El Capitan Climber's 'Impossible Dream' About Halfway Realized

ESTES PARK, Colo. (CBS4) - A Colorado man and his climbing partner are halfway through what's dubbed the most difficult rock climb in the world.

Tommy Caldwell of Estes Park and Kevin Jorgeson of Santa Rosa, California, are attempting to scale a half-mile section -- or about 3,000 feet -- of exposed granite called Dawn's Wall on Yosemite National Park's El Captain in California.

(In comparison, the climb is about four times the height of Colorado's tallest building -- Denver's Republic Plaza.)

It's a free climb, which means they only use their hands. Ropes only prevent them from falling.

CBS4 talked with Caldwell's parents about their son's climb.

"It's a quantum leap above anything that's been done up to this time," Caldwell's father, Mike, said.

The attention their son brings to Colorado is just a bonus atop mounting pride as their son attempts one of the world's hardest rock climbs ever.

"This is his impossible dream that has suddenly become possible," Terri Caldwell, his mother, said. "Tommy has always like challenges. He's always set challenges for himself even as a small child."

Caldwell, 36, climbed his first 14er when he was 3 years old. He spent weekends learning from his father, a mountain guide and outdoorsman.

The climb will take the pair the rest of the week.

"He says he popped out of the womb climbing," Mike Caldwell joked.

The Caldwells hear from Tommy during his rest days.

The climbers are now more than nine days in, eating, sleeping, even tweeting from the rock's dawn wall.

They need days off to regrow torn skin on their fingers.

Mike Caldwell said the climb is grueling: "You're too hot, you're too cold, you're thirsty, you're hungry, you're cramping up all over."

But the Caldwells said their son is mentally -- and physically -- over the toughest part.

"This is very exciting, to know this could be the year that he really gets it," Terri Caldwell said.