Excuse my language but Alex Honnold is out of his fucking mind.
Last weekend I drove up to Concord, NH to see Jimmy Chin's latest documentary, Free Solo. It tells the story of free solo climber, Alex Honnold attempting to climb the 3,000 foot wall, El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California. If you don't know what free soloing is you're in for a real treat. It's a type of rock climbing where the climber literally scales rock walls with no ropes. The only thing he has on him while ascending up the cliff is a small chalk bag for better grip and his climbing shoes.
The movie was directed by husband and wife team Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. They also directed the incredible 2015 climbing documentary, Meru, which follows Jimmy and a few of his friends as they attempt to climb the extremely challenging Mt. Meru in the Indian Himalayas. While this also seemed insane they at least had ropes while climbing.
Jimmy Chin is the ultimate climber/filmmaker/skier. The guy has even skied off the summit of Everest. Alex, however, is a whole different level of insane. Each time he goes out to climb he is literally one mistake away from falling to his death. Every climb he does has to be perfect.
Before Honnold no one had ever attempted to free solo El Cap. He is probably the best in the world at what he does. Prior to free soloing El Cap he had successfully completed a climb of another famous peak in Yosemite, Half Dome.
For the better part of a decade Alex lived in his van, driving around climbing whenever he wanted. The film shows an interesting part of his life when it starts to examine his relationship with his girlfriend, who he had met at a book signing. She has this constant dilemma in her life where she doesn't want Alex to die, but she also doesn't want him to give up what means the most to him in life which is climbing. She does, however, convince him to buy a house just outside Las Vegas.
Climbing El Cap is almost like a dance. Before Alex can make the ascent without ropes he has to know every nook and cranny of the route. Throughout his two year preparation he climbed the route with ropes over 50 times. He learned exactly every place to grab and every move to make so that when it came time to attempt the real thing he was prepared for it.
Before filming ever began on the documentary Jimmy Chin found himself asking the question of whether or not this would be a project he would actually want to undertake. For one, he didn't want to be filming if Alex actually did fall and he also didn't want to be a distraction for Alex and become the reason that he fell in the first place.
Eventually they found a way to become as least distracting as possible to Alex, filming him from a far enough distance where he would barely notice them.
At various times throughout the movie I found my palms sweating and gripping the arm rest. I was more nervous than Alex was. He would come across a very narrow gap with just inches of rock holding him up and give the camera a smile and a wink. He was having the time of his life being that close to death.
Alex may in fact be a robot. They even scan his brain at one point in the movie and he literally doesn't get stimulated by things that normal humans usually do. It's as if when it comes to his "fight or flight" instinct in his brain he has no "flight." He is constantly on the brink of death and he loves every second of it.
I'm happy I was able to see this on a big screen. Aside from feeling like I was on the cliff with Alex, Jimmy Chin's cinematography was breathtakingly beautiful. Chin himself is a super athlete. Being able to do all of these really technical climbs while filming is quite the athletic achievement and what Alex did by free soloing El Cap may just be the greatest athletic achievement in human history.
I don't know how long Alex will live but I hope it's a long time. He's a fascinating person. He's inspiring, not in the way that he makes you want to try to free solo, but in the way that he is so dedicated and motivated to the thing he loves most. He doesn't let anything stop him and he just goes for it. He also does pull-ups in his van with just his fingers which is insane.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone, even if you're not into climbing. You will be glued to the screen for 90 minutes. If you want to see an interesting behind the scenes video of the movie check out this piece that the New York Times did on the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-wjmIFlnNo
- Christian
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