The Documentary that I watched was called Free Solo and it was about a professional rock climber named Alex Honnold who decided to free solo climb “El Capitan” in Yosemite National Park.
For anyone who doesn’t know, free soloing is essentially just climbing without ropes, equipment, or anything besides yourself. It is similar to bouldering but on a way larger scale. El Capitan is one of (if not the) most famous climbing wall in the US due to the sheer height and climb ability of it. There are a variety of ways to climb up El Cap, but no one had ever attempted to free solo any route due to how life threatening it is to accomplish.
The Film opened up with an introduction to Alex and his crew, and gave us background information about El Capitan. The reason the documentary was made was to simply go against the argument that free soloing El Capitan is impossible. It previously has been attempted before by 2 or 3 people, but all have sadly died trying.
In order to gain the audiences trust with Alex’s ability to actually accomplish this deadly climb, the documentary starts with a summary of how Alex started to climb at a young age with his father, and then how he won national rock climbing competitions the first time he’d even try. They even gave us a glimpse on his family and girlfriend’s climbing abilities for further support, but Alex was he main talent.
There was an initial day that the climb was going to take place, but sadly Alex decided to turn back as he wasn’t confident enough to climb that day. The team then had to wait weeks to months in order to climb again because the weather had to be just right in order for Alex to free solo and not die. Both Alex and his team planned for a perfect day, and a set number of hours to climb each point, so that the only thing that could be a danger to Alex would be himself.
In the overall journey up the wall the documentary pulled on the anxiety that Alex would fall especially on the hardest part of the climb. Once Alex made it to the top, however; all that stress and anxiety is released, and you can’t help but feel ecstatic for him. They even include Alex telling his girlfriend that he loves her after the climb because he isn’t good at voicing his opinions which highlights just how proud he was of what he just accomplished.
Personally I am into climbing so I found this very energizing to watch, but I think that anyone would be able to enjoy it because of how amazing the feat was. Alex put his life on the line to accomplish one of his dreams, and it is so inspiring to watch him complete it. I recommend this for anyone who’s into emotional roller coasters because this documentary pulls on all of them.
Gia’s Blog 