Original subtitles

Welcome to the 10th annual Reel Rock film tour.

Reel Rock is presented by

The North Face

Working with the world's most accomplished climbers for over 40 years.

"Good job Conrad"

Pushing the boundaries of innovation,

so you can push your own boundaries.

From the gnarliest boulders

to the highest peaks

Never stop exploring.

Also presented by...

Goretex products.

When you need to keep water out,

Or let sweat out,

or keep wind out.

When you need to trust your gear's durability.

Goretex products.

Whatever the weather experience the difference.

For the past decade,

Reel Rock has followed the biggest stories in the climbing world.

We've introduced a new generation of characters.

I'm Al... (clears throat) I'm Alex Honnold.

My name's Ashima. I'm 9 years old.

Enter Daniel Woods

Ueli Steck

Adam Ondra

Sketchy Andy

Captured some of their greatest achievements.

Climbing these walls as fast as humanly possible.

The hardest most beautiful thing I've ever tried.

There's no reason why female climbers can't be as bold as men.

And explored the meaning behind this passion we all share.

Why in God's green earth do you guys climb mountains?

Because we're insane.

To search for something pure or beautiful

You have to really work at it

Climbing in a way is life.

It's the whole process of pushing yourself to a higher place (YELLS)

Thanks to you the global community of climbers,

for joining us to celebrate some of the visionary spirits

and defining moments in our sport.

WOOOO

Reel Rock is also sponsored by

Goal Zero:

the power to help you get out and stay out longer.

Petzl:

Creating innovative tools and techniques to help you access the inaccessible

Sterling Rope:[

We provide tools that allow climbers to safely confront unforgiving environments.

Choose the right equipment.

Skratch Labs

The makers of real food sports nutrition and hydration products.

Climbing Magazine:

Inspiring and enabling all climbers to achieve greater heights. [

National Geographic Adventure:

Vote for the next National Geographic Adventurer of the Year

The Access Fund:

day pass to the climbing gym - sixteen dollars,

rope and draws - three hundred and fifty dollars,

protecting America's climbing - just thirty five dollars.

Join the access fund.

And the American Alpine club:

Together we're stronger.

Now Reel Rock 10 brings you a fresh blast of inspiration from the vertical edge.

Featuring:

A groundbreaking alpine odyssey

12000 feet of vertical climbing

How would you not want to try a skyline like that?

I'm feeling a little intimidated at the moment

Pretty epic camp setup

A tribute to one of the great vertical adventurers of our time

An exclusive sneak-peak of the climb that captured the world's imagination.

The Dawn Wall it's like climbing up a sheet of glass. (YELLS)

I don't want to hold up the program, but I want to do this route.

The dangerous game of highball bouldering.

This primal instinct - You cannot fall right now.

Consequences are massive (YELLS)

And a twenty-four hour mad cap competition.

It's like the burning man of climbing

I'm coming for you Mason.

How was that fall Honnold? How'd that feel?

We're on the summit

Get ready for Reel Rock 10.

Caldwell: Dear Fitz,

It’s hard to believe that just one week ago, I said goodbye to you and your mom

as you boarded the bus to start your travels home,

and I hiked into the mountains.

My partner Alex and I had dreamed like so many others

of traversing the entire Fitz Roy range.

It was an obvious goal, but I really didn’t believe we would succeed.

No one had yet. It was just too big.

Garibotti: I don’t think you’ll find another place like this anywhere in the world.

Lama: Patagonia definitely is incredible.

Garibotti: These towers that are shooting through the sky.

Cordes: 5000 foot faces rising straight out of the glacier,

like rows of sharpened teeth.

Siadak: Massive walls split by ribbons of ice.

Cordes: If you’re a climber you can’t help but be drawn to these mountains.

They’re so spectacular.

Garibotti: The climbing here is very technically challenging,

you know you’re talking about always climbing vertical granite.

Chouinard: Patagonia is the proving ground that you can do

Yosemite style climbs but in a real alpine environment.

Siadak: There’s a lot of ice and mixed climbing

What we like to call alpine trickery.

Cordes: The rock can be really loose and incredibly dangerous.

Siadak: I accidentally ripped off this huge flake.

That’s right where we were. Right where that came down.

There’s no easy way up any single one of these peaks.

Just mangled my fingers.

