Free Solo (unprotected rock climbing) is the most dangerous and extreme kind of rock climbing. In the eyes of the public who don't know about rock climbing, climbing nearly 3,000 feet with bare hands on a rock wall that is almost vertical to the ground is unbelievable enough, let alone with bare hands. If you take a wrong step, you may be crushed. Even among rock climbers, there are very few people who dare to try unarmed rock climbing. Almost everyone in the first lesson of climbing protection will be repeatedly emphasized: never loose the protection rope.
Therefore, when we talk about unprotected rock climbing, there is always this scene in our minds: a person hangs on the rock wall with a lonely courage and determination to die. There is no support, no backup plan, and you can rely on it. Only his own hands and feet... even Alex Honnold's own early short film "Alone on the Wall" was desperately trying to render such an atmosphere.
And I was stunned after watching Alex’s latest "Free Solo", which is so different from the unprotected rock climbing I imagined... It is simply the opposite of all people's stereotypes. In this movie, unprotected rock climbing is planned, controllable, and can even be tried repeatedly; Alex is not alone in the fight, and his team has several shining names: Tommy Caldwell, who has conquered Chief Rock The top rock climber on several walls is also the protagonist of another rock-climbing blockbuster "The Dawn Wall"; Jimmy Chin, a great photographer and a mountaineer, once skied down Mount Everest. Alex even brought a girlfriend, and the two even bought a house while he was preparing to climb the Emirates Rock. The entire film lasts for nearly two hours, and only the last 10 minutes is the image of Alex officially climbing the Emirates Rock. For more than an hour, they all described in detail the preparation process of this project, several failed attempts, changes in various schemes, and risk response guidelines.
Is it a familiar formula? This is a world-class adventure, it is obviously a project report!
However, perhaps it is because this is different from the public impression, and even different from the detailed preparations of other unprotected climbers, that makes Alex Honnold the most powerful unprotected climber today, and he is still alive today (emphasis added!).
Those who have started rock climbing in the past few years can't get around the name Alex Honnold. This introverted California youth started rock climbing at the age of 5. After dropping out of Berkeley at the age of 19, he drove an RV around looking for a goal. He climbed the Half Dome of Yosemite Park without protection for the first time in 2008-a two thousand feet tall. Dayanbi, the source of the trademark of the famous outdoor brand The NorthFace. Since then, the whole world has been waiting for him to climb the Emirates Rock. He also officially completed this feat in 2017, and fellow photographer Jimmy Chin recorded the whole process and became this film called "Free Solo" movie.
It is this Alex Honnold who constantly challenges the limits of mankind. He has repeatedly emphasized a point in his autobiography, interviews, and speeches: He is not bolder than others. Unprotected rock climbing in his eyes, the risk can be controlled, but the cost of failure is very heavy.
I did not understand this sentence at one time. Climbing a big rock wall is inherently a very risky thing. For example, if you are facing a wall that is perpendicular to the ground, the only protruding area is a half-centimeter wide stone joint. You only have one hand to hold it, you have to hold your whole body, and you have to try to find the next hand or footing point. And when you lower your head, you find yourself 500 meters above the ground. You tell me how to keep the risk under control?
Thanks to Jimmy Chin, who recorded Alex's preparation process in detail in the "Free Solo" film, and also answered my doubts. The Great God’s method is unexpectedly simple (and familiar). First, you must have a good team, and then you must leave enough time to dismantle the rock wall in sections, focus on the difficult points, and choose the most suitable plan. The most critical point is that we must make full attempts. The engineers burst into tears when they saw this place. Isn't this the way we do the project?
Alex's team is very awesome. As mentioned earlier, there is a rock climbing god in his team. Tommy Caldwell is the most suitable partner to climb the Emirates Rock. If the idol of our generation of rock climbers is Alex Honnold, then Alex’s idol is Tommy. It’s correct... Tommy is the first to climb several Emirates Rock routes. After the divorce, It’s as if you’re married to Dayanbi, and it took you a few years to climb the dawn wall of your dream route. If there is a person in the world who knows the Emirates Rock well, it’s Tommy. What's more, maybe because of personal experience (see "The Dawn Wall" for details), Tommy is quite concerned about his younger generations, and is willing to cooperate with each other's training rhythm, as a climbing partner is simply perfect.
