smallest and sharpest holds I have ever attempted to hold onto,” Tommy wrote on his Facebook page. Four unique camera angles reveal those minuscule holds and the 1,300 feet of exposure under Tommy’s precarious foot placements. While multiple pitches of extremely difficult climbing remained above, the completion of pitch 15 was considered the last major hurdle to the eventual success of this seven-year project. Note: Pitch 15 was originally rated 5.14d, but was downgraded slightly after the completion of the route.

On Assignment

As a climber sometimes our biggest job is to try to do justice to the amazing stories of our friends and peers. For this piece I worked with our crew at camp4collective.com to tell thenorthface.com athlete Jimmy Chin s jimmychin.com story as he in turn highlights modern day climbing in Yosemite for a National Geographic feature story.

It seemed so serendipitous to be on assignment in a place that we all cut out teeth as adventurers and which also ended up becoming the namesake of our collective!

As always, thanks for tuning in! ~reo

Camp 4 Collective on vimeo: vimeo.com/camp4collective/videos

Shot on the Canon 5d, L series lenses, kesslercrane.com/ pocket dolly v2 and rodemic.com/ video mic pro.