You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I had watched The Dawn Wall and thought that's impossible.
Just watched Free Solo, my palms were genuinely sweating when he was climbing it.
A monumentally selfish individual but just wow.
I watched both a couple of weeks ago back to back. I thought Dawn Wall represented a much greater human achievement with climbers that you wanted to succeed. Free Solo was difficult to watch but I struggled to care if he fell off or not as he was such a dick to his very lovely girlfriend.
Dawn Wall is now one of my favourite films.
They’re both great and considering Honnold’s character I think your comments about his relationship are a bit unfair. Personal opinion though.
Cerro Torre on fizzy.tv worth a watch too. https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/films/cerro-torre
A monumentally selfish individual
Why do you think that?
His partner had asked him if her being in his life made any difference in his desire to free climb.
He was pretty brutal in his reply.
I get that he is focused but she seemed like a keeper. You could argue that she should have walked but she clearly loved him and the way the film was cut, him bailing on his first attempt shortly after the above exchange hinted at him being affected by it.
I'm a selfish person, I will admit but that seemed harsh to me.
Except Dawn Wall has been repeated in a pretty brisk 6 (I think) days. I don't think there will be a queue to free solo Free Rider. I saw Free Solo in the cinema which really enhanced the impact. The achievement of the ascent has been compared to walking on Mars by Julian Lines (real soloing pedigree there).
I expected Alex Honnold to come across as annoyingly autistic but thought he had a real sense of humour about himself, his girl friend I found a bit vacuous and knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she homed in on him when they first met.
his girl friend I found a bit vacuous and knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she homed in on him when they first met.
...and she did break his back through monumental carelessness.
…and she did break his back through monumental carelessness.
He himself said she wasn't a climber. There's two chances she'd have been operating that rope for me, ones none..
I think he's pretty honest about his approach to life and what motivates him, and I wouldn't presume to judge their relationship and how they view it from each side. There was some slyly humorous editing in the film. When I saw it at the cinema, at the end of the climb where Honnold's girlfriend embraces him and says something along the lines of "You're done", most of the audience started laughing out loud. It was obvious that he wasn't going to be stopping doing his thing any time soon.
They do touch on other aspects of his life in the film. I think that devoting some of your spare time to running a foundation promoting solar energy projects to help people in fuel poverty is not the act of a monumentally selfish person.
Both good films but the best is Valley Uprising, if you liked those you'll love that.
I wasn't talking about his altruistic pursuits.
He himself said she wasn’t a climber.
If that's an excuse for her then I know nothing about climbing & I'd be watching the rope like a hawk. Maybe I'm wrong but ensuring the rope doesn't completely run through doesn't look like it requires skill to me, just attention.
If that’s an excuse for her then I know nothing about climbing & I’d be watching the rope like a hawk. Maybe I’m wrong but ensuring the rope doesn’t completely run through doesn’t look like it requires skill to me, just attention.
Depends how well your ropes are organised at your feet - you are paying attention to both ends of the rope at once, looking at the climber and what's happening on the deck. This kind of thing can happen easily to a newbie, which is why the experienced climber carries the bulk of the responsibility if he chooses to let her belay him in this kind of situation.
Alex has a fairly extreme personality type which means that he can put himself in positions that would be unthinkable to the vast majority of us. His single-mindedness may seem like selfishness, but only because we try to think how we'd feel in his shoes. I imagine that his perspective would be quite different.
This kind of thing can happen easily to a newbie, which is why the experienced climber carries the bulk of the responsibility if he chooses to let her belay him in this kind of situation.
I get you now, fair point.
He is marrying her now so they didn't come out of it too bad! Lance Armstrong does a good interview with him on his podcast.
Looking at what Honnold said about getting dropped by his girlfriend, looks like a combination of mistakes, not just hers. Basically he planned to set a top rope on a route which was just over 30m long, using his 70m rope which would have been fine. But his girlfriend's folks asked him to use their rope instead, which was, unknown to him, only 60m long. So when he was lowered down from the anchor, the end of the rope arrived at the belay device when he still a few metres above the deck.
The speed at which you get lowered from top-rope anchors is normally pretty quick with modern devices. Probably less than a second for the rope to travel from your feet to the device. At a point when you'd be watching the climber so you could slow him down as he touched down. I wouldn't expect even an experienced belayer to necessarily have the reactions if he or she wasn't expecting there to be an issue with rope length.
Saw Free Solo on its opening night with a live Q&A with the Director / film maker. I thought the relationship with his GF was what made the film. He's obviously very special which makes him able to do just insane things.
Dawn wall was also excellent, a much tougher technical challenge, but then no one's going to to die doing it.
If you fancy another Jimmy Chin mountaineering film, Meru is just brilliant.
Dawn wall was also excellent, a much tougher technical challenge, but then no one’s going to to die doing it.
I think that’s downplaying the risks of spending multiple days high on a big wall.
Just because the guys in Dawn Wall don’t come across as bothered doesn’t mean that’s true.
Those ice chunks could have ended them. And kit (while very good) fails. And folk make mistakes & errors, all the time. Most mistakes don’t cost lives. Some - especially up there - do, even with the best in the world.
Don’t get me wrong though. Free Solo was bonkers on a whole other level.
Both good films but the best is Valley Uprising, if you liked those you’ll love that.
Agreed, such an interesting and entertaining film.