I watched Free Solo commercial-free on the National Geographic channel tonight. Let me preface the fact that I loved it by saying that my stomach churned constantly and I ground my teeth the whole way through. Okay, I loved it.
Free Solo recently won an Oscar for the most ferociously bone-chilling, death-defying, Samurai-warrior-climbing-El Capitan-without-a-rope-on-a-June-day-in-just-under-four-hours-with-a-film-crew-all-set-to-hurl-and-cry documentary ever conceived and executed. God almighty, this thing is fiery intense!
El Capitan, if you don't know, is a three thousand feet tall gorgeous granite vertical wall in Yosemite National Park. Other climbers have scaled it using ropes and all the climbing gear "normally" used for such endeavors. Only Alex Honnald has free-climbed it all by his lonesome.
Is he crazy? A genius? Superman? My guess is all three. Seriously, this is the single most impressive athletic accomplishment I have ever seen. His strength is one thing. His endurance is another. His focus/presence/relaxed intensity is alien, from the spirit realm.
You know at the beginning and throughout the whole film that he is going to make it, that he is not going to fall, but does that make any difference? No. You still are a bundle of nerves. Sweaty hands. Butterflies. Shortness of breath. Muttering omg's and other colorful stuff. The film crew, climbers all, can barely even watch and I promise you that you will look away at least once, if not several times. You might even puke all over your shirt. Keep a towel handy just in case.
At the end, on top of El Cap, after he finishes, what does he have to say? Of all the things you can think of that he might say, what does he say? I won't spoil it for you.
Peace, Love, and Wow,
Jim
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