Alex Honnold who free soloed El Capitan describes how he prepared and did it.
El Capitan
What if he falls?
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin produced, directed, and shot the movie Free Solo, about Alex Honnold’s free solo of the Freerider route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California. This behind the scenes piece for The New York Times is incredible and the movie will no doubt be incredible as well.
Zoom it out. Wow!
Two Nineteen Forty Four
Two Nineteen Forty Four from Tristan Greszko on Vimeo.
Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds setting a speed record for climbing the Nose route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. They climbed it in 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 44 seconds.
To me, speed records seem insane but hey, I’m an old fart who climbed in traditional ways. But, this video is well worth watching because it’s a great piece of work in itself, documenting an amazing achievement.
[via PetaPixel]
El Capitan, My El Capitan
Daniel Duane has written the best piece I’ve read so far about Alex Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.
El Capitan, the film
El Capitan, the film documents three climbers doing the classic Nose route in 1968 on the largest rock formation in Yosemite Valley, California: El Capitan.
This film is not full of hero shots, not full of free soloing and is humble compared with many modern films on Yosemite climbing (see embedded videos below). But, it documents in amazing detail what it’s like to climb the Nose route on El Capitan, still one of the classic big wall rock climbs on earth by three (four including the cameraman) pioneering and excellent climbers.
The cinematography by Glen Denny is incredible as is the sound reproduction. This climb was made before the invention of “clean climbing” so the climbers are carrying pitons and hammers and a lot of heavy gear and that gear clanks around, and all of those clanks are recorded and in the movie. Of course, Glenn Denny also did the climb with a lot of heavy film and sound gear which was and remains a feat in itself.
Here’s a great history of the project and review of the movie by Michael Ybarra for Alpinist: El Capitan: The Movie. Highly recommended.
I’ve owned the VHS (videotape) version of the movie El Capitan for a long time and I was extremely happy to find that the film was painstakingly transferred to digital video including blue-ray.
I climbed extensively in Yosemite ten years after this movie was shot. For more on my climbing history, see A Climbing Story. Yosemite was a magical place before it got overrun by too many tourists and too many climbers. No doubt it’s still magical but I like to think I experienced it during a more innocent time.
Yvon Chouinard and Glen Denny’s book: Yosemite in the Sixties has photographs of many of the pioneers of Yosemite climbing who were active just before this film was made. You can see more of Glen’s photographs here: Glen Denny.
Buy the DVD or Blue-ray of El Capitan
A more modern El Capitan climb of the Nose route by Mark and Janelle Smiley:
The Nose on El Capitan from Mark Smiley on Vimeo.
A french team does the Nose route (the GoPro footage while a bit dizzying is useful for seeing what a climber sees):
The Nose – El Capitan from Capexpe on Vimeo.
Here’s Mark and Janelle Smiley on the Salathe Wall route on El Capitan (a more difficult climb):
Bringing millions along for the ride on an El Cap climb
On Ledge and Online: Solitary Sport Turns Social
Social media and handheld devices for posting is invading what used to be solitary adventure sports. Many have mixed feelings about this.
As one who posts hike progress on Path and Instagram who am I to say that this is a bad idea. It will be interesting to see how it affects the kinds of things climbers and other adventure sports enthusiasts do: will they push themselves unreasonably to do ever more daring things for their online audience and to gain Page rank? Probably.
Ueli Steck
Amazing. I can’t hike on level ground as fast as this guy climbs incredibly tough and exposed alpine walls.
On assignment in Yosemite
On Assignment from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.
Photographer and climber Jimmy Chin on assignment for National Geographic in Yosemite Valley.
Okay Dale, maybe this could get us old timers back into it. Think I’ll stick to hiking.
[via PetaPixel]
Richard's Notes 