Archive for documentary
free solo
Posted in Mountains with tags Adam Ondra, Alex Honnold, California, climbing accident, documentary, Eastern Europe, El Capitan, free climbing, Free Solo, National Geographic, Yosemite on September 21, 2021 by xi'ansecrets of the surface
Posted in Statistics with tags documentary, Fields medal, Harvard University, Maryam Mirzakhani, topology on October 30, 2020 by xi'an
![Somewhat surprisingly, I had not yet watched this filming of Alex Honnold's free solo climb of Free Rider on El Capitan, Yosemite. Mostly because I had not seen it on my usual channels. But also because I was and still is ambivalent about free soloing. While I understand that Honnold's abilities are way above the 7c+ level of Free Rider, the ratio risk to ability in this approach remains infinite. A single slip of one foot and... Some of the hardest passages made me cringe to the point I stopped the video for a while. As it seems much much harder than 7c+. (Adam Ondra stated that climbing 9a was easier than free soloing this route. He also wondered whether the free-solo climbing is good or not, whether [he] should write about it or not.) While the filming was impressive and as little intrusive as possible, I also wondered at the impact it had on Honnold and his commitment to trying the climb. It was most interesting to see him stopping an earlier attempt after a few hundred feet because he felt this pressure was too high. On the other hand, I did not appreciate the inter-personal parts as imho it stops being personal once filmed and broadcasted. Still, in the end, this is a unique exploit for climbing, exhibiting a perfection in hold placements the whole 1000+ meters.](https://i0.wp.com/lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/docfilmswebsite_1080x1600_freesolo_91d7bed0.jpeg?w=450&ssl=1)