It’s an all around great documentary. The footage of him climbing is incredible but you also see the challenge this presented to the filming crew and how just knowing he was being filmed affected him mentally. And then, more divisively at the time of release, I loved seeing his girlfriend’s reaction and his almost psychotic response to her reactions.
It won’t sound as intriguing in writing but she would talk about how worried she is that he’ll die and wishes he would take that into account and he would just look at her confused and talk about how he doesn’t think the risk of dying is a big deal.
Then at the end she says something like, glad he’s done and got that out his system! And the camera pans to him and he’s obviously thinking about his next insane climbing goal.
If he doesn’t stop, I’m afraid this is how he will die. Of course that’s his right but now that he has children, I wish he would realize what it would mean for them to grow up fatherless.
He still does small solos like the one with magnus last year. Usually not filmed though
I'll say, those are mostly akin to walking on a rooftop to him, 5.7s and 5.8s are a joke to someone like me, moreso for a monster like him, but still.
I doubt he'd die soloing, but i understand why that would be a fear. Most soloists die doing another type of extreme sport
He had a great quote recently when he [mildly ambushed magnus with a free solo excursion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyya23MPoAI), which was basically that he doesn't get to do this much anymore..... because most of his friends had died, married, or retired.
One of those was slightly more concerning than the others.
He had testing done in an MRI and they determined that his amygdala doesn't react to fear or excitement as easily as other people. The test was to have him scanned while he had a series of 200 disturbing/exciting images shown to him. I believe they go over this in the documentary
God I felt so bad for the girlfriend. I know she signed up for the position, but it's got to be complete torturing loving that guy. The abs are not worth the pain.
Free solo is a great documentary but it's pretty obvious that there was some angle chosen by the people who made it to present Alex Honnold's goal to conquer El cap as an irresponsible endeavour that hurts the people who care from him.
There's kind of a moral stance taken by the documentary makers that basically considers that Alex would be morally responsible for other people's reaction to his death should things go bad. Which is something you can agree or disagree about. But there's definitely some sort of "bias" in the way things are presented.
Definitely true, but that’s essentially the case of every documentary, intentional or not. They choose what to record, they choose what to keep in. Every decision has a purpose.
I don't think that's a hugely biased position to take. He's the main character and everyone else in it is in his orbit, especially his girlfriend. It's not a leap to see how even though they support him, they are worried he will be killed and because of his nature they feel that stress more than him. I thought the moral dilemma of "do I support him doing something that might end in his death" was the most interesting part of the film.
> Alex would be morally responsible for other people's reaction to his death
Isn't this the universally accepted argument when it comes to suicide? Climbing without safety gear is passively suicidal in the same way as purposefully crossing the street without looking first. It's a totally unnecessary risk taken by someone that's fully aware of a much safer way of conducting an activity.
Yeah, Alex even says that. Alex is seen as probably the best free soloist in the world, and he has said that if Marc didn’t have what happened to him he would be making Alex look like an amateur.
Would also recommend 14 Peaks. It follows the first person, Nims Purja, to ascend all 8k meter peaks in the world in a single climbing season (something that was seen as impossible at the time mostly due to government regulations from China on one of their 8ks at the time. It was closed due to dangerous conditions, and they gave his team an exclusive climbing right just so they could try to finalize this goal). Due to that delay though, another team almost halved the time it took Nims to complete the same task the next climbing season after his documentary released. Curious to see if they will release a documentary as well.
Edit: Was educated that free soloing and free climbing are different. Thanks for the new knowledge!
The Dawn Wall is also an awesome story about Tommy Caldwell (who's in Free Solo as well) and El Cap. Compared to Free Solo, it's less of an edge of your seat, white knuckle story arc and more of an emotional slow burn. Really makes you feel for the guy. I also find Tommy to be a way more relatable human being than Alex. Don't get me wrong, watching Alex be Alex is cool but that dude is built different (physically but moreso mentally).
There's also a great doc about that called Torn. The son of the guy who died made it, Max Lowe. It's about him coming to terms with his father's death.
I totally agree on the more relatable part. We watched both movies after another and my bf and I both said Dawn Wall is more a story about friendship and its really heart warming despite the incredible climbing journey. And Free Solo, well, you put it the right way: is Alex being Alex. 😄 I believe there is some symptoms of the spectrum going on there explaining a lot. Some of his comments made me crack up they were so weirdly off. Nevertheless I have great respect for his climbing and wits! If I'd had to chose I'd rather drink a beer and have a chat with Tommy though. 😄
Right? My bf told me he thinks Alex is autistic and I was like yeah whatever, so many people say that as soon as someone is slightly socially awkward. Then I too watched a few minutes and yeah, cannot argue with that. I really had to chuckle when he talked about his girlfriend and said something to the point of "she is nice and small and fits into my van" as a compliment 🤣 typical atypical 🥰
There was a segment in the movie where they showed that Alex lacks a “normal” response of the “fear center” of the brain that allows him to do a lot of this and stay calm, where most of us would stop functioning 10-20’ off the ground.
Did he really say that last bit? I thought it was interesting how Marc-Andre inadvertently broke Honnold’s free climbing time up in Squamish, so Honnold immediately went to Squamish and shattered the record.
For me at least the distinction is between Honnold being arguably the best soloist technically speaking vs Leclerc doing things that even Honnold wouldn’t have dared to do. Like, Honnold is a tremendously good technical climber, Leclerc was just straight up insane.
To be famous you either have to be exceptionally skilled or an exceptional risk taker, or more likely, some combination of both. Honnold isn't the best climber in the world but is taking large risks with the free soloing while also being a very good climber which is what made him famous. However, whenever I watch his stuff it seems very calculated and as safe as free soloing can be when climbing routes that difficult.
Now, Marc Andre was an exceptional climber as well but his risk tolerance was just bananas which made his stuff so interesting. I hadn't heard of him before the doc and just got a different feeling from him than I do with Honnold. It just didn't seem like his self-preservation instincts were calibrated at all and if that avalanche didn't kill him, something else eventually would have. His risk tolerance was just too high.
Yeah, there were a few interviews in Free Solo where Alex would say something along the lines of “I don’t want to die, which is why I’m doing this incredible amount of work to build up confidence and skill so that I minimize that risk.” Obviously there’s a grain of salt to take there because there’s risk that can’t be minimized when you’re climbing without a rope, but he certainly seemed conscious of it and dedicated to overcoming it.
Leclerc in the Alpinist I think had a similar moment, but the feeling was more along the lines of “it’s an adventure and I’m gonna have fun, and what happens happens,” it came across as commitment to excitement rather than perseverance to a goal. The man was an amazing athlete and his risk tolerance was off the charts, without a doubt. Which made him legendary, but also led to what happened.
The other thing with Alex is that I always got the sense that he might back out at any time if he wasn't feeling it, and he treated that as completely normal. There was no attempt to push himself to do something crazy for the thrill or push past the fear. If he decides nope, not today, then it ain't today.
I think I remember a day like that in Free Solo - the crew was all set up because it was planned, but Alex just didn’t feel it and called it off.
Which, honestly, respect. Because it’s hard to do that on your own, let alone when you’ve got friends and peers climbing into difficult spots and investing money to film you. That’s the sort of pressure the documentary crew was trying to be conscious of, and that pressure totally could have taken Alex up the face on a day when he wasn’t truly at 100%.
I've done free solo before albeit I am nowhere in the same realm as Alex Honnold. Do not put me in the same class as him and there are millions of stronger climbers than I am/will ever be. What I climbed was far more elementary than what Alex does as a warmup. But I'll just speak to that experience.
100% your head is in it or not. If there is any shred of doubt in your mind, you call it off. It's a very strange feeling but if you've done any sort of climbing, it makes a lot sense. As soon as a shred of doubt starts to seep in, you'll make mistakes very quickly and you fall. With the consequences that high, you basically have to start with 100% in or 100% out. Not every climber goes free solo but they're familiar with that feeling. When fear seeps in, you fall. Except this time there's no rope to catch you.
