Free Solo

The academy Award documentary of Alex Honnold’s ropeless ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan will be on the National Geo Channel tonight at 6:00 (Directtv) Pacific check your local listings.

It will also be offered on several APPs online, including the free Nat Geo App.

I saw it on an IMAX screen, and it is spectacular. You will still get sweaty palm watching it on a small screen.



And don’t try this at home. The best climbers in the World are freaked out by what he did. When I started climbing, somebody wrote a science fiction story about this. Climbers laughed it off back then as totally unrealistic.

Thanks for the heads-up, Geez.

It's on tonight at 9pm PST on National Geo (773) on Comcast in the Portland/Vancouver market.

So far, the only other time it shows on Portland Comcast is March 10 at 1000am PST,

That was disturbing.

I watched most of the movie last night with my cousin who has done some climbing. He said it was hard to watch without his hands getting sweaty. I plan to watch the rest tonight.

I know some people think I do some crazy stuff (like spending the night on a 22' wood boat 50 miles off the Oregon coast), but I couldn't imagine taking that kind of risk.

One thing that isn’t emphasized is that not only is that a phenomenal feat, but the climb, Freerider, is a variation of a climb called the Salathé Wall, which is often called the greatest rock climb in the world. It’s hard to imagine somebody surpassing that feat, but of course in climbing, somebody always does.

One of the guys Alex talks to on the side of the road ( the older Robert Redford looking guy) is Peter Croft. He’s 60 now and still climbing hard stuff. He’s the guy that told Alex he did a 600 ft. climb called the Rostrum 50-60 times without a rope, and he once did that climb and another 1,000’ test piece called Astroman in one casual afternoon.

The difference between what these guys and others are doing is orders of magnitude.

I was in Joshua Tree national park once with my partner gearing up to do a climb we had dedicated an entire vacation to doing and Peter free solo’d it before we had finished breakfast and sorted our gear out.

I listen to Joe Rogan podcasts from time to time. This one was pretty interesting after having watched the movie