Free Solo
classified 12APlease note: This was screened in March 2019
One of climbing’s most extraordinary feats is captured in this stunning, scary and unflinching documentary about free soloist climber Alex Honnold as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream of climbing the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park... without a rope.
El Capitan is the most impressive wall on earth. It’s 3,200 ft of sheer granite and the centre of the rock climbing universe. For Alex Honnold – the world’s most accomplished Free solo (ropeless) climber - El Cap presents the ultimate challenge, a goal he has been dreaming about for years. Watching Alex climbing without a rope through awkward and difficult positions on minuscule holds in which one wrong move would be fatal, is a breathless, nerve shredding experience. It’s also a brilliant account of the process of moving through fear as beyond each immediate physical challenge lies another, and then another, stacked to the sky. Meanwhile the trees below shrink to dots.
Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Superbly captured by filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and mountaineer Jimmy Chin (the team behind Meru) their remarkable film ensures Alex’s story will go down in the annals of human achievement. Just try not to look down…