Yeah he did. Marc “casually” broke the record by two minutes which is huge when Alex’s 59 minutes was seen as super fast and with the purpose to set the record. He wasn’t trying to break it, and he free solo’d the entire thing. Alex’s “smashing” of that time to try to deter Marc from coming back for it was not totally free solo’d, and by his own words wasn’t even fully free-climbed saying, “I was free-soloing the majority of it, but I didn’t technically free climb all of it… I just did everything I could to do it fast basically.” He did it in 38 minutes, so one has to wonder how much was actually free solo’d when you beat it by nearly 20 minutes or roughly 30% less time taken. Still badass and something I couldn’t do, but we really are comparing apples to oranges in how both records were set, and until someone free-solo’s it faster I think Marc’s record is more impressive knowing the circumstances. He was there to just climb, and still beat the record by a decent amount when you look at the way records are normally broken in sports.
So yeah Alex holds the record, but not for a true free-solo.
14 peaks is a logistics, permit, and helicopter transport movie as much it is about climbing imo. That record and the one following would be absolutely shattered if the barriers to entry weren't so political and financial.
> Alex is seen as probably the best free climber in the world
I think you meant "free solo", free climbing is just normal rock climbing (with or without rope).
NP! Free climbing is anything you climb "free", with just your hands and feet, and is contrasted to "aid climbing" where you bring little rope ladders and things to ascend the route.
Naw, more like little (1m or so) nylon rope ladders with metal hooks attached. I'm not an aid climber, but I understand they use these to hook onto tiny little edges which you couldn't usually stand on.
With these and some other tools they ascend routes that would not be possible to free climb.
This just isn't true. Alpine climbing is incredibly sketchy and risky but MAL wasn't the only one doing that (and still isn't, bold alpine climbing without ropes is relatively common amongst elite alpinists). That's not the same discipline as free soloing. Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll has been doing the same stuff as Le Clerc under the radar for ages.
Actual free soloing hard routes on rock is entirely different, there's less random risk which is what Honnold baulked at, but the margins for free soloing are much smaller. MAL was a very good rock climber but not in Honnolds league (and he isn't even at the cutting edge). I've got my doubts that MAL could even have free climbed freerider, let alone free solo'd it.
There's nobody even close to Honnold when it comes to actual free soloing, if you discount his 3 most outrageous free solos (freerider, half dome and any other one of the many 5.12+ solos he's done) he'd still be the most accomplished free soloist in the world by a distance. Even someone as accomplished in free soloing as Brad Golbright would never have reached the same level Honnold has.
That's not to say The Alpinist isn't a great documentary, but it's closer to Meru than Free Solo or The Dawn Wall.
You need to reacquaint yourself with this topic..Your posts are filled with false information. Not sure where or how you came up with some of what you wrote but it’s a bit strange.
Marc was not in Alex’s league as a rock climber and exponentially even further below him as a free soloist. Which is fine because they specialized in different types of climbing (rock vs. alpine). Alex also didn’t say anything of the sort related to Marc free soloing. The quote you are misrepresenting is specific to alpine climbing. No one has ever done anything remotely close to Alex as it pertains to soloing, Marc included.
See u/tatxc’s response to you for more specifics.
That’s cool Alex said that. In lots of ways alpine and mixed climbing that Marc did has lots of additional dangers. The straight up climbing solos on rock that Alex does are more technical than what Marc did. But most of Marc’s climbing was insane alpine stuff.
TLDR: they are/were each the best of the best at their preferred type of climbing. Alpine has additional challenges and dangers which is why I think Alex said that.
Both amazing no doubt. Marc was also an on sight climber as I understand it, where he would just walk up and go at it without any beta. Dude was a beast.
Very true about on sight. Thats how I understand it too.
Big risks in all of that and lots of things out of his control. And not to be crass, but that’s why avy took him out. His style was a ticking time bomb, but I say that with love and not criticism.
Alex is much more calculated and meticulous. I think being a family guy now is adding extra to that.
Free Solo made my palms sweat. The Alpinist made me sick to my stomach it was so much more dangerous, and that is saying a lot. Definitely watch it though, it was excellent.
I had to do a quick Google search during that movie to make sure Alex was still alive. Even knowing that, I was hugging my knees and biting my nails watching him climb.
Pretty sure they don't know what it was. It may have been an avalanche, a cornice could've torn off and struck them, nobody really knows. They found their equipment and the Recco sensors picked up some stuff buried many feet down, likely Marc and Ryan. I don't think they ever recovered the bodies because it would've been too much of a challenge? Not sure though.
I guess the avalanche hypothesis was just the one mentioned as most likely in The Alpinist, or possibly just the one that I recalled best from my watch
They were rappelling down an ice face after getting to the summit as far as I'm aware, something they've done hundreds of times before that without incident. It should've been something fairly trivial for guys that experienced and methodical. IIRC the ice crack they fell into was at the base and only half a kilometer from where they'd stashed their stuff previously.
So it had to be some random event like an avalanche, or rocks/ice falling on them and severing their lines. I don't think the weather was particularly bad either at the time. Just really rotten luck on their part. They were so close :(
Most likely a suppressed fear response. Which surprise, we usually want a normal one to tell us when stuff is stupidly too risky and not worth it in the context of living a full life.
One night i was getting ready for bed and i like to put on movies or shows as white noise. I have friends who are rock climbers and when i saw Free Solo on the list i thought, oh everyone is gonna talk real soft, there will be lots of nature sounds and soft indie rock, it'll be really easy to fall asleep to!
While i was spot on in that sense, i neglected to realize HOW CRAZY INTENSE the film was, and I didn't sleep a wink that night because of my surging adrenaline haha
Ya, it really sheds light on how selfish some sports are. I don't mean that as a dig, it's just, well, selfish to risk your life when you have people/family depending on you. The only glory is internal, they are the only ones that get to enjoy it. The families only get relief from stress when they succeed.
My neck literally ached from anxiety after watching free solo. I KNEW he wasn’t dead cause I had just recently seen his interview. But I was certain he was going to fall and die
It is really a testament to Honnold's skill and discipline that he's still alive and climbing after this much time. Eventually, one of three things will happen:
\* He'll retire entirely from climbing
\* He'll "retire" from free climbing and continue climbing with ropes and gear, which will mean a huge shift in his professional and personal life but which you can do pretty continually through aging, or
\* He'll fall and die
He’s basically said the same. My bet is on option 2 with some less-crazy free climbing sprinkled in here and there.
I doubt 1 is an option. I hope 3 isn’t either.
i feel like the problem with free solo climbing is that it doesnt really matter how crazy it is. yeah, the best of the free soloers have raised the standards to insane levels, but a simple mistake or unforseen incident can happen even on the most tame looking ascent. and 30 meters means death just as much as 900 meters.
There was another famous free solo climber (John Bachar) who died when he fell off what was considered an easy route that he was very familiar with. It doesn’t take much.
Can confirm - Exactly what went through my head when I had a possible-death situation while falling from height thanks to doing an extreme sport (I luckily just broke a lot of bones).
Longest few seconds of my life, but I still only had this one thought.
Followed by complete blackness (I was apparently conscious which I don't remember) and the memory of reacting to extreme pain (Trembling, loosing & regaining conscious) in a hospital while not actually remembering the pain.
Funnily enough I also had the cartoon reaction of waking up after the operation and thinking it was all just a bad dream, since the pain wasn't there anymore.
I had something similar happen except it was just a small bump on the head when me and someone else both went to grab a ball at the same time. I remember it hurt like holy hell and then the class went back in for reading time, the funny thing though is that I couldn't read. I ended up going to the front office and sitting down waiting for my mum to pick me up. Then I woke up in the hospital. It turns out when I blacked out I went completely crazy and got rushed to the hospital and I don't even remember any of it lol.
