ULTIMATE OWNERSHIP
The sense of relief I felt when Alex Honnold reached the summit of El Capitan in the docu-film Free Solo, was exhausting.
The build up to the climax of this phenomenal endeavour, was a roller-coaster of emotions. I physically sensed the anxiety and adrenaline consuming me throughout the movie, but certainly during the record-breaking climb.
The camera crew and production team did an incredible job of making the viewer feel like we were alongside the climber. Interviews with the production team actually reinforced how nerve-wracking the challenge really was.
“Free Solo” on a rock-climb means no contingency, no safety backup, no second chance. If you slip or miss your grip on the mountain-face, gravity will guarantee you a swift and terminal return to ground-zero. The word that kept coming up for me as I watched was “consequence”. The consequence of one error of judgement would be certain death. Honnold even says at one point in the film, “obviously much higher consequence…”.
El Capitan includes a 900m shear wall of rock in Yosemite national park, California; part of a 2,000m granite monolith that rises into the sky!
Many have tried climbing “El Cap'”, many have failed, many have died. No-one prior to Honnold had succeeded in climbing it without safety ropes.
The movie is inspiring and well worth a watch. Again we are reminded that the seemingly impossible can be made possible; and then at some point the possible is performed.
While some tests and scans did reveal that Honnold is “wired a little different” to most of us, he is still human and a pretty humble human at that. One of his natural competitive advantages is his ability to remain calm and laser-focused irrespective of his environment.
I enjoyed the planning, preparation, and psychology that was evident in the build-up to this world record.
- Intimate visualisation: route memorisation, no stone unturned in the preparation. Notes and drawings continually revised.
- Earned entitlement: the “boulder problem” – analysis of each section of the climb, trial and error with ropes, strategy and rehearsal, repeat, repeat, repeat, until ready.
- Flawless execution: extraordinary composure in the face of overwhelming adversity and life-threatening danger.
Since the movie, I have watched Honnold’s Ted Talk where he humbly divulges more about the discomfort and near-panic he experienced when he free-solo’d “Half Dome” earlier in his career. This experience taught him valuable lessons which contributed to his ultimate success on El Cap – a “decade-long” dream come true.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me was the reinforcement of an intuitive truth we have all experienced at some point: Honnold describes the day he did the world’s greatest ever “Free Solo” as the best day of his life – he was in a state sometimes described as “flow”. Flow happens when we are so confident in our readiness for a challenge, and so completely immersed in the task, that we feel we are doing what we were born to do, despite the adversity involved.
Alex Honnold reminds us all that the dream can be delivered if we keep moving towards it with dogged determination, and detailed dedication.