It can be seen that Alex trusts these people very much. When Alex broke his foot, they discussed the recovery plan and made choices in time and health; when the photography team decided on the shooting method, Alex said not to follow the shooting, and the photography team immediately changed The plan is only for long-distance and drone shooting. You know, Alex is the kind of introverted person who didn't dare to talk to people when he was a kid, couldn't find a partner, and had to start a rock climbing journey alone. It is a great thing for him to speak out his ideas without scruples, and to be able to trust the team to cooperate with him wholeheartedly. At this time, we need to focus. Many company product managers and programmers really have zero communication, and they think that each other's thinking is not in the same frequency band as themselves. With such an attitude, how can problems be solved efficiently? Take a look at what Jimmy Chin did-he kept asking Alex in the discussion, even if Alex was vague, he could explain the information clearly in his repeated confirmations. As expected, a photographer who doesn't ask questions is not a good PM.
Of course, no matter how strong the team is, free-hand rock climbing also depends on personal qualities. The theme of the previous "Alone on the Wall" was simple and rude. It was a show. The shots gave Alex the difficult actions on the rock wall, how to shoot how thrilling it is. And this movie is longer and can systematically show Alex's entire preparation process. The movie spends a lot of time telling how Alex repeatedly practiced The Boulder Problem-the hardest part of the whole route. Alex kept failing, kept changing methods, and made a whole book of notes. Objectively speaking, the difficulty of that period was high, and Alex could not be 100% sure, but he was fully prepared within the scope of his ability. Before the final climb, he even wrote down the hand and foot sequence of these difficult movements, trying to ensure that he did not make mistakes. Compared to the last 10 minutes of making history, this episode is the plot that shocked me the most. In the past few years of rock climbing, I have also encountered many difficult routes, and it took a few more than ten days to try, but I never thought about memorizing the entire paragraph of the answer—— It seems that this method of memorizing standard answers before the exam was abandoned by myself after the college entrance examination. It's not that my memory has deteriorated, but that I have lost the determination to fight back and win. However, this is not only applicable to rock climbing-in the face of various projects, isn't it the easiest to succeed with such meticulous preparation?
There are many more points, which make me think that this is clearly an engineering project teaching film. For example, Alex tried to climb in the winter of 2016, but he felt wrong after climbing the first pitch and immediately withdrew. This is the same as the project requires a small-scale test first and then a large-scale launch. For example, Alex was injured twice. He did not rest until he fully recovered before retraining. Instead, he was doing indoor training in the rock gym while splinting. It was just like fixing a bug. It is impossible to wait for all the systems to get better. Wherever it is repaired, just go there. Being able to do all of this well, it's no wonder that Alex can push the limit again and again, and as he himself said, always keep the risks under control. Under the foreshadowing of the first 80 minutes of the movie, the success of the last 10 minutes seems to be expected. The friends say that this film is not as thrilling as "Alone on the Wall", but they don't know that the preparation process of the first 80 minutes is the essence. The project is online, everything is safe, this is the greatest success.
Many people think that Alex is able to prepare for rock climbing so systematically because if he makes a mistake in unprotected rock climbing, he will pay the price of his life, so he has to go all out. For most of us, if we take this life-hanging attitude to face life, even if we can't achieve the achievement of climbing the Emirates Rock, we should be invincible in most areas. The first thing that determines the result is the method and the attitude, and the skill always takes the second place. So, I sigh once again, the gap between me and Alex Honnold is not just that he can climb 5.14 but I can't.
finally. I really like the personality of Alex shown in this movie. He is really a very typical person, who seems to be separated from the barriers in communication with the world. He said that in the beginning unprotected rock climbing was because he didn't know how to find someone to be a partner, so he had to climb on his own. After watching this movie, many people will become curious about Alex’s mentality. They don’t know what he is thinking of a focused and communication-impaired guy. Doesn’t his brain really feel scared, as the MRI images in the movie show. .
I don't think he is strange at all. It is not so much that he is overly brave, it is better to say that he just chooses the most comfortable way for him to live, and then fortunately discovered that rock climbing is unexpectedly suitable for the introvert. Rock climbing brings him more peace of mind than danger. I empathize with this, because sometimes, communicating with people is really scarier than falling off a rock wall. Opposite a bare high wall in the mountain, I would not sweat my palms and soar adrenaline, but felt, ah, I can finally communicate with this mountain without being disturbed. That kind of feeling-it's much more comfortable to forcibly blend in with the crowd when friends are gathering, rather than talking and discussing in a meeting. It is true that many rock climbers are hearty and outgoing, but there are also a considerable number of people who are more willing to face the mountains than being with others. They should be like me, they have seen a lot of encouragement from Alex.
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