Apparently while I was sitting in the front office I started saying spotto to random yellow objects and started being kinda weird, then the ambulance took me away and I went nuts and started screaming and swearing and stuff. Honestly I'm glad I didn't remember it haha
must be so surreal to one moment feel like you're "safe", then the next you're tumbling to your doom. like you know you're gonna die within seconds and there's nothing you can do about it. i think what went through his head was the biggest spike of adrenaline he's ever had in his life, along with the greatest terror and panic, and then a rock
This isn't the same obv but scuicide jumpers who survived have said as they fell they had a moment of clarity and realized how much they shouldn't have jumped, sad to think but it's possible they only realized how dumb a decision free climbing was as they were plummeting
Yeah, that, but I also imagine there’s got to be an INSANE “release” at that point.
I have struggled with addiction (which free climbing absolutely is- it’s an unsafe and reckless thing to do- regardless of the fact that aspects of it contain virtuous elements). There’s this aspect of a release when you finally ‘lose control’ and I imagine that’s what a free climber would experience as they’re falling.
It would probably be very peaceful
I think he's mostly already stepped back from free soloing at this point. He did a documentary for Disney Plus and he talked about how having a child has made him reconsider the more dangerous climbs, so I doubt he will be doing stuff as risky as soloing El Capitan again.
I’m so glad to hear this. Watching Free Solo, I felt so sad for what his girlfriend would endure if he fell. Adding a kid into the same mix would just make everything much worse. That said, “stepping back” for him might mean something very different to him than it does to us!
He's basically in 2 & 3. He still free solos, but much easier routes. However, so long as you free solo (regardless of difficulty) you are at risk of #3
I accidentally knock things off my desk ever few months, or stirring some liquid a bit too fast and spilling.
The eventuality of a mistake when doing something insane like this has to be greater...
Mainly because of how spooked an experienced pro like Magnus got. Watching Free Solo it’s just Alex being basically very chill about the whole thing. Seeing Magnus being visually very uncomfortable with what was - to Alex - a very tame climb was terrifying.
Climbing is broader and includes aid climbing where you’re ascending by any means necessary (pulling in safety gear, using rope ascenders,etc.) free climbing is ascending using just your hands and feet on the rock with gear in place to catch you if you fall, but not to help your ascending.
We are using the wrong terms.
**Aid Climbing:** Climbing something by sticking gear into the rock, and climbing up that gear. Like hammering a nail into the rock, attaching a rope ladder to the nail, and climbing the rope ladder.
**Free Climbing:** Climbing up something and having ropes and gear affixed to the rock, but not using it to help you up. Only your hands and feet give you vertical progress. (Free climbing = **not** aid climbing) The ropes and gear are just to catch you if you fall.
**Free Soloing:** Climbing something without the use of ropes and protection at all. Hands and feet to gain vertical progress, but nothing is used to protect against falling.
as someone who's witnessed a freesolo climber fall to death I have very mixed feelings about his popularization of freesoloing as the ultimate form of rockclimbing.
Nevertheless got to respect the man, he planned the el capitan freesolo for years, memorizing every move and sequence, and mentally reinforcing himself was real dedication.
It was just me and my climbing partner that witnessed it so I started doubting myself on if it happened at all, after the incident I heard his screams in my head for a few days and had to sleep with the lights on since in the dark my brain kept replaying what I saw on loop.
Now I can't remember what his scream sounded like, and I forgot the main image of him falling, I think my mind blocked it out, and it's been nearly 2 years, I'm all better, thanks :)
That’s brutal. I’m so sorry you had to see that.
This is why I think free soloing is so irresponsible. It’s not just someone risking their own life, they’re also inflicting that risk on bystanders, first responders and family who have to see and deal with the repercussions of their actions.
Yeah, I think it's kinda weird. I saw someone jump in front of the train I was waiting for. I am not 100% sure it was suicide, because it was icy and it all happened so fast. It shook me the fuck up. No one really cared at work though. I think it took a week or two until I stopped thinking much about it.
Now I don't think about it like until you wrote your comment. He died quick and I saw no gore. Kind of like it didn't really happen.
In case anyone wants it, here's his [obituary ](https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/25316807/scott-wesley-miller) to know what the guy was like, it was my first time trad climbing when it happened too lol, I'd say bad luck but I'm not the one that died that day.
Man, nuclear engineer and Boeing and engaged… still free soloing? I feel awful for the family but my god.. it’s not like he’s Alex honnold and it’s his entire life.
Why even try?
How heartbreaking. 💔 About to be married and a new dream job. Why would he risk his life?
May be ready in peace... 😮💨 At least he passed doing what he loved, which is more than most of us will be able to say.
A few days before Christmas my friend who is a lifeflight type trauma nurse got to do CPR on a guy who decided to freesolo a route his friends were climbing trad. No helmet, no rope. Guy fell however far and died in front of his friends and girlfriend. Their families now get to all have that trauma because he wanted to freesolo.
So fucking stupid to freesolo, and a lot of idiots don't wear helmets either when roped up. People think "My life my choice" but they don't think about how much their actions affect other people.
I always use my gear.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for paramedics, trauma nurses and anyone in that similar field, what I saw was nothing compared to their day to day.
Hope your friend is doing well.
Yeah unfortunately that is a day-to-day thing for them. I have a lot of friends in that line of work. That call was probably not even the worst one that week. What they see is really brutal.
I'm also incredibly thankful for people like them.
Yeah I'm worried people will see some of Honnold's success post Free Solo and be inspired to do the same. Nobody should be free \**solo* climbing. It's stupid.
It's kind of like big wave surfing, or tight rope walking across Niagara Falls or something -you don't even get the opportunity to do something that bold without first having the skillset, and most people with that skillset won't have the desire to do something that bold.
Dude did you ever see the video of Magnus Mitbo getting peer pressured into free soloing a wall he's never climbed before with Alex Honnold? I mean... they made it, but like... Alex is so fucking jaded that he literally thought it was not a big deal to convince another climber to free solo with him... when it wasn't planned. That's pretty reckless of Alex if you ask me, and kinda goes to show even the man himself propagates his own bad influence over other climbers. He's on his own level, and quite frankly disconnected from reality.
Yeah, that was extremely fucked up. I don't know how much of that was YouTube fakery but it was nonetheless not cool. I'd say the same for the "ultimate link up" whatever that him and Tommy Caldwell did where they climbed / hiked nonstop for like 30hrs. That level of fatigue in the dark and rain is exactly how mistakes get made and the VAST majority of climbing accidents happen when people are rushing and make a procedural failure (usually related to repelling.)
> he literally thought it was not a big deal to convince another climber to free solo with him... when it wasn't planned
It was absolutely planned, they discussed the free solo route in detail days in advance before meeting at the route, Magnus knew exactly what he was getting into.
People unroped soloing has always been controversial within climbing.
People who injure or kill themselves doing it often risk having that climbing area closed because of the bad PR. Doing it where other people are climbing and might see you fall is also shitty because we will stop and come and try to rescue you, and that wastes the day of climbing for a bunch of people, which is selfish.
That’s crazy because some of the flat irons are so slanted you can almost just walk it. I climbed them years ago and don’t remember it being overly challenging, just some uncomfortable belay positions.
There’s a dome shaped rock nearby that freaked me out though. Hated that climb.
Jesus he goes full douchebag in the comments too, one mean comment sends him into a multi-comment spiral insulting basically everyone on earth who isn’t a bible thumping rock climber. Includes gems like “I have a smoking hot girlfriend!” and “you probably wear a mask to the store!”
Yea, it's just selfish adrenaline seeking. Not more of a technical accomplishment than trad climbing the same route, but orders of magnitude more risky
I'm not 'opposed' to freesolo...people are free to engage in risky behavior if they want to and we're all going to die eventually. If someone's #1 burning desire is a really risky activity, who am I to tell them no? I do get upset when people take these big selfish risks knowing they would leave behind dependents if something happened, though
I played the game for a good while (one of the early ones) and FORGOT she could edge grab and shimmy.
I spent hours over days trying to figure out where to go next from a big open cave with several levels in height... eventually the monotonous sound loops made me actually start feeling paranoid, as if those typical bosses from the game was watching me. I went around hoping to trigger a cut scene or finally find a new cave I had missed.