We’ve been climbing the last 17 hours.

We haven’t had like any water to drink.

And no easy way off of them either.

Climber: This is really scary for me.

Lama: One of the biggest problems in climbing in Patagonia is definitely the weather.

Chouinard: You get terrible weather there. You’re so close to the Pacific.

Cordes: The storms come off the ocean. They just slam into the mountains.

So sudden and so ferocious.

Lama: When the wind is blowing really hard I mean it can blow you off the mountain.

Chouinard: If you get caught in one of those storms you’re in big trouble.

Cordes: These crazy rime ice mushrooms form,

and then when the sun hits and the rime starts to peel off

it can become like a bombing range.

Garibotti: It’s a very very serious place that should not be taken lightly.

Climber: I want to go home.

Siadak: This range has played such a role in the history of alpinism.

Going all the way back to Yvon Chouinard and the fun hogs.

Chouinard: I first went to Patagonia in 1968 to climb Fitz Roy.

That skyline is pretty amazing

and Fitz Roy was one of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen.

The weather was bad. But we stuck it out 31 days in an ice cave.

And we finally climbed Fitz Roy by a new route.

Cordes: Climbers have come here for the last 50 years to set new standards.

Over the past decade or so

we have been starting to see a new school of alpinism.

Garibotti: Right now we're interested in these enchainments or these long traverses.

Siadak: Extremely obvious geographical or aesthetic lines.

Garibotti: With this new vision of alpinism,

it's only natural that the Fitz Traverse would become

one of the big, big climbs to pick.

Siadak: The first thing you see even from a hundred miles away as you're driving into town

is the Fitz Roy skyline.

The full Fitz Traverse is the biggest project waiting to get done.

Haley: 7 beautiful summits all lined up in one straight ridge.

Siadak: To climb all of those peaks in one go.

Cordes: Enchaining the Fitz Roy skyline, you know it's sort of the fantasy, the daydream.

Lama: Definitely one of the most beautiful lines in the world.

Garibotti: It's very very jagged, very steep, and very long.

Haley: It's an objective that has been talked about for a long time.

Siadak: You know, who's gonna do it?

have got to be some grizzled alpinist.

Wait, Tommy? You mean the rock climber?

Spotters: Come on! You had it man, you had it. Come on, come on, get it! Yeah!

Caldwell: I've been climbing my whole life but I was kind of a fair weather rock climber.

When I thought of Patagonia, I thought of

burly dudes with big beards suffering in the mountains.

I was a scrawny little sport climbing kid, you know,

I didn't, I didn't belong in the mountains like that.

But then I came down with my friend Topher and had, just a mind-blowing trip.

Donahue: When I first brought Tommy to Patagonia,

I knew that if he could handle the ice and the snow and the wind,

if I could get him to the rock, that he would crush it, and then all I had to do was hang on.

Caldwell: Once you get to the rock climbing, it's incredible.

I mean it was like nothing else I've experienced.

Donahue: We did the first free ascent of the east face of Fitz Roy. This almost mile-tall wall.

Caldwell: 50 hours in a continuous push without sleeping.

Donahue: Lots of hard 5.12 climbing.

We were exhausted and hallucinating by the end but Tommy was unstoppable.

Caldwell: It was kind of this life-changing climb that left me with this love of this place.

Donahue: It was very clear that he could change the game in Patagonia.

Caldwell: I came back a couple more times and I'd always see that Fitz Roy massif ridgeline.

It's one of the most iconic mountain ranges in the world

and to traverse the entire ridgeline has got to be one of the coolest things I can think of.

But at the same time it seemed kind of absurd.

12,000 feet of vertical climbing,

hundreds of rappels.

We'd have to move incredibly fast and brave some kind of dangerous stuff.

And that was the part I was most worried about.

But then I went to Yosemite and climbed with Alex.

He's got this amazing ability to control fear.

The idea of being unroped,

just having your fingertips and your toes smearing up this slippery granite is like,

the scariest thing you can imagine.

And to Alex, that's no big deal.

Like how does that work?

We all know Alex is super bold but his other climbing that he does is badass too.

Alex and Hans Florine made the speed record in the Nose.

3000 feet in 2 and a half hours.

That's the kind of skills you would have to employ to do something like the Fitz Traverse.

