Photo: Instagram
Tommy Caldwell was featured in the documentary "The Dawn Wall," on Netflix.
By Emily Blackwood — Written on Apr 11, 2019
For those of you who have seen (and felt) the sheer anxiety and adrenaline watching The Dawn Wall documentary on Netflix know the name Tommy Caldwell.
For those of you who don't, essentially the film focuses on Caldwell, a world-famous rock climber, as he scales the infamous 3,000-foot Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park in California with his pal and fellow climber Kevin Jorgeson.
"Yo watching The Dawn Wall is giving me the heebie geebies," one person wrote on Twitter. "I don't even like standing on a step stool and these guys are trying to climb a 3000' vertical rock. No thank you."
"I have watched about 27 seconds of The Dawn Wall and I am already anxious about what lies ahead," another said.
With the film gaining such intense popularity, people are wondering more about Caldwell's personal life, like who he's married to. So who is Tommy Caldwell's wife? Here's everything we know about her.
1. They were met in 2010.
Caldwell met Rebecca Pietsch, who goes by Becca, in 2010. Soon after they met, he reportedly took her to the infamous setting of the documentary: Yosemite.
Together, they fell in love climbing part of El Capitan.
"Tommy and I met at the end of 2010," she wrote on her blog. "We became fast friends and after 6 months of friendship he invited me to his favorite playground, Yosemite National Park and revealed to me that I “intoxicated” him (what a romantic). We knew there was something special between us after 10 pitches of climbing up The Freeblast on El Capitan."
2. They were married in 2012.
In 2012, the couple was married, even though when they first got together Caldwell said Becca was "way out of my league."
Soon after they were married, they had two children: a son named Fitz and a daughter named Ingrid Wilde. The family lives in Estes Park, Colorado.
"I am always thinking about the kind of dad I want to be,” Caldwell wrote on Facebook, along with a photo of him embracing Fitz. “I know that the best way to teach is to show by example. For me the Dawn Wall is the perfect venue for some of the most important values I want to show Fitz. Optimism, perseverance, dedication and the importance of dreaming big. But leaving Becca and Fitz at home is never easy. I love you guys!”
3. She supports his climbing.
In an article prior to him embarking on this major feat, Becca Caldwell said that she would be at the top of The Dawn Wall to meet her husband after he climbed it. And it wouldn't be a walk in the park for her either — the route to the top is eight-hours.
“Our relationship began with this route, and The Dawn Wall has weaved its way through our lives together," she wrote on her blog. "I’ve mostly kept my feelings about this attempt locked in a box — I didn’t know what was going to happen. The journey isn’t over yet, but we can start to see what it might look like standing on top of this route … and it’s beautiful.”
4. She's a photographer.
in addition to her blog, Becca Caldwell is also a photographer. She used the blog to update Caldwell's progress on the Dawn Wall.
"Tommy just darted out the door to hike up to the top of El Capitan and start cleaning all of their equipment off of the Dawn Wall," she wrote after he completed his climb. "I sit here with a lot of thoughts swirling through my head. This has been the case for the past 3 weeks. Every night and every morning my brain has been running. I have had to take advantage of the time to process my thoughts while Fitz sleeps, and these past few days have been full of excitement and interviews and making sure Tommy and his voice are taken care of and still giving Fitz the love he needs, and there hasn't been much of a moment to think about all that has happened."
5. She isn't his first wife.
Before he met Becca Caldwell, Tommy Caldwell was previously married to Beth Rodden. They were married in 2003 and divorced in 2010, the same year he met his current wife.
She actually wrote on her blog about his past relationship and how it impacted his desire to climb The Dawn Wall.
"The Dawn Wall started out as a little bit of an escape from a deep pain Tommy felt from the sadness of splitting up with his former wife," she wrote. "He deemed the wall impossible to free climb. He came back to it a year later, and with the excitement of a budding relationship between us decided that the Dawn Wall just might be possible. Our relationship began with this route, and the Dawn Wall has weaved its way through our lives together over the past six years."
Emily Blackwood is a writer and editor living in California. She covers all things news, pop culture and true crime.