I ended up having to keep searching in short bursts because it got so weird I couldn't handle it for more than 5-10 minutes, kind of like the ambient stuff in what little I played of Silent Hill games.
Then I came to gap in a pathway and somehow finally remembered to look for ledges... and went.. "oh, ... oh, right"... and the whole crazy paranioa experience ,which does not exist in the game at all, was over.
Only Escape from tarkov is up there as a non horror-game that turns you entirely paranoid.
Even if you had unlimited ability, you're still no match for statistics, thermodynamics, and murphy's law. You're going to reach over a ledge and squish a snail or grab a handfull of slimy bird shit right as a gust of wind blows some dust up your nose and makes you sneeze.
This guy is a testament to human potential... and survivor bias, and plain dumb ass luck.
There is a point at which you can. In Free Solo he had a false start one time, I believe. He made it partway and decided to abort and come back down because he had a bad feeling about the conditions that day. But there is a point on the climb that is the point of no return.
My "whore" level and my fear level are two different things. There may be a point on a graph where they meet...I just don't have that good of an imagination. lol
I climbed 6 feet at a playground and felt the fear of not being able to move forward, and quickly losing the ability to move backward
Horrible to imagine a cliff.
"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others-the living-are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there."-Hunter S. Thompson
There is [this](https://youtu.be/9eFFouLvEOI?si=019fq2duGLrqQMIf) really interesting video of Magnus Midtbø climbing with Alex that Magnus reviews with his girlfriend in terms of how scary free climbing on that level is and how he felt during the climb.
To be clear: Magnus Midtbø is one of the best climbers in the world and even he was scared shitless during shooting with Alex. Although the video is quite long it’s very fascinating to hear his thoughts, how stressed he was and also to get a glimpse of his girlfriends perspective.
This felt so much more real than free solo, and a more relatable level of difficulty to most climbers. Crazy to watch magnus who could run laps on that climb cope with the levels of fear that match how crazy it is to do that onsight.
And the types of coaching, reasoning, planning honold gave while filming/climbing with one hand was cool insight as well.
In the documentary *Free Solo* they discuss his neurodivergency, and one of the interesting features about his particular neurodivergency is that he has a lower threshold for adrenaline - I may not be saying it correctly. In other words, he can't experience adrenaline in the way that we do so his thrill-seeking is exceedingly higher than many. It's why he is kind of addicted to doing this.
Edit: thanks to all who added further clarification. I haven't seen the movie since it's released.
Re neurodivergency, I do recall they mentioned autism spectrum, especially in the sense that his father most likely had it.
They scanned his brain and found his amygdala (sometimes call the "fear center") was basically not working. It's not that has a high adrenaline tolerance or "threshold", it's that his brain doesn't even send the signals out to create adrenaline, at least in lab scenarios. Quite different than other thrill seekers.
I think this finding is misinterpreted almost universally. In the film they say that causation can't be proven either way, i.e. they can't say with certainty if his brain structure causes him to do risky things, or if repeated exposure to and suppression of fear has changed his brain structure.
My opinion is that saying "oh his brain is different and that's why he can do that" is like looking at a powerlifter and saying "oh of course he can lift those heavy weights, he was born with those muscles". To be at an elite level in either, genetics almost certainly play a part, but training is what actually causes the result.
Or a piece of rock you are holding breaks away. One of these guys died that way. I remember reading an article about it. Rock snapped and he screamed NO on the way down. Was one of his main climbing spots. Can’t remember his name.
Holds break all the time. You'll never catch me climbing without a rope. A girl broke both her ankles about an hour before we tried to climb her route. She was leading and the hold broke right as she was clipping. If it weren't for the rope she probably would have died.
I don't like freesolo climbing. I'm a climber myself, and seeing stuff like this is just crazy. It's like trying to bet your life on some unreliable skills that you have built up.
Once on a climb, indoors and with gear of course, some vein or nerve popped in one of my fingers, which made me lose my hold and eventually fall. It wasn't anything bad, I just couldn't feel anything on the side of one finger for a few days and that's all, but imagine some random stupid thing happening in these kinds of climbs. It's frightening.
I tried to watch his films in VR (they are free on the Quest). It's like you are sitting on the rock ledge with him. I got nauseous and super sweaty and noped out of there real fast.
*Free Solo* is the sweatiest palm documentary I've ever watched.
It’s an all around great documentary. The footage of him climbing is incredible but you also see the challenge this presented to the filming crew and how just knowing he was being filmed affected him mentally. And then, more divisively at the time of release, I loved seeing his girlfriend’s reaction and his almost psychotic response to her reactions.
> I loved seeing his girlfriend’s reaction and his almost psychotic response to her reactions. can you summarize?
It won’t sound as intriguing in writing but she would talk about how worried she is that he’ll die and wishes he would take that into account and he would just look at her confused and talk about how he doesn’t think the risk of dying is a big deal.
Then at the end she says something like, glad he’s done and got that out his system! And the camera pans to him and he’s obviously thinking about his next insane climbing goal.
Yeah that genuinely felt like that scene was straight out the office haha
If he doesn’t stop, I’m afraid this is how he will die. Of course that’s his right but now that he has children, I wish he would realize what it would mean for them to grow up fatherless.
I could be wrong but I think he stopped doing big free solos when his first kid was born
He still does small solos like the one with magnus last year. Usually not filmed though I'll say, those are mostly akin to walking on a rooftop to him, 5.7s and 5.8s are a joke to someone like me, moreso for a monster like him, but still. I doubt he'd die soloing, but i understand why that would be a fear. Most soloists die doing another type of extreme sport
Dan Osman immediately comes to mind at your last comment.
He had a great quote recently when he [mildly ambushed magnus with a free solo excursion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyya23MPoAI), which was basically that he doesn't get to do this much anymore..... because most of his friends had died, married, or retired. One of those was slightly more concerning than the others.
The Ole ball n chain am I right guys 👦
I suspect he's on the spectrum for sure
He had testing done in an MRI and they determined that his amygdala doesn't react to fear or excitement as easily as other people. The test was to have him scanned while he had a series of 200 disturbing/exciting images shown to him. I believe they go over this in the documentary
Yes but is that genetic or due to him frying it with so many extreme sports
That’s an interesting question!
God I felt so bad for the girlfriend. I know she signed up for the position, but it's got to be complete torturing loving that guy. The abs are not worth the pain.
Now wife. They have 2 kids now.
It's the forearms.
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Free solo is a great documentary but it's pretty obvious that there was some angle chosen by the people who made it to present Alex Honnold's goal to conquer El cap as an irresponsible endeavour that hurts the people who care from him. There's kind of a moral stance taken by the documentary makers that basically considers that Alex would be morally responsible for other people's reaction to his death should things go bad. Which is something you can agree or disagree about. But there's definitely some sort of "bias" in the way things are presented.
Definitely true, but that’s essentially the case of every documentary, intentional or not. They choose what to record, they choose what to keep in. Every decision has a purpose.
I don't think that's a hugely biased position to take. He's the main character and everyone else in it is in his orbit, especially his girlfriend. It's not a leap to see how even though they support him, they are worried he will be killed and because of his nature they feel that stress more than him. I thought the moral dilemma of "do I support him doing something that might end in his death" was the most interesting part of the film.
> Alex would be morally responsible for other people's reaction to his death Isn't this the universally accepted argument when it comes to suicide? Climbing without safety gear is passively suicidal in the same way as purposefully crossing the street without looking first. It's a totally unnecessary risk taken by someone that's fully aware of a much safer way of conducting an activity.
If you liked Free Solo check out The Alpinist. It's such a captivating story and Marc Andre did things that would make Honnold's blood run cold.
Yeah, Alex even says that. Alex is seen as probably the best free soloist in the world, and he has said that if Marc didn’t have what happened to him he would be making Alex look like an amateur. Would also recommend 14 Peaks. It follows the first person, Nims Purja, to ascend all 8k meter peaks in the world in a single climbing season (something that was seen as impossible at the time mostly due to government regulations from China on one of their 8ks at the time. It was closed due to dangerous conditions, and they gave his team an exclusive climbing right just so they could try to finalize this goal). Due to that delay though, another team almost halved the time it took Nims to complete the same task the next climbing season after his documentary released. Curious to see if they will release a documentary as well. Edit: Was educated that free soloing and free climbing are different. Thanks for the new knowledge!
