To the uninitiated, climbing a sheer rock wall without the use of ropes, harness or any other safety equipment can seem insane. A climber who slips and falls during such a “free solo” ascent pays the ultimate price. Committed climbers, however, consider free solos among the sport's ultimate achievements. Those who scale the most difficult routes unroped rise to climbing's pantheon of heroes.
Among such superstars, none can match the accomplishments of Alex Honnold, a Californian who thrust himself to the forefront of the sport with a series of jaw-dropping ropeless ascents in 2008, among them the Moonlight Buttress—1,200 relentlessly difficult feet of finger- and handsize cracks cleaving a gorgeous sandstone monolith in Utah's Zion National Park. Mr. Honnold capped his remarkable year with an even more outrageous ropeless foray up the 2,200-foot northwest face of Half Dome in California's Yosemite National Park.
Looming a few miles away from Half Dome stands El Capitan, whose dizzying face rises from valley floor to Sierra rim in one glorious 3,000-foot sweep. At the time, no one had ever free soloed El Capitan—many have difficulty making the climb even with the help of equipment. The feat stood before Mr. Honnold in open challenge.
Almost nine years later—on June 3, 2017—Mr. Honnold, then 31, finally free soloed El Capitan, an accomplishment described by fellow world-class climber Tommy Caldwell as the “moon landing” of rock climbing. The complex route demanded every granite-climbing technique in Mr. Honnold's repertoire. Two thousand feet above the valley floor, he contorted his body like a ballet dancer through the most difficult section, with only the tips of his fingers and the toes of his rock shoes keeping him connected to the wall—and to this world. And he did this while being followed by a documentary film crew, there to shoot what would become “Free Solo,” the winner for best documentary at the 2019 Academy Awards.
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