Free Solo

From the filmmakers of one of my favorite recent movies Meru comes this similar climbing story of Alex Honold, who does rock climbing with no supporting rope- called free soloing.  One false move and you fall to your certain death.  In fact as they say in the movie, just about everyone who does free solo has died.

So what better challenge than to scale El Capitan in Yosemite National Park?  But our hero is not dumb.  Unfeeling?  Selfish? Single minded?  Perfectionist? Borderline Aspergers?  All yes.  But not dumb.

The fun part is how they tell the story to include all of these aspects.   Honold is an accomplished climber and he took great effort to prepare for this climb, mapping out the route in great detail and spending much practice time.  Most everyone around him wanted to support him, but also wanted him not to do it - too risky.

As the great supporting actor cameraman said,  "I can't look at this".

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