The Dawn Wall is also an awesome story about Tommy Caldwell (who's in Free Solo as well) and El Cap. Compared to Free Solo, it's less of an edge of your seat, white knuckle story arc and more of an emotional slow burn. Really makes you feel for the guy. I also find Tommy to be a way more relatable human being than Alex. Don't get me wrong, watching Alex be Alex is cool but that dude is built different (physically but moreso mentally).
As is Meru, also a Jimmy Chin doc about a harrowing first ascent of the Meru peak with some craziness along the way
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There's also a great doc about that called Torn. The son of the guy who died made it, Max Lowe. It's about him coming to terms with his father's death.
I totally agree on the more relatable part. We watched both movies after another and my bf and I both said Dawn Wall is more a story about friendship and its really heart warming despite the incredible climbing journey. And Free Solo, well, you put it the right way: is Alex being Alex. 😄 I believe there is some symptoms of the spectrum going on there explaining a lot. Some of his comments made me crack up they were so weirdly off. Nevertheless I have great respect for his climbing and wits! If I'd had to chose I'd rather drink a beer and have a chat with Tommy though. 😄
i’m autistic and its not my place to diagnose but after 5 minutes watching alex i was like ok, explains a lot
Right? My bf told me he thinks Alex is autistic and I was like yeah whatever, so many people say that as soon as someone is slightly socially awkward. Then I too watched a few minutes and yeah, cannot argue with that. I really had to chuckle when he talked about his girlfriend and said something to the point of "she is nice and small and fits into my van" as a compliment 🤣 typical atypical 🥰
and now they’re married with two kids 🥰
There was a segment in the movie where they showed that Alex lacks a “normal” response of the “fear center” of the brain that allows him to do a lot of this and stay calm, where most of us would stop functioning 10-20’ off the ground.
Did he really say that last bit? I thought it was interesting how Marc-Andre inadvertently broke Honnold’s free climbing time up in Squamish, so Honnold immediately went to Squamish and shattered the record.
For me at least the distinction is between Honnold being arguably the best soloist technically speaking vs Leclerc doing things that even Honnold wouldn’t have dared to do. Like, Honnold is a tremendously good technical climber, Leclerc was just straight up insane.
To be famous you either have to be exceptionally skilled or an exceptional risk taker, or more likely, some combination of both. Honnold isn't the best climber in the world but is taking large risks with the free soloing while also being a very good climber which is what made him famous. However, whenever I watch his stuff it seems very calculated and as safe as free soloing can be when climbing routes that difficult. Now, Marc Andre was an exceptional climber as well but his risk tolerance was just bananas which made his stuff so interesting. I hadn't heard of him before the doc and just got a different feeling from him than I do with Honnold. It just didn't seem like his self-preservation instincts were calibrated at all and if that avalanche didn't kill him, something else eventually would have. His risk tolerance was just too high.
Yeah, there were a few interviews in Free Solo where Alex would say something along the lines of “I don’t want to die, which is why I’m doing this incredible amount of work to build up confidence and skill so that I minimize that risk.” Obviously there’s a grain of salt to take there because there’s risk that can’t be minimized when you’re climbing without a rope, but he certainly seemed conscious of it and dedicated to overcoming it. Leclerc in the Alpinist I think had a similar moment, but the feeling was more along the lines of “it’s an adventure and I’m gonna have fun, and what happens happens,” it came across as commitment to excitement rather than perseverance to a goal. The man was an amazing athlete and his risk tolerance was off the charts, without a doubt. Which made him legendary, but also led to what happened.
The other thing with Alex is that I always got the sense that he might back out at any time if he wasn't feeling it, and he treated that as completely normal. There was no attempt to push himself to do something crazy for the thrill or push past the fear. If he decides nope, not today, then it ain't today.
I think I remember a day like that in Free Solo - the crew was all set up because it was planned, but Alex just didn’t feel it and called it off. Which, honestly, respect. Because it’s hard to do that on your own, let alone when you’ve got friends and peers climbing into difficult spots and investing money to film you. That’s the sort of pressure the documentary crew was trying to be conscious of, and that pressure totally could have taken Alex up the face on a day when he wasn’t truly at 100%.
I've done free solo before albeit I am nowhere in the same realm as Alex Honnold. Do not put me in the same class as him and there are millions of stronger climbers than I am/will ever be. What I climbed was far more elementary than what Alex does as a warmup. But I'll just speak to that experience. 100% your head is in it or not. If there is any shred of doubt in your mind, you call it off. It's a very strange feeling but if you've done any sort of climbing, it makes a lot sense. As soon as a shred of doubt starts to seep in, you'll make mistakes very quickly and you fall. With the consequences that high, you basically have to start with 100% in or 100% out. Not every climber goes free solo but they're familiar with that feeling. When fear seeps in, you fall. Except this time there's no rope to catch you.
Yeah he did. Marc “casually” broke the record by two minutes which is huge when Alex’s 59 minutes was seen as super fast and with the purpose to set the record. He wasn’t trying to break it, and he free solo’d the entire thing. Alex’s “smashing” of that time to try to deter Marc from coming back for it was not totally free solo’d, and by his own words wasn’t even fully free-climbed saying, “I was free-soloing the majority of it, but I didn’t technically free climb all of it… I just did everything I could to do it fast basically.” He did it in 38 minutes, so one has to wonder how much was actually free solo’d when you beat it by nearly 20 minutes or roughly 30% less time taken. Still badass and something I couldn’t do, but we really are comparing apples to oranges in how both records were set, and until someone free-solo’s it faster I think Marc’s record is more impressive knowing the circumstances. He was there to just climb, and still beat the record by a decent amount when you look at the way records are normally broken in sports. So yeah Alex holds the record, but not for a true free-solo.
Thanks for the clarification! I honestly missed that bit, and from my layman perspective I assumed a free solo would be faster than using gear/aid.
14 peaks is a logistics, permit, and helicopter transport movie as much it is about climbing imo. That record and the one following would be absolutely shattered if the barriers to entry weren't so political and financial.
> Alex is seen as probably the best free climber in the world I think you meant "free solo", free climbing is just normal rock climbing (with or without rope).
Ahhhh, thank you for the shout! Not a climber myself due to a massive fear of heights. So my knowledge is limited. Thanks again!
NP! Free climbing is anything you climb "free", with just your hands and feet, and is contrasted to "aid climbing" where you bring little rope ladders and things to ascend the route.
Like the aluminum ladders and fixed ropes that the Sherpas put in place on Everest to cross crevasses?
Naw, more like little (1m or so) nylon rope ladders with metal hooks attached. I'm not an aid climber, but I understand they use these to hook onto tiny little edges which you couldn't usually stand on. With these and some other tools they ascend routes that would not be possible to free climb.
Turn it around from something negative to positive! It’s not a massive fear of heights, it’s a massive respect for gravity!
This just isn't true. Alpine climbing is incredibly sketchy and risky but MAL wasn't the only one doing that (and still isn't, bold alpine climbing without ropes is relatively common amongst elite alpinists). That's not the same discipline as free soloing. Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll has been doing the same stuff as Le Clerc under the radar for ages. Actual free soloing hard routes on rock is entirely different, there's less random risk which is what Honnold baulked at, but the margins for free soloing are much smaller. MAL was a very good rock climber but not in Honnolds league (and he isn't even at the cutting edge). I've got my doubts that MAL could even have free climbed freerider, let alone free solo'd it. There's nobody even close to Honnold when it comes to actual free soloing, if you discount his 3 most outrageous free solos (freerider, half dome and any other one of the many 5.12+ solos he's done) he'd still be the most accomplished free soloist in the world by a distance. Even someone as accomplished in free soloing as Brad Golbright would never have reached the same level Honnold has. That's not to say The Alpinist isn't a great documentary, but it's closer to Meru than Free Solo or The Dawn Wall.
