Free Solo ★★★★
THE last 15 minutes of Free Solo is nail-biting stuff.
Even knowing the outcome, I was on the edge of my seat watching Alex Honnold climb a 2,300 metre-high, sheer rock face without any ropes.
How anybody, even a supremely tuned and confident athlete like Honnold, could hang by two thumbs and a few toes and keep their nerve while risking certain death is astounding.
At one point this Academy Award-winning 2018 documentary explores the possibility that Alex’s brain may even be biologically wired to maintain a higher than usual fear threshold.
Alex himself puts his steely nature down more to having lived with fear for so many years that he has come to understand and manage it.
As a professional rock climber Alex had dreamed of one day conquering the renowned east wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Others had done it previously, including Alex, but he wanted to be the first to ascend ‘free solo’, meaning without the aid of any ropes or other safety device; just using his strength, agility and skill.
In 2010 the dream became a goal, some might say an obsession, that would build and take shape in his mind for the next seven years.
The documentary joins Alex at the start of 2017 with him living out of a van at the base of El Capitan, intensively training daily for the attempt, painstakingly recording the entire process, one intricate move at a time, in his ‘how to’ journal.
Over a six-month period, there are two setbacks due to injury and many discussions with fellow climbers and members of the production crew over the logistics and dangers involved.
Importantly, these include how to film the attempt while minimising the potential interference to Alex’s concentration.
While it’s clear Alex is happy with the solitary focus required to succeed, it’s interesting to also experience the relationship with his partner Sanni that requires an incredible amount of understanding and resilience on her part.
When it comes time for the attempt, it starts almost matter-of-factly with Alex heading off like he is going for a daily hike. It’s a great moment and depicts the man’s character as well as the magnitude of the task ahead.
As word spreads that the ascent is on, we are swept up in the drama and tension.
The film-makers, documentary specialist Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and professional climber Jimmy Chin, take us as close as possible to Alex’s feat, while ensuring a clear understanding of the physical and mental difficulties as well as the scale of man to nature involved.
It’s a thoroughly engrossing watch all round and a fantastic testament to this incredible achievement.