The US rock climber on making the Oscar-nominated documentary Free Solo, a dizzying account of his unaided ascent of El Capitan in 2017
Born in Sacramento, California, in 1985, Alex Honnold is one of the greatest rock climbers of all time. In June 2017 he became the first person to climb the famous El Capitan, a sheer 3,000ft rockface in Yosemite national park, without ropes or protective equipment of any kind, a style of climbing known as free soloing. This feat, which took him just three hours and 56 minutes, is the subject of the 2018 documentary Free Solo, which has been nominated for best documentary at both the Oscars and Baftas.
In the film, you describe free soloing as a low-risk, high-consequence pursuit – you’re confident you won’t make a mistake, but if you do you die. Why do you do it?
There are a lot of things about soloing that are fun. It’s faster and more free. You don’t have all the weight hanging off you – a rope weighs at least 10 pounds. Apart from that it just feels incredible, and that goes hand in hand with the challenge of it. And for me there’s certainly a component of doing things that have never been done before and feeling like I’m making my mark on climbing.
from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2HxVZ4X
via
0 Comments