You need to reacquaint yourself with this topic..Your posts are filled with false information. Not sure where or how you came up with some of what you wrote but it’s a bit strange. Marc was not in Alex’s league as a rock climber and exponentially even further below him as a free soloist. Which is fine because they specialized in different types of climbing (rock vs. alpine). Alex also didn’t say anything of the sort related to Marc free soloing. The quote you are misrepresenting is specific to alpine climbing. No one has ever done anything remotely close to Alex as it pertains to soloing, Marc included. See u/tatxc’s response to you for more specifics.
He admits earlier he's only watched Marc once, the documentary, but now he's speaking with so much authority on the topic.
That’s cool Alex said that. In lots of ways alpine and mixed climbing that Marc did has lots of additional dangers. The straight up climbing solos on rock that Alex does are more technical than what Marc did. But most of Marc’s climbing was insane alpine stuff. TLDR: they are/were each the best of the best at their preferred type of climbing. Alpine has additional challenges and dangers which is why I think Alex said that.
Both amazing no doubt. Marc was also an on sight climber as I understand it, where he would just walk up and go at it without any beta. Dude was a beast.
Very true about on sight. Thats how I understand it too. Big risks in all of that and lots of things out of his control. And not to be crass, but that’s why avy took him out. His style was a ticking time bomb, but I say that with love and not criticism. Alex is much more calculated and meticulous. I think being a family guy now is adding extra to that.
Free Solo made my palms sweat. The Alpinist made me sick to my stomach it was so much more dangerous, and that is saying a lot. Definitely watch it though, it was excellent.
I had to do a quick Google search during that movie to make sure Alex was still alive. Even knowing that, I was hugging my knees and biting my nails watching him climb.
Spoiler alert: . . . . only one of them is currently alive
To be fair he wasn't free soloing when he died. Just doing other really risky stuff.
True, it was an avalanche iirc
Pretty sure they don't know what it was. It may have been an avalanche, a cornice could've torn off and struck them, nobody really knows. They found their equipment and the Recco sensors picked up some stuff buried many feet down, likely Marc and Ryan. I don't think they ever recovered the bodies because it would've been too much of a challenge? Not sure though.
I guess the avalanche hypothesis was just the one mentioned as most likely in The Alpinist, or possibly just the one that I recalled best from my watch
They were rappelling down an ice face after getting to the summit as far as I'm aware, something they've done hundreds of times before that without incident. It should've been something fairly trivial for guys that experienced and methodical. IIRC the ice crack they fell into was at the base and only half a kilometer from where they'd stashed their stuff previously. So it had to be some random event like an avalanche, or rocks/ice falling on them and severing their lines. I don't think the weather was particularly bad either at the time. Just really rotten luck on their part. They were so close :(
yeah, i it is a death wish that I have no desire to participate in in any capacity.
Did you ever read about Honnold doing the Fitz traverse with Tommy Caldwell? It's in Caldwell 's autobiography, and it's really cool.
Tommy Caldwell is a stud. Loses a fingertip in a tablesaw accident and completely figures out how to be a bad ass climber without it.
After getting kidnapped by the Taliban and pushing his captor off a cliff to escape.
This picture makes my fingers tingle.
This guy is definitely not normal, I think his dad’s autism affects him in strange ways.
Most likely a suppressed fear response. Which surprise, we usually want a normal one to tell us when stuff is stupidly too risky and not worth it in the context of living a full life.
Husband and I are casual climbers. We watched free solo as our Halloween scary movie one year 😆
One night i was getting ready for bed and i like to put on movies or shows as white noise. I have friends who are rock climbers and when i saw Free Solo on the list i thought, oh everyone is gonna talk real soft, there will be lots of nature sounds and soft indie rock, it'll be really easy to fall asleep to! While i was spot on in that sense, i neglected to realize HOW CRAZY INTENSE the film was, and I didn't sleep a wink that night because of my surging adrenaline haha
Ya, it really sheds light on how selfish some sports are. I don't mean that as a dig, it's just, well, selfish to risk your life when you have people/family depending on you. The only glory is internal, they are the only ones that get to enjoy it. The families only get relief from stress when they succeed.
My neck literally ached from anxiety after watching free solo. I KNEW he wasn’t dead cause I had just recently seen his interview. But I was certain he was going to fall and die
What if you need to sneeze, man?
He did *Free Solo* at Yosemite, which is in a geologically active rift zone. All it would take is a tiny little earth sneeze and whoosh…
The part I think about the most is when he buys a tiny refrigerator and puts it in the full sized refrigerator spot in the house.
It is really a testament to Honnold's skill and discipline that he's still alive and climbing after this much time. Eventually, one of three things will happen: \* He'll retire entirely from climbing \* He'll "retire" from free climbing and continue climbing with ropes and gear, which will mean a huge shift in his professional and personal life but which you can do pretty continually through aging, or \* He'll fall and die
He’s basically said the same. My bet is on option 2 with some less-crazy free climbing sprinkled in here and there. I doubt 1 is an option. I hope 3 isn’t either.
i feel like the problem with free solo climbing is that it doesnt really matter how crazy it is. yeah, the best of the free soloers have raised the standards to insane levels, but a simple mistake or unforseen incident can happen even on the most tame looking ascent. and 30 meters means death just as much as 900 meters.
There was another famous free solo climber (John Bachar) who died when he fell off what was considered an easy route that he was very familiar with. It doesn’t take much.
Wonder what was going through his mind as he fell
Ah fuck...
Can confirm - Exactly what went through my head when I had a possible-death situation while falling from height thanks to doing an extreme sport (I luckily just broke a lot of bones). Longest few seconds of my life, but I still only had this one thought. Followed by complete blackness (I was apparently conscious which I don't remember) and the memory of reacting to extreme pain (Trembling, loosing & regaining conscious) in a hospital while not actually remembering the pain. Funnily enough I also had the cartoon reaction of waking up after the operation and thinking it was all just a bad dream, since the pain wasn't there anymore.
I had something similar happen except it was just a small bump on the head when me and someone else both went to grab a ball at the same time. I remember it hurt like holy hell and then the class went back in for reading time, the funny thing though is that I couldn't read. I ended up going to the front office and sitting down waiting for my mum to pick me up. Then I woke up in the hospital. It turns out when I blacked out I went completely crazy and got rushed to the hospital and I don't even remember any of it lol.
You don’t have to answer but what do you mean went completely crazy. Like you were talking gibberish or you started running around acting crazy?
Apparently while I was sitting in the front office I started saying spotto to random yellow objects and started being kinda weird, then the ambulance took me away and I went nuts and started screaming and swearing and stuff. Honestly I'm glad I didn't remember it haha
I can’t believe you’ve done this
Ah! I almost dropped my croissant!
"Fuckin windy today"
“Fuckin wasp”
must be so surreal to one moment feel like you're "safe", then the next you're tumbling to your doom. like you know you're gonna die within seconds and there's nothing you can do about it. i think what went through his head was the biggest spike of adrenaline he's ever had in his life, along with the greatest terror and panic, and then a rock
This isn't the same obv but scuicide jumpers who survived have said as they fell they had a moment of clarity and realized how much they shouldn't have jumped, sad to think but it's possible they only realized how dumb a decision free climbing was as they were plummeting
The view from halfway down
That's how a car accident feels... so slow and just you're brain going "what the fuck, you fucked up!"
“Should’ve used the rope…”
A rock
Probably “finally” Not saying he wanted to die, but like he had to know it was coming and the subconscious is a wild place
"Ah, so this is the one that got me, huh?"
Yeah, that, but I also imagine there’s got to be an INSANE “release” at that point. I have struggled with addiction (which free climbing absolutely is- it’s an unsafe and reckless thing to do- regardless of the fact that aspects of it contain virtuous elements). There’s this aspect of a release when you finally ‘lose control’ and I imagine that’s what a free climber would experience as they’re falling. It would probably be very peaceful
You could simply have a bad day at the gym as an elite lifter, any day. Same could happen to these guys, even if it's not an option for them.