Honnold: Tommy has put up some of the hardest routes in the country.

I've been reading news stories about his climbing since I was a little kid.

And so I just thought of him as some climbing god.

Caldwell: Alex asked me to climb this triple linkup here in Yosemite

where we free climbed El Cap Half Dome and Mt. Watkins in a day.

And I hadn't really climbed with Alex much at all before that.

And it was kind of a test for the Fitz Traverse.

You know Alex is so bold that I thought maybe we'd just fall to our death,

but it turns out that his boldness makes him incredible efficient.

He can run up huge chunks of rock in no time at all.

Honnold: Yay.

Caldwell: Climbing that fast there's obviously a huge element of risk,

but Alex has this confidence that is totally contagious.

When I'm climbing with him I just believe that I'm not gonna fall.

It's like a drug.

Honnold: I'm not like encouraging him to take more risk.

I'm just sort of giving him a glimpse of like what you get to do when you do take a little risk.

Caldwell: We climbed the 3 biggest features in Yosemite in under 24 hours.

Honnold: Dude that was off the hook.

Caldwell: Good work.

Honnold: I mean to free climb 7000 feet of granite in a single day.

Caldwell: It's hard to say no after you've experienced that.

Honnold: He was like wow we should do this more.

You know this is pretty fun.

Caldwell: Something kind of clicked. I was like this is what it would take.

Honnold: Tommy told me that he wanted to climb the Fitz Traverse.

I didn't even know what that means exactly.

Caldwell: The one thing that he's not is an experienced alpinist.

never had much interest in alpine climbing. I don't know how to use ice tools.

I don't like being cold. But if Tommy says we can do it I'm willing to go with him.

I mean how bad can it be?

Caldwell: El Chalten is the town at the base of the Fitz Roy range.

When you arrive in the town you see climbers everywhere.

It's like Camp 4 in South America for really hardcore alpine climbers.

Cordes: Every season the eyes of the alpine climbing world focus on Patagonia.

Everybody's got their objectives.

Climber: A lot of precip coming to visit us tomorrow.

Lama: Just a couple of days where it's not stormy,

where the conditions are good so we can go up

and climb the mountains quick and come down within the window.

Lempe: Really windy!

Caldwell: This year everybody we had talked to said the weather had sucked.

The mountains were covered in rime.

Haley: I hadn't put rock shoes on a single day in the mountains in 3 months of being here.

Climber: Lot of snow and ice.

Trying to stay in shape for when the weather does get good.

Hopefully we'll all be ready to get out there.

Lama: All the climbers are hanging out

constantly talking about when are you going up?

Which mountain are you gonna try?

Becca Caldwell: So what do you guys think you're gonna climb?

It's a little wintry in the mountains.

Caldwell: Something snowy probably.

We're gonna turn into alpine climbers

California rock climbers. See how that goes.

Honnold: I know how it's gonna go for me. Not that well.

Caldwell: This year I decided to bring my whole family.

I couldn't really imagine being away from them for a month.

So what do you think of this Alex?

Honnold: I can't wait to have a child. (laughs)

Caldwell: I named my son Fitz after the mountain because this place has been so special to me.

Honnold: Staying with Tommy and his wife Becca and his baby,

it's kind of a weird scene.

I definitely have not hung out with babies a lot before this trip.

It's funny that Tommy's like a cutting-edge climber

but then he spends the majority of his time as like a family man.

Like taking care of the kid.

I don't understand how he has the energy.

Caldwell: Having my family down here with me definitely gives me pause.

I'm trying to figure out that balance

to push myself as a climber and still be a good husband and a father.

As we're waiting for the weather to clear in El Chalten

we learned that we had some competition.

Rolando Garibotti and Colin Haley were gonna try the Fitz Traverse as well.

Rolo and Colin are the Patagonia experts. Rolo wrote the guidebook.

Cordes: He's the king of Patagonia.

Caldwell: And one of his dreams was to climb the Fitz Traverse.

Garibotti: How would you not want to try a skyline like that?

I mean you see it and it's just the only thing.

Oh yeah I want to go up and down all that thing.

Cordes: Colin Haley, in recent years, he's the most accomplished Patagonian climber.

Haley: The Fitz Traverse was like the next clear prize.

Rolo and I tried it twice together.

Garibotti: Both times we didn't get very far.

