Free Solo transcends fear to achieve perfection

By Katherine Monk

Free Solo. Sounds like a New-Age way of life, or a cheap thrill at a peeler bar. That’s because I’m a bit of a cynic, it seems. Those two words have been tainted by the well-marketed commodification of spiritual comfort in a world that now panics at the thought of personal responsibility. We’re all hanging on the side of insanity’s cliff, and there’s no rope to save us from the abyss.

No wonder Free Solo, the new National Geographic documentary about Alex Honnold’s bid to climb El Capitan’s 3,200-foot granite face without ropes or assistance, captures something in the ether. It’s a sense of desperation and looming dread. That the next sound you hear will be a high-pitched, downward howl followed by a wet thunk.

We’re all hanging on the side of insanity’s cliff, and there’s no rope to save us from the abyss…. No wonder Free Solo, the new National Geographic documentary about Alex Honnold’s bid to climb El Capitan’s 3,200-foot granite face without ropes or assistance, captures something in the ether.

You can’t help but fear the very worst. Not just because the feat is so insane, it was long classified as “impossible” by even the most accomplished climbers, but because so many experienced alpinists die every year. All it takes is one single slip, a loose rock, a pebble pried loose from a gentle wind. And it’s all over.

Yet, there’s a clutch of men and women who do it anyway. It’s a huge leap for the rest of us who get wobbly on a ladder and vertiginous looking over high railings to imagine what it would feel like to hang by one’s fingertips 3000-feet straight up, but thanks to intrepid filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, we’re there in mid-air. Watching the impossible.

Chin and Vasarhelyi yanked us up the icy crags in Meru, too, another must-see mountain movie for those who crave authentic high-altitude drama. All their skills are deployed in Free Solo, from Chin’s unmatched dual talents as a cinematographer and climber, to Vasarhelyi’s ability to nudge further into the psychology of what drives people to do such risky things.

Free Solo gives them both a chance to drill deeper, and push further, because it’s such a focused piece. Everything we wanted to understand about the psyche that propels people up cliffs is slowly unwrapped in their sensitive, careful study of Alex Honnold.

Everything we wanted to understand about the psyche that propels people up cliffs is slowly unwrapped in their sensitive, careful study of Alex Honnold.

Honnold grew up feeling different, but when he discovered the world of carabiners and chalk bags, he found his place. His purpose. So when the only thing that gives you pleasure, and provides an income thanks to deep-pocketed sponsors and outerwear suppliers, also has a pure measure of accomplishment, it’s easy to understand why Honnold would want to strive for perfection.

Isn’t that what we all crave? And isn’t it what we all fear to attempt? Lest we fail. And lest we succeed. What if achievement doesn’t fill the void? And we’re left with ourselves, and the nodding emptiness.

Honnold’s whole being is an existential equation. His only means of survival is to remain completely dedicated to each single nanosecond, and his exact place in the universe. He must Be. Or not Be.

When asked what he was thinking of the morning he made the climb, and approached El Cap’s base in the shadow of dawn, he said “Not really anything.” Only “This sure is a big piece of rock.”

Honnold’s whole being is an existential equation. His only means of survival is to remain completely dedicated to each single nanosecond, and his exact place in the universe. He must Be. Or not Be.

Thanks to Chin’s jaw-dropping images that capture every white-knuckle second in a fully panoramic frame, we not only get the thrills and chills, we gain technical insight into exactly what had to happen at each point in the attempt. The professional side was flawless, but in the mere undertaking, the filmmakers also felt personally conflicted.

Their mere presence could cause a potentially lethal distraction. They could be recording the death of a friend. We hear parts of the discussion, but we’re always focused on Honnold, his preparation, his confidence, his personal life, and his driving desire to challenge himself — fully knowing the risks.

We get a hint into his unique abilities thanks to a neuroscientist and modern brain imaging, but the real magic of Honnold’s accomplishment, and the one that’s inspiring to us all — especially right now — is his ability to manage fear.

We get a hint into his unique abilities thanks to a neuroscientist and modern brain imaging, but the real magic of Honnold’s accomplishment, and the one that’s inspiring to us all — especially right now — is his ability to manage fear.

Though none of us should even think of venturing up El Capitan without a rope, our collective culture could use a primer on Fear Management. Every single one of us could climb our own cliff of fear if we did what Honnold did: understand the truth of what scares you, get to know every intimate crease and crag, hold it by your fingertips and hug the reality of each moment until there is no thought. Only action, upward, to your goal. Free Solo: Unafraid and personally responsible. Perfection achieved.

@katherinemonk

Main photo: Alex Honnold making the first free solo ascent of El Capitan’s Freerider in Yosemite National Park, CA. (National Geographic/Jimmy Chin)

THE EX-PRESS, October 29, 2016

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