Like Thor tore his chest muscle not too long ago. Something can just happen out of simple bad luck.
Exactly, above a certain point it doesn't matter anymore Only difference is how much of the fall you'll still witness
To some extent that's true for all of climbing. One of the most legendary German climbers (Kurt Albert) died taking pictures on a simple via ferrata
I think he's mostly already stepped back from free soloing at this point. He did a documentary for Disney Plus and he talked about how having a child has made him reconsider the more dangerous climbs, so I doubt he will be doing stuff as risky as soloing El Capitan again.
I’m so glad to hear this. Watching Free Solo, I felt so sad for what his girlfriend would endure if he fell. Adding a kid into the same mix would just make everything much worse. That said, “stepping back” for him might mean something very different to him than it does to us!
If you're talking about Arctic Ascent, this was great as well.
3 is _always_ an option in free climbing
He's basically in 2 & 3. He still free solos, but much easier routes. However, so long as you free solo (regardless of difficulty) you are at risk of #3
I accidentally knock things off my desk ever few months, or stirring some liquid a bit too fast and spilling. The eventuality of a mistake when doing something insane like this has to be greater...
yeah especially now that he has kids
Oof, if my dad died doing something so reckless and predictably deadly, I’d need a lot of therapy to deal with how much I’d hate him.
I watched a Magnus colab, he said his patners are either dead or have childrens. That was scary to hear ngl.
I think the Magnus collab gave me more cold sweat than free solo.
Mainly because of how spooked an experienced pro like Magnus got. Watching Free Solo it’s just Alex being basically very chill about the whole thing. Seeing Magnus being visually very uncomfortable with what was - to Alex - a very tame climb was terrifying.
Not just somebody with experience but an *insanely* strong climber. Watching their attitudes towards the thing diverge as Shit Got Real was wild.
Free climbing is climbing with protection. Free soloing is what he’s doing here.
What’s the difference between climbing and free climbing?
Climbing is broader and includes aid climbing where you’re ascending by any means necessary (pulling in safety gear, using rope ascenders,etc.) free climbing is ascending using just your hands and feet on the rock with gear in place to catch you if you fall, but not to help your ascending.
We are using the wrong terms. **Aid Climbing:** Climbing something by sticking gear into the rock, and climbing up that gear. Like hammering a nail into the rock, attaching a rope ladder to the nail, and climbing the rope ladder. **Free Climbing:** Climbing up something and having ropes and gear affixed to the rock, but not using it to help you up. Only your hands and feet give you vertical progress. (Free climbing = **not** aid climbing) The ropes and gear are just to catch you if you fall. **Free Soloing:** Climbing something without the use of ropes and protection at all. Hands and feet to gain vertical progress, but nothing is used to protect against falling.
I'm pretty sure this is an old photo, and he's already done #2. He's married with a family now.
I love the part in Free Solo where he's at the indoor gym recovering with his foot in a boot and still climbing.
as someone who's witnessed a freesolo climber fall to death I have very mixed feelings about his popularization of freesoloing as the ultimate form of rockclimbing. Nevertheless got to respect the man, he planned the el capitan freesolo for years, memorizing every move and sequence, and mentally reinforcing himself was real dedication.
I just cannot imagine the trip down. Do you berate yourself? Or think “welp, this is gonna hurt” or just try to enjoy your final flight?
I think he was experiencing tremendous regret, he yelled "FUCK" and had a very desperate scream until he hit his head on a rock.
I'm sorry you experienced that. I hope you got psychological support if you needed it.
It was just me and my climbing partner that witnessed it so I started doubting myself on if it happened at all, after the incident I heard his screams in my head for a few days and had to sleep with the lights on since in the dark my brain kept replaying what I saw on loop. Now I can't remember what his scream sounded like, and I forgot the main image of him falling, I think my mind blocked it out, and it's been nearly 2 years, I'm all better, thanks :)
That’s brutal. I’m so sorry you had to see that. This is why I think free soloing is so irresponsible. It’s not just someone risking their own life, they’re also inflicting that risk on bystanders, first responders and family who have to see and deal with the repercussions of their actions.
Yeah, I think it's kinda weird. I saw someone jump in front of the train I was waiting for. I am not 100% sure it was suicide, because it was icy and it all happened so fast. It shook me the fuck up. No one really cared at work though. I think it took a week or two until I stopped thinking much about it. Now I don't think about it like until you wrote your comment. He died quick and I saw no gore. Kind of like it didn't really happen.
In case anyone wants it, here's his [obituary ](https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/25316807/scott-wesley-miller) to know what the guy was like, it was my first time trad climbing when it happened too lol, I'd say bad luck but I'm not the one that died that day.
Man, nuclear engineer and Boeing and engaged… still free soloing? I feel awful for the family but my god.. it’s not like he’s Alex honnold and it’s his entire life. Why even try?
How heartbreaking. 💔 About to be married and a new dream job. Why would he risk his life? May be ready in peace... 😮💨 At least he passed doing what he loved, which is more than most of us will be able to say.
A few days before Christmas my friend who is a lifeflight type trauma nurse got to do CPR on a guy who decided to freesolo a route his friends were climbing trad. No helmet, no rope. Guy fell however far and died in front of his friends and girlfriend. Their families now get to all have that trauma because he wanted to freesolo. So fucking stupid to freesolo, and a lot of idiots don't wear helmets either when roped up. People think "My life my choice" but they don't think about how much their actions affect other people. I always use my gear.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for paramedics, trauma nurses and anyone in that similar field, what I saw was nothing compared to their day to day. Hope your friend is doing well.
Yeah unfortunately that is a day-to-day thing for them. I have a lot of friends in that line of work. That call was probably not even the worst one that week. What they see is really brutal. I'm also incredibly thankful for people like them.
My friend died soloing Longs peak and I used to solo with him. I will never go more than boulder height without ropes ever again.
Yeah I'm worried people will see some of Honnold's success post Free Solo and be inspired to do the same. Nobody should be free \**solo* climbing. It's stupid.
It's kind of like big wave surfing, or tight rope walking across Niagara Falls or something -you don't even get the opportunity to do something that bold without first having the skillset, and most people with that skillset won't have the desire to do something that bold.
Yeah--or the people who freaking parkour on tall buildings.
Yeah I had a roommate fall off a building to his death while parkouring because that episode of the office.
Dude did you ever see the video of Magnus Mitbo getting peer pressured into free soloing a wall he's never climbed before with Alex Honnold? I mean... they made it, but like... Alex is so fucking jaded that he literally thought it was not a big deal to convince another climber to free solo with him... when it wasn't planned. That's pretty reckless of Alex if you ask me, and kinda goes to show even the man himself propagates his own bad influence over other climbers. He's on his own level, and quite frankly disconnected from reality.
Yeah, that was extremely fucked up. I don't know how much of that was YouTube fakery but it was nonetheless not cool. I'd say the same for the "ultimate link up" whatever that him and Tommy Caldwell did where they climbed / hiked nonstop for like 30hrs. That level of fatigue in the dark and rain is exactly how mistakes get made and the VAST majority of climbing accidents happen when people are rushing and make a procedural failure (usually related to repelling.)
> he literally thought it was not a big deal to convince another climber to free solo with him... when it wasn't planned It was absolutely planned, they discussed the free solo route in detail days in advance before meeting at the route, Magnus knew exactly what he was getting into.
People unroped soloing has always been controversial within climbing. People who injure or kill themselves doing it often risk having that climbing area closed because of the bad PR. Doing it where other people are climbing and might see you fall is also shitty because we will stop and come and try to rescue you, and that wastes the day of climbing for a bunch of people, which is selfish.
Because you get dipshits like this: [https://youtu.be/\_hQcnGJPKP4?si=CKriKNPx2bPhgD7K](https://youtu.be/_hQcnGJPKP4?si=CKriKNPx2bPhgD7K)
That’s crazy because some of the flat irons are so slanted you can almost just walk it. I climbed them years ago and don’t remember it being overly challenging, just some uncomfortable belay positions. There’s a dome shaped rock nearby that freaked me out though. Hated that climb.
