Tom has been climbing in Yosemite for the past 15 - 20 years. He's pretty humble about his climbing resume... he doesn't say much about it. As we were driving into the Valley Saturday evening, one of us asked Tom, did you ever climb a Big Wall? His reply: well I climbed the Nose on El Cap several times and the Northwest route up Half Dome. And I've climbed Snake Dike 6 or 7 times. (Although, Snake Dike is not considered a Big Wall by any means.)
Plus the guy has a Phd in Physics, so we all figured we were in good hands.
We met Tom at Planet Granite and have been climbing with him in the gym for several years.