Haley: I thought that Tommy and Alex had a good chance of pulling it off.

And I definitely thought that Rolo and I had a good chance of pulling it off also.

Obviously all of us would have liked to pull it off first.

Honnold: All it takes is one good weather window.

The whole weather forecasting thing is a bit beyond me.

This means it's gonna be awesome.

This right here means that we're gonna send the gnar.

Caldwell: The pressure is just skyrocketing.

10/20 is supposed to be good, really good weather.

Finally this weather window started to show up on the forecast.

Haley: 5 and a half or 6 amazing days of perfect weather.

Caldwell: Everybody gets excited.

Honnold: The people are like, oh that's such a big window! It's gonna be so epic!

Caldwell: This never happens. We gotta go! We better go big!

Haley: It was definitely the opportunity to try the Fitz Traverse.

Caldwell: Headlamps... here we go.

Honnold: These things weigh 1.2 pounds each.

Garibotti: I think the crux of the traverse is logistical.

Knowing how to sleep night after night on a climb.

Knowing how much food to carry and not one gram more or one gram less.

Yeah it might be quite tricky for Alex and Tommy.

Two people with a lot of skills and not that much know-how.

Caldwell: Potato chips. Crunch.

Honnold: Those breakfasts look really good. Oatmeal with mixed nuts and raisins and bananas.

Caldwell: The one advantage that me and Alex have is that

we'll be able to climb the long sections of clean rock really fast.

Honnold: This is like not bad for bad for climbing easy terrain. Just depends how easy it is.

Bye little Fitzy.

Caldwell: Miss you buddy.

I have this big conflict now that I have a loving wife and kid.

I feel like doing things that could potentially kill me is really selfish.

Gonna go climb your mountain. Hopefully.

Becca Caldwell: Make sure you take pictures.

It's a beautiful day.

Beautiful day for sending.

Honnold: Awesome.

Becca Caldwell: Awesome.

Caldwell: But I love this life,

going into the mountains and doing adventurous things,

that makes me who I am.

Bye, I love you.

Becca: Love you too.

Caldwell: See you soon.

Becca Caldwell : I'm gonna miss you.

Caldwell: I'm gonna miss you too.

Becca Caldwell: Be safe ok?

Caldwell: And I want to show Fitz a life where you don't live in fear.

Where you're inspired to dream big and just kind of go for it.

I have convinced myself that it is possible to go out

and have these really adventurous experiences and be safe.

Hopefully I'm right.

Caldwell: Wow you can see the whole ridge right now.

Those mountains look kind of intense.

Honnold: Kind of. They don't look that big.

Caldwell: Little rimed up. (laughs) They're kind of small.

Honnold: Yeah I mean, take a couple of hours I guess.

Caldwell: I think those mountains look pretty intense.

Honnold: Yeah.

Caldwell: I didn't have too many concerns with Alex except for that he might see all the snow

and be like screw it I don't want to deal with this.

The north faces are pretty plastered with snow.

Honnold: I just can't get over how gnarly it looks here.

Caldwell: It's gonna suck because we're gonna be like waist-deep in slog.

Honnold: Note to viewers, Tommy will be waist-deep, I will be behind, filming.

I want to do robot voiceover for this whole movie.

Honnold: There goes Tommy breaking trail up a horrible slope.

Caldwell: Got some good snow conditions going on.

Honnold: Yeah this is a nightmare.

Caldwell: We camped out at the start of the route.

Caldwell: Day highlights.

Honnold: Probably the most interesting part of the day was falling in a crevasse.

Caldwell: The worst part of the day was leaving Becca and Fitz.

Honnold: Aw, you're such a sap.

Caldwell: Yeah, that was the worst part.

Honnold: So, as an older climber, do you feel like you're losing your edge by having a family?

Caldwell: That's an interesting question. Your questions are hard.

Honnold: That is a diplomatic way of saying yes.

Caldwell: I'll tell you after this traverse I guess.

Honnold: I guess we'll see.

Caldwell: Yet to be determined. So far, it seems pretty much the same.

Cause I never was trying to kill myself in the first place. I'm still not trying to kill myself.

Honnold: Yeah, safety first.

Caldwell: I'm pretty stoked to race for the Fitz Roy range.

Honnold: Yeah, this is actually gonna be kind of classic.