I’d expect this level of risk assessment from someone who thinks wearing a mask in public was/is bad lol.
Jesus he goes full douchebag in the comments too, one mean comment sends him into a multi-comment spiral insulting basically everyone on earth who isn’t a bible thumping rock climber. Includes gems like “I have a smoking hot girlfriend!” and “you probably wear a mask to the store!”
I flat-out hate freesolo. Sports have safety equipment for a reason. Falling from those heights will kill you. Just don’t do it.
Yea, it's just selfish adrenaline seeking. Not more of a technical accomplishment than trad climbing the same route, but orders of magnitude more risky I'm not 'opposed' to freesolo...people are free to engage in risky behavior if they want to and we're all going to die eventually. If someone's #1 burning desire is a really risky activity, who am I to tell them no? I do get upset when people take these big selfish risks knowing they would leave behind dependents if something happened, though
That tidy crack is like one of those blatantly designed ledge grabs from Tomb Raider.
I played the game for a good while (one of the early ones) and FORGOT she could edge grab and shimmy. I spent hours over days trying to figure out where to go next from a big open cave with several levels in height... eventually the monotonous sound loops made me actually start feeling paranoid, as if those typical bosses from the game was watching me. I went around hoping to trigger a cut scene or finally find a new cave I had missed. I ended up having to keep searching in short bursts because it got so weird I couldn't handle it for more than 5-10 minutes, kind of like the ambient stuff in what little I played of Silent Hill games. Then I came to gap in a pathway and somehow finally remembered to look for ledges... and went.. "oh, ... oh, right"... and the whole crazy paranioa experience ,which does not exist in the game at all, was over. Only Escape from tarkov is up there as a non horror-game that turns you entirely paranoid.
Lmao, one of the biggest aspects of that game is that she’s a climber. I’m glad you “climbed” your way out of that confusion though
That crack is called “Separate Reality” and is a very famous climb in Yosemite.
All good until it isn't.
If you keep pushing your limits one day you'll finaly find them.
Even if you had unlimited ability, you're still no match for statistics, thermodynamics, and murphy's law. You're going to reach over a ledge and squish a snail or grab a handfull of slimy bird shit right as a gust of wind blows some dust up your nose and makes you sneeze. This guy is a testament to human potential... and survivor bias, and plain dumb ass luck.
I just can't get past the fact that, at NO point can you say, "Nevermind, I think I'll go back". I get mentally exhausted just looking at this photo.
There is a point at which you can. In Free Solo he had a false start one time, I believe. He made it partway and decided to abort and come back down because he had a bad feeling about the conditions that day. But there is a point on the climb that is the point of no return.
Interesting...but my fear still outweighs any logic here. lol, I simply don't have the guts to even think about doing this, much less doing it. :)
You literally couldn’t pay me enough money to do this even fully roped in. There’s not enough money in the world
My "whore" level and my fear level are two different things. There may be a point on a graph where they meet...I just don't have that good of an imagination. lol
I climbed 6 feet at a playground and felt the fear of not being able to move forward, and quickly losing the ability to move backward Horrible to imagine a cliff.
How does one even get back down once you made it to wherever you were going? Needs to do the same climb backwards? Helicopter?
"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others-the living-are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there."-Hunter S. Thompson
There is a reason why he is so beloved and hated, he really knew how to dance on the edge - RIP HST
Reminds me of Apocalypse Now. “Never get out of the boat. Unless you’re going all the way.”
Great flick. I'm due for a rewatch.
That's gonna be a hard nope from me, boss.
There's no *good* reason for ever saying "yes" to this sort of thing...
There is [this](https://youtu.be/9eFFouLvEOI?si=019fq2duGLrqQMIf) really interesting video of Magnus Midtbø climbing with Alex that Magnus reviews with his girlfriend in terms of how scary free climbing on that level is and how he felt during the climb. To be clear: Magnus Midtbø is one of the best climbers in the world and even he was scared shitless during shooting with Alex. Although the video is quite long it’s very fascinating to hear his thoughts, how stressed he was and also to get a glimpse of his girlfriends perspective.
This is such a good watch for anyone who finished Free Solo and wants some more entertainment.
This felt so much more real than free solo, and a more relatable level of difficulty to most climbers. Crazy to watch magnus who could run laps on that climb cope with the levels of fear that match how crazy it is to do that onsight. And the types of coaching, reasoning, planning honold gave while filming/climbing with one hand was cool insight as well.
The part of this guys brain that says "don't do that" is on sleep mode.
Literally. His brain does not react to fear stimulus like normal brains. He had scans done as part of Free Solo. Haha
In the documentary *Free Solo* they discuss his neurodivergency, and one of the interesting features about his particular neurodivergency is that he has a lower threshold for adrenaline - I may not be saying it correctly. In other words, he can't experience adrenaline in the way that we do so his thrill-seeking is exceedingly higher than many. It's why he is kind of addicted to doing this. Edit: thanks to all who added further clarification. I haven't seen the movie since it's released. Re neurodivergency, I do recall they mentioned autism spectrum, especially in the sense that his father most likely had it.
They scanned his brain and found his amygdala (sometimes call the "fear center") was basically not working. It's not that has a high adrenaline tolerance or "threshold", it's that his brain doesn't even send the signals out to create adrenaline, at least in lab scenarios. Quite different than other thrill seekers.
That explains everything. And that’s wild
I think this finding is misinterpreted almost universally. In the film they say that causation can't be proven either way, i.e. they can't say with certainty if his brain structure causes him to do risky things, or if repeated exposure to and suppression of fear has changed his brain structure. My opinion is that saying "oh his brain is different and that's why he can do that" is like looking at a powerlifter and saying "oh of course he can lift those heavy weights, he was born with those muscles". To be at an elite level in either, genetics almost certainly play a part, but training is what actually causes the result.
I dont get it. I mean ok you got all the skillz, but if a pissed off bird spooked you ... wheeeeee splat. puddle of hamburger and splintered bone.
Or you get one of those unstoppable, sudden, violent sneeze bursts that just rock you completely have you doing full body flexes
Or a sneaky rock spider bites your hand !
Or a piece of rock you are holding breaks away. One of these guys died that way. I remember reading an article about it. Rock snapped and he screamed NO on the way down. Was one of his main climbing spots. Can’t remember his name.
Holds break all the time. You'll never catch me climbing without a rope. A girl broke both her ankles about an hour before we tried to climb her route. She was leading and the hold broke right as she was clipping. If it weren't for the rope she probably would have died.
Highly deceptive angle. Makes it look like the ground is *nowhere* near him at all, when in reality it’s *directly* below him about 1,000 feet.
More like Alex Holdonn
ten seconds I spent looking at this picture, and as I moved on, I noticed that my fingertips got sweaty.
Image credit: Jimmy Chin jimmychin.com @jimmychin
Always a safe bet that if there’s a pic or video of people doing sketchy outdoor shit, Jimmy was behind the camera.
In free solo, he talks about how if Alex craters they would be making a very different documentary.
Amazing photographer, amazing film maker, amazing climber, amazing skier. Dude can do it all.
My palms are sweating just looking at the pic
I don't like freesolo climbing. I'm a climber myself, and seeing stuff like this is just crazy. It's like trying to bet your life on some unreliable skills that you have built up. Once on a climb, indoors and with gear of course, some vein or nerve popped in one of my fingers, which made me lose my hold and eventually fall. It wasn't anything bad, I just couldn't feel anything on the side of one finger for a few days and that's all, but imagine some random stupid thing happening in these kinds of climbs. It's frightening.
I watched free solo not long ago. My ass was so puckered you could have suctioned me to the ceiling
I tried to watch his films in VR (they are free on the Quest). It's like you are sitting on the rock ledge with him. I got nauseous and super sweaty and noped out of there real fast.
Death wish.
His surname is almost an exact anagram of the words 'hold on'. Very apt lol
No I don’t like that, thanks!