'Free Solo' preview out from National Geographic

[Professor Emeritus]

"Everybody who has ever made free soloing a big part of their life....is dead now."



I legit think Honnold is one of the most impressive athletes in the world. El Capitan is a straight vertical granite cliff more than 3000 feet high. Typical elite rock climbers take two to six days to climb to the top. Honnold can do it in less than two hours. And even some of the greatest experts in the world are falling off this cliff and dying even WITH ropes.

If he cramps up, he's dead. Gets nervous and hands get sweaty, he's dead. He has to be one of the most chill under pressure fools ever.

The movie ain't just about the climb, it's about the whole training and psychological process for seven years leading up to the climb. This guy is just insane how he trains, how he plans, how careful he is. He's not an idiot fool, and that's why he's still alive when all the others are dead. Yet he literally does stuff no one in human history has ever done before.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Does things with no ropes that are insane and death defying even if the fool did have a rope.

 

[Pitfalls0117]

Bro's focus is unreal

 

[Guess Who]

Nope. Not me.

 

[BlackAchilles]

I read the title and thought they'd given Hope Solo a Bourdain style show, except instead of food its football and drunken ranting and violence

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Bro's focus is unreal

I read a different article about the climb, and it said that in 3,200 vertical feet there are only three spots where the footholds are good enough that you can stand up straight, take your hands off the cliff, and rest for a moment. The entire rest of the climb, you're hanging on without a break every second and any mental lapse will kill you.

I watch guys get shook taking free throws, and imagine the difference between that and trying to stay calm when there's 2000 feet between you and the ground and you're hanging on by a 1/4-inch finger hold and your life is on the line and everyone will call you an idiot and disparage your entire life's mission if anything goes wrong and you fall.

 

[TheNig]

Nah

 

[Da King]

Idiot cacs, then they’re going to want me to feel sad when he drops to his death

 

[MikelArteta]

even watching this gets me antsy

 

[MikelArteta]

 

[LeMAO]

Why not wear a helmet for safety reason

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Idiot cacs, then they’re going to want me to feel sad when he drops to his death

Who is "they"? 90% of the world is going to mock him and call him an idiot who should have known better if he falls to his death.

That's a big part of the pressure for me. Every moment he's on that cliff, he has to reprove his life's goal to everyone. No matter how much he does, one mistake and everything he's ever done is invalidated in the eyes of the world.

Why not wear a helmet for safety reason

Like a helmet gonna do you any good when you're falling half-a-mile off a sheer rock face.

The only thing a helmet would really help you with is the occasional rock randomly falling from above, and it probably would limit his head flexibility and interfere with some of his moves so it wouldn't even be worth it.

I think one of these guys was wearing a helmet on the same cliff and it didn't matter at all:


Two Expert Climbers Killed in Fall From El Cap’s Freeblast
CHRIS VAN LEUVEN
JUN 2, 2018

• Eye Witness Recounts Tragic Accident on El Cap's Freeblast.
  
  
  
  
  
  Jason Wells (left) and Tim Klein (right) during an ascent of the Nose in May, 2017.
  
  Greg Murphy
  
  On the morning of June 2 at 8 a.m., while speed climbing on the lower pitches of the Salathé Wall on El Capitan—a section called Freeblast—two highly experienced climbers, Tim Klein and Jason Wells, were involved in a fatal accident. The team was simul-climbing through Pitch 9 or 10, 5.7 terrain approaching Mammoth Terraces, when the incident occurred. A scream was heard and both climbers fell, roped together, 1,000 feet to the ground.

 

[LurkMoar]

Well... don’t fall.

 

[Adam3000]

Been waiting for this film since the climb happened. Wish it wouldn't have taken so long to come out.

There are certainly a chunk of climbers who could physically do this climb no problem, but like OP said the mental part is what is really crazy. Literally every second of the climb he was one mental lapse away from death.

But he by no means is crazy. Each movement is meticulously planned.

 

[BXKingPin82]

OH HELL NO!!!