Caldwell: We felt like such gumbies compared to Rolo and Colin.

Haley: Tommy knows what he's doing in the mountains pretty well.

Caldwell: We are snow climbers.

Haley: Alex... barely at all.

They're kind of bumbling along in terms of alpine climbing skills.

Honnold: This is what it takes to practice extreme alpinism.

Caldwell: We show up at the base.

Alex had brought the wrong kind of crampon.

Caldwell: His crampon was made to clip onto a mountain boot

and all we had were Gore-Tex tennis shoes.

Honnold: I wouldn't know the difference.

Caldwell: It was gonna be really difficult potentially a little dangerous.

There was a good chance his crampons were just gonna fall right off.

Haley: We ran into Tommy and Alex at the start of the Fitz Traverse.

We chatted with them for a few minutes and then started up.

Caldwell: They started up a big snow gully.

Race to the summit!

Being rock climbers we did the steep technical rock climb.

Honnold: Bye.

Caldwell: Climbing the mountain.

Honnold: Climbing the mountain.

Caldwell: You're not on belay by the way.

We just didn't even know what to expect.

Alex is climbing with an ice tool clipped to his harness.

Honnold: The conditions on the first day were like, they seemed pretty bad, I don't know.

Caldwell: Just chopping ice out of all the cracks as we tried to climb 'em.

Honnold: It was kind of scary.

Like wow this is a far cry from Yosemite in the summer you know?

Felt like casting adrift in the ocean of rock. You're just like who knows where we're going.

Oh yeah Tommy. How was that pitch?

Caldwell: My hand's bleeding, my jacket's full of holes.

Honnold: Here we are our typical alpine anchor. We got our one piece.

We got our big slung horn thing which had actually fallen off when I got here.

but I put back on. And we called it bomber.

Let's see how do I zoom? How do you zoom on this thing? Do you turn the lens?

Caldwell: That doesn't do much.

Honnold: Oh I see, oh yeah it barely zooms.

That was a pathetic little zoom. I'm getting a detail shot.

Oh yeah. Actually this is just a groin shot. I like that.

Caldwell: You love the groin shots.

Honnold: This is no place for joking dude. This is extreme alpinism.

Ice tool, normal piece of the rack. Quite a bummer.

A 35 year old locking biner. That locker is probably your dad's.

Caldwell: It was my dad's.

Honnold: Oh was it? There you go?

Caldwell: Yeah. I like it though.

Honnold: I'm gonna try zooming in as you masticate. Oh that is oh my gosh.

I'm starting to feel somewhat artistic.

Caldwell: As I masticate? That's how you say it?

Honnold: Yeah, as you masticate. I like that word.

Caldwell: I don't know if I want you to video me masticating.

Honnold: I think people want to see things go in your mouth like that.

Caldwell: Huh, I wonder where we go across. Maybe just right here huh?

Honnold: Yeah I think you just quest along to this little thing and then you're in the corner.

Caldwell: Of course you don't think it looks extreme.

You don't think anything looks big or hard.

Honnold: Boy, that looks run out Tommy.

Caldwell: Yeah, this sucks.

Honnold: It's like at least 3 meters back to the anchor.

Caldwell: You're not even belaying me.

Honnold: Yeah I am! Hands-free dude. Belaying.

Your ice axe is silhouetted against the skyline and it's like pretty epic.

You definitely look like an alpinist.

Caldwell: We thought Colin and Rolo were far ahead of us,

but as we neared the top of Guillaumet they were just sitting on a ledge.

Haley: Rolo was feeling super sick and that was it for us.

Garibotti: We had to go down.

Haley: We knew that Alex had these crampons that really weren't gonna work

and they were just gonna try anyways.

Caldwell: Before they went down Rolo actually took off his own crampons

and gave them to Alex.

Which was a giant gesture.

Honnold: For Rolo to just basically give up his dream of doing the Fitz Traverse,

and then give me the tools that I need to finish the traverse,

you know I mean that's very big of him.

Garibotti: We offered them a bunch of water and

basically gave them a hand in whatever we could.

Our small participation in their traverse.

Our small contribution is a pair of crampons.

I'm psyched. I mean these are the two most capable rock climbers in the world at the moment.

With their level of skill they can more than make up for

all their little missteps in terms of logistical preparation and equipment.

Caldwell: Yeah!

Honnold: It took us 2 and a half hours to summit Guillaument. The beginning of the traverse.

Caldwell: Yeah a little bit of ice mining.

Honnold: Yeah which isn't so bad considering it's pretty snowy.

Caldwell: It is absolutely gorgeous.

Honnold: Yeah this is amazing.

Caldwell: No wind. Check out our view.

Honnold: So stoked.

Caldwell: That's Fitz.

That is Pier Giorgio I guess. Just learned from Rolo.

Honnold: Oh there's Cerro Torre dude.

Caldwell: Oh yeah there's Cerro Torre. ahhh!!

Honnold: This is so sick. Shabam. Ice.

Caldwell: After the summit of Guillaument

that part of the ridge you just have all these little fingers sticking up

and you're kind of weaving around 'em and you're going up on top of some of 'em.

Look off the sides and look for leges that you have to then rappel down to and traverse across.

It's really, really a huge routefinding challenge.

Honnold: There's Tommy sending the gnar.

Caldwell: Whoah you look so gorgeous right now.

Honnold: I feel so gorgeous.

Caldwell: We got to the summit of Mermoz and there was this beautiful bivvy spot

that someone had built with all these rocks.

Caldwell: Check this bivvy spot out. Woooh!

Honnold: So amazing!

Honnold: Yeah but considering conditions. Considering like how icy the route is I mean,

I'd say this is going pretty well.

Caldwell: Yeah.

Caldwell: I feel like you're a great partner because the most important thing is morale is high.

A lot of people would be when they're intimidated they just get scared

and they want to go down.

Honnold: Well I am quite scared.

And you know why? Cause of this. OK what are you doing right now.

Caldwell: I'm building our little anchor for the night.

Honnold: Is that because our tent is on a 45 degree slope

hanging on the edge of a huge mountain?

Caldwell: Yep.

Honnold: This is gonna be so rad dude.

This is the kind of thing I see in Alpinist Magazine

except we're actually doing it.

Honnold: Mermoz is right there and it took us 3 hours to get over here.

Fuck! Alpinism is retarded.

Caldwell: And North Pillar doesn't look that close from here really.

Honnold: And then 3000 feet of rock climbing and then the summit of Fitz.

So we definitely were trying to go as light as possible.

Caldwell: We only had 1 sleeping bag.

Honnold: Like shared the bag and stayed warm or whatever.

Caldwell: So psyched Alex.

Honnold: I'm so fired up.

Caldwell: But no sleeping pads. We just kind of laid out our ropes and packs and stuff to sleep on.

Honnold: You know I was using my shoes and my chalk bag as my pillow.

I mean we only slept like 3 hours so it doesn't really matter.

You just get into the bag and collapse like a corpse, you know?

Caldwell: About midday the next day we got to the base of the North Pillar.

It's like 2500 foot wall.

Caldwell: It's a daunting part of the climb. You look up and it just looks giant.

There's all this rime falling down.

Honnold: Oh, look at that ice coming down. Whoah.

Caldwell: Alex decided he was gonna climb the first 12 pitches or something in one block.

Caldwell: That sounds reasonable.

Honnold: Yeah that seems reasonable huh? Ok.

Caldwell: Alright.

Honnold: Here we go.

Caldwell: Blast off.

Honnold: Note for the record we're both wearing our tennies with heavy loads.

Let's see how this goes.

Caldwell: We do have our climbing shoes clipped to us.

Which I've actually only used for like 3 pitches on this whole thing.

Honnold: Yes, that is a horrible rime mushroom.

Like daggers of ice hanging off all over everything.

Caldwell: You mantle on the top of North Pillar and you're in full-on alpine land.

There's just rime coating everything.

Honnold: Ok so what did we just do Tommy?

Caldwell: We just climbed the North Pillar which was icy and wet.

We did it in 3 pitches. Which is pretty crazy.

Honnold: Cause we're bosses.

Caldwell: Alex did like a 2000 foot pitch. I did like a 500 foot pitch.

And then you did like another thousand foot pitch.

Honnold: And now we're pooped and we're covered in snow.

Caldwell: And we're gonna climb that...

Honnold: Oh wow, dude, check out the frickin uh, the shadow!

Can you see, that's, we're on top of the North Pillar, we're about to climb to actual summit.

That is cool.

Caldwell: The upper headwall of Fitz Roy just looked horrible.

Honnold: Oh just look at this intimidating ice thing. Can you see?

Ok so that's our route. It's as shitty as it looks.

Caldwell: Super scary, really wet, there's like a waterfall coming down.

There's ice falling all over the place.

I looked up there and I was like, I think we're done, I think we've gotta turn around right now.

And Alex was like,what are you talking about dude, you've got this.

Honnold: It did look like an abomination. But it was Tommy's lead.

Caldwell: Or maybe you can keep these.

Honnold: So I was like ah, Tommy you know, I'm sure you'll be great,

just go over there and try your best!

Honnold: Tommy's about to aid it through the night because he's a total boss.

Caldwell: Alex really has no idea what he's talking about.

He doesn't know how to walk on snow, he brought the wrong crampons,

he's looking up this face that's covered in ice and telling me that it's no big deal.

He's definitely not offering to lead it though.

Caldwell: Yeah I'm a little intimidated at the moment honestly.

Honnold: Yeah don't worry about it though you're a total boss. This is gonna be so cash for you.

This is our gong show.

Caldwell: To the death. Don't tell me wife I said that.

Honnold: I'll tell her that you were all about safety.

That the only thing that intimidated you about this climb was that you were worried that it would be too safe.

Caldwell: Yeah.

Honnold: There sure is a lot of snow.

Caldwell: Yes there is.

Honnold: Ok.

Caldwell: Lot of snow.

Caldwell: Right as the sun was going down, we rappelled down to the notch

between the North Pillar itself

and then the final summit of Fitz Roy.

And I really didn't have any idea how we were gonna climb it.

I didn't have any experience climbing that kind of terrain.

We knew this would be the crux of the whole traverse.

So we put on all of our rain gear and just ventured into this waterfall.

Honnold: Tommy was just like aid climbing up a stream.

Caldwell: I got saturated down to my underwear.

Once we got that wet I was like, well we really have to keep going now.

My rope was frozen solid, all my cams wouldn't work anymore.

Honnold: I was like, how is he not hypothermic.

Caldwell: It was full survival mode. I was chopping rime off the wall and it was hitting Alex.

Caldwell: In that moment on the top of Fitz Roy,

I pushed myself over the risk line that I am willing to accept.

I would like envision Fitz and Becca at home and I was just like, what are we doing up here?

But then Alex was like, yeah dude! Just keep going!

Honnold: I was like, thank goodness it's Tommy up there and not me.

Caldwell: For the next 6 hours we just quested up.

Honnold: Tommy would be leading with the 1 ice tool,

which would leave me with just my hands,

so I would be using my one finger in the hole from the ice tool,

or I'd just be like punching my fist into the snow, or sometimes just clawing at it.

And I was like gripped out of my mind.

Caldwell: When we got onto the upper slopes of Fitz Roy,

and it was so surreal being at the top of Fitz Roy,

just felt like you're in the middle of the stars.

And having been through this really intense experience, it was pretty magical for me.

Honnold: It's 3 in the morning. We're eating our pasta dinner on

almost on top of Fitz Roy, in our little tent, on a snowfield.

Tommy just led an epic thousand foot block to the summit.

Caldwell: Yeah. Horrible, horrible conditions. I got soaking wet.

Honnold: Yeah. But then managed to dry in 30 degree temps, which I don't even understand.

Caldwell: Yeah. It's just because I'm a heater.

Honnold: Had I led that, I definitely would have perished by pitch 3.

I would have just been like, oooh, let's rap.

Caldwell: Yep. Alex had to ask me how to put on crampons at the top of Fitz Roy.

That was a good moment.

Honnold: It was more just verifying that they were on right.

Caldwell: It was a, uh, it was a hardcore day, all in all.

Honnold: Pretty much just like one of my hardest days out, you know?

In terms of like being way outside my comfort zone.

Caldwell: Yeah.

Honnold: And just like doing this heinous, oh my god, so snowy.

And then to like simul the last 500 feet with no ice tool

and like strap-on crampons that don't really,

I don't think they work that well, you know?

Caldwell: They're better than no crampons.

Honnold: Well, yeah, for sure. If I had no crampons, that would've been a dