Hacker Cinema
Free Solo
2018 · Film · documentary · 100 min
Directed by Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Follow Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall. With no ropes or safety gear, this would arguably be the greatest feat in rock climbing history.
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36 comments on Hacker News
I am not saying that test pilots are not brave. They certainly are. However, they are brave + skilled + practice + smart + can perform under stress.
This is a slightly stretched analogy, but test pilots make me think of Alex Hannold. In the movie Free Solo he is presented as some insane person... it turns out that he is extremely intelligent + skilled + practices a lot + can perform under stress.
In both cases, they are the best of us. However, being brave/nuts is the elementary school version of understanding what it takes to be these people.
I guess watching the film ('free solo' is the one you mention) is the lowest effort way of getting his perspective and I recommend the film.
For a deeper dive, the book "Alone on the wall" is a good read and I recommend it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36531127-alone-on-the-wall, although that said the book might be less appealing to someone who 'knows nothing about climbing' and is more of a time investment than the short documentary :)
He's spoken about it extensively in interviews. Watch his El Capitan movie or recent interviews before this climb.
He just finds it very peaceful and thrilling. "Just him and the climb" kind of language.
Also I suppose clout has to be involved: only person to free solo El Capitan, as far as I know the only person to climb Taipei 101 let alone free solo (did the spiderman guy ever make it or was he arrested?)
In general I agree with you, but a counterexample to our rejection of their supposed heroism (and ascription of it to brain-chemistry-seeking identical to heroin addiction) is Alex Honnold [0], famous for his free solo of El Capitan in Yosemite. There's an excellent documentary on him, Free Solo [1], where it's very clear that he's neuro-diverse and that extreme climbing efforts put him into the zone, calming and focussing him. There's zero machismo to it. For him, it's an act of supreme, extended concentration.
I suppose in some sense it's still just manipulating one's own brain chemistry, but it seems a very distinct kind from adrenaline junkies.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Solo
Here is the list from the thread: --- 1. A Man Named Pearl
2. Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
3. Microcosmos
4. Crip Camp!
5. Keep The River On Your Right
6. All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
7. Harlan County USA
8. Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story
9. Good Night Oppy
10. We Met in Virtual Reality
11. All That Breathes
12. Still
13. Can’t Be Stopped
14. The Amazing Jonathan Documentary
15. Searching for Sugarman
16. AKA Mr Chow
17. The Pigeon Tunnel
18. Little Richard: I Am Everything
19. I Know That Voice
20. Genghis Blues
21. Kings of Pastry
22. 20 Feet From Stardom
23. Stevie
24. Anvil: the Story of Anvil
25. Searching for Sugar Man
26. King of Kong
27. The Gleaners and I
28. Touching the Void
29. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
30. 20 Days in Mariupol
31. Minding the Gap
32. How to Survive a Plague
33. Speciesism
34. Free Solo
35. Jim Allison: Breakthrough
36. Seven Up! series
37. Bowling for Columbine
38. The Fog of War
39. Rivers and Tides
40. Capturing the Friedmans
41. Spellbound
42. King of Kong
43. Crip Camp
44. Jesus Camp
45. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
46. Flee
47. Man on Wire
48. Queen of Versailles
49. The Thin Blue Line
50. Time Indefinite
51. The Gleaners and I
52. My Life as a Turkey
53. Happy People
54. Grizzly Man
Consider my comment in the context of the one that I replied to: I named big-wall climbers because their sport is similarly extreme and unusual in the broader population, unlike soccer/football which is neither.
As for the climbers, Honnold achieved some normie fame as the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary[1]. Steck was also among the best climbers ever, but his speed records centered on the Alps (hence my joking aside about the Euro audience).
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Solo
Note this isn't the same climb as the "Free Solo" movie, and while Alex Honnold climbed much of the street view climb without ropes he (and the other climbers he was with) did use ropes in part. See eg https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7297919,-119.6368427,2a,75y,310.03h,35.2t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTW3rVQbj2cAAAAQo8ByvUA!2e0!7i12000!8i6000 (and you can follow his beta up the climb!)
Also the stories of these climbs are great: https://blog.google/products/maps/vertical-street-view-of-worlds-most/ and https://www.google.com.au/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/yosemite/
My favorite bit is the picture of Lynn Hill on the Jardine Traverse: https://www.google.com.au/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/yosemite/#lynn-jardine-traverse
FYI: Free climbing is the opposite of aid climbing. I.e you progress upwards only by weighting the rock as opposed to making progress by weighting your gear.
Climbing without a partner is soloing. Technically there's aid soloing, which is sort of a weird discipline wherein you're aid climbing without a partner protected by a rope, which is why the kind of climbing Alex Honnold is famous for is called free soloing.
Confusingly, there's also rope soloing, which is free climbing with a rope for protection. He did a bunch of rope soloing to practice the pitches he did free solo in the movie of the same name.
The Rescue - A chronicle of the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Directed by Jimmy Chin.
Also by Jimmy Chin: Free Solo. An incredible film.
Free Solo, It's the documentary of Alex Honnold in his preparation and eventual accomplishment of climbing the "El Capitan" without ropes
That thing it's awesome, you know the guy ends up ok, but the journey made my hands sweat like crazy
Some other great climbing documentaries:
- Touching The Void (It's an older movie but maybe the most harrowing survival story I've ever heard).
- Meru
- Free Solo
- The Alpinist
- Valley Uprising
The Alpinist
If you enjoyed Free Solo, you really should check out The Alpinist. It's a documentary about Marc-André Leclerc; Alex Honnold thinks of Marc-André the way most of us think about Alex Honnold.
I love documentaries, and these are my favourites. All very worth a watch.
- The Crash Reel
- McConkey
- Buck
- Apollo 11
- Carts of Darkness
- The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
- Samsara
- Baraka
- Brooklyn Castle
- Spellbound
- Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
- Crumb
- The Jinx
- The Art of Flight
- King of Kong
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Capturing the Friedmans
- OJ: Made in America
- The Barkley Marathons
- The Seven Five
- Murderball
- Unbranded
- Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee
- Big River Man
- Hoop Dreams
- Word Wars
- Free Solo
- Long Shot
- Meru
- Being Elmo
- All This Mayhem
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- The Cove
- Project Nim
- Alone in the Wilderness
- Behind the Curve
- The Dawn Wall
- Grizzly Man
- 13th
- Winnebago Man
- Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler
- Get Me Roger Stone
- Icarus
- 13th
- Koyaanisqatsi
- The Thin Blue Line
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Oklahoma City
- Virunga
- The Staircase
- Evil Genius
- Undefeated
- Betting on zero
There is a 4+ minute Youtube clip that includes the central climbing scenes from "Free Solo" [0].
Amazing guy. The National Geographic documentary had Hollywood-esque layers that slightly annoyed me (ominous music etc), though. A documentary by Werner Herzog about Alex Honnold would be fascinating; something in the vein of his 1974 "The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner" [1,2]. I would have loved to see more of the philosophical, introspective side of Alex Honnold in the NG movie. In case of Herzog's ski jumper Walter Steiner, it was very much there.
0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnRoda7Ke2w
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Ecstasy_of_Woodcarver_Steiner
2: Full movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTdQ2fGlrq8
A colleague recommended "Free Solo" to me a few years back. There was this part where the doctors claim (paraphrasing) his brain is unique in that he is much less afraid of danger than us.
The part towards the end, where he does the actual climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, is also worth watching.
Maybe it was in the Free Solo movie or other interviews, but I thought he said that his route during Free Solo was a difficulty level of about 7/10 for him. So he was comfortable enough that it was not the hardest climb for him; after a ton of practice on that route, with ropes, of course.
So to be statistical about it, the difficulty level for him was at the edge of 1 standard deviation of the mean of his capability. Maybe that's enough margin that he could detect when he's really in trouble.
The Free Solo movie gives enough context, IMO. (it was hard to watch for me though)
They talked about using drones for his free solo documentary, but Alex was concerned about the noise being a distraction and causing him to fall off.
If you like Free Solo, I recommend The Alpinist, another documentary about solo climbing in unreal peaks.
there is a difference between 'keeping information from the public' and 'being concerned that partial information is being presented'.
Free Solo is one of my favorite movies of the last decade. In the movie, they are fundamentally and consistently transparent about the sheer danger involved. It probably seems obvious to everyone, but there is danger. If the movie was just artistic shots of Alex Honnold climbing rock without a rope, that were shot in a way that 'simplified' the narrative to the climbing instead of the danger I would have a problem with that.
no one called for keeping information from anyone, they expressed concern that the method of communicating left out critical details that could injure children in a way they do not understand. You can point and laugh at me for doing the 'think about the children' thing but honestly you see children do stuff like this fairly often, because they are children. Your same logic could be used to say we should let children vote, drive cars, own guns, etc. Screw the game operation or doctor with friends, lets give them real scalpels!
> One accomplished athlete I knew talked about how he'd tell himself that he'd put in the training to be the best. Therefore he knew that he could do it.
In case your individual based sport is not climbing and if you haven't already watched it, I highly recommend "Free Solo" which is a documentary about Alex Honnold and his extraordinary preparation to climb El Capitan. I warn that this is a nerve-wracking film. However, the way that Alex talks about "becoming perfect" is interesting. He practices a part of the route so many times with ropes/harnesses that he becomes perfect at it. In other words, he has no fear because he is perfect at the route.
https://films.nationalgeographic.com/free-solo
This reminds me of something Alex Honnold said in the fantastic documentary Free Solo:
“She [his girlfriend] sees things in a different way. For Sanni, the point of life is happiness. To be with people that make you feel fulfilled and have a good time.
For me it’s all about performance. The thing is anybody can be happy and cozy. Nothing good happens in the world by being happy and cozy. Nobody achieves anything great because they’re happy and cozy.”
I found his perspective so fascinating and revealing about people who are among the best in the world at something.
>People put up the same comments about Alex Honnold when the Free Solo documentary made the front page of HN. That he was an irresponsible jerk who lived only for himself.
There is a big difference between these two cases. Honnold's level of preparation is hardly even comparable to McCandless lack of even basic knowledge of his surroundings.
People put up the same comments about Alex Honnold when the Free Solo documentary made the front page of HN. That he was an irresponsible jerk who lived only for himself.
Ultimately, the individual pays the greatest price. There is a difference where you if you want to set the land-speed record on a public highway in rush hour versus going out alone into the wilderness or climbing a mountain without a rope. The difference is where you draw the line. I believe that if any individual desires to stake out into the wilderness, alone, live in nature, hunt, and forage without a whisper to society at large - that is precisely the place where you would go. If not in wilderness, then where?
I had a negative reaction to his free solo, but I wouldn't say I'm angry about it. I agree with the idea that he is his own person and can ultimately make his own decisions, but there are a couple things that bother me about the free solo that aren't covered here. While Alex may not have been known by the general public before this event he was pretty well known in the climbing community, and is obviously still well known. Therefore he wields an influence over others and particularly kids. Kids do stupid and risky things, because their brains aren't developed enough to judge the consequences of their actions. They want to emulate the pros, which in this case, climbing unroped, could be deadly. Another thing that bothers me about it is the sort of stigma it puts on the sport. Now, free soloing like what Alex did is what a lot of people think climbing is. I've been climbing for the past 12 years, 10 of those outside and on a good day it's nearly a spiritual experience. I love this sport and I find it incredibly rewarding. It is a dangerous sport, but there is a lot you can do to mitigate those dangers. I think when a lot people see the spectacle of 'free solo' they are awed by it, but may also think "I could never do something like that" and so never try to climb. This is why I think I have a negative reaction to the film.
Anytime I discussed Free Solo with anyone, including my wife, my feelings about Alex couldn’t have been more opposite from theirs.
His bit about empathy and the fact that he’s, “just learning [his] lines” is probably relatable to many here.
His comments about deciding to solo mostly because he wasn’t comfortable asking anyone to climb with him, and didn’t want anyone to see him do something stupid, while ranking in the top 2% on the Mensa test.
I came away sympathetic — recognizing a kindred spirit who’s capable of a lot, but had a hard time fitting in with the world, while everyone else just saw a very impressive asshole.
Great article that builds on all of the personal dynamics present in the film.
I would also highly recommend The Dawn Wall: https://www.dawnwall-film.com/. I watched it and Free Solo at around the same time, and The Dawn Wall is a much better movie in my mind
But getting to the point where you can ascend El Cap in 4 hours requires modern gear. In Free Solo, most of the documentary focuses on his progress over years practicing the route.
Getting to a specific point on the face of El Cap used to be a weeks-long endeavor in itself, pushing everyone to their physical and technological limits. The fact that he was able to go for day-trips to any point on the wall to practice is a testament to all the technology involved.
He used modern ropes, hauling gear, etc, to essentially turn the route into a gym that he could practice on. He used modern climbing holds to re-create the dyno problem so he could practice at home. He literally memorized the entire sequence of moves.
It would be impossible to learn a route to the level that it requires to ascend it in 4 hours without modern technology. Imagine if practicing the dyno problem required having to fund and set up a 47 day expedition to reach it.
> Even using gear from 30-40 years ago, it is possible to climb with relative safety, the new gear is mainly only an incremental improvement in safety.
Yes, but isn't that also roughly when modern sport climbing started?
Nylon ropes for climbing were introduced about 55y ago, though, I don't know when they became wide spread. Same for modern harness, modern bolts and quick draws. So your ~40y ago might be roughly correct.
Modern sport climbing started, I would argue, around that time. For instance, Red Pointing was popularized in the 70ties [2].
Also interesting is, that Phoenix, the first 7c+, the grade of the route in the Free Solo movie, was climbed in 1977 [3,4] and first free soloed in 2011 (also by Honold).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernmantle_rope [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpoint_(climbing) [3] https://www.emontana.cz/climbing-milestones-from-6a-to-9c/
If you have seen and enjoyed Free Solo, I can also recommend the Reel Rock series & Meru.
If you haven't seen Free Solo (because you're not interested in climbing, or whatever) it's still worth a watch.
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/tv/show/AP-1MD65N6X92111/reel-rock
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2545428/
As an Asian, after watching the movie Free Solo (and Alex Honnold's Ted talk), I think he gets mushin.
Apparently there's a documentary coming out about Alex Honnold's free solo ascend of El Capitan. It's called "Free Solo"[1]
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7775622/?ref_=nv_sr_1
If you have not yet seen "Free Solo", it is an interesting movie because it delves into the relationship between him and his "I just want to be happy" girlfriend which touches on some of his mindset to pursue perfection.
Have you seen the movie Free Solo? Some interesting coverage of this topic in it.
I lived in Las Vegas for two years, and loved it. I don't drink or gamble, and I was born and raised in Brooklyn for context. I loved biking, hiking, climbing, kayaking, and skiing there. It's sunny almost all year long, and this had a great affect on my attitude. The restaurants, malls, and other off-The-Strip amenities are what you are used to in most East coast suburban areas. There is music and art being made there, and flying in and out of McCarran airport is as easy as it gets. I saw the movie 'Free Solo' three weeks ago, and it shows Alex settling in to a house he bought with his girlfriend in Las Vegas. Really good movie BTW.
Actual title is “Free Solo the Movie”, not “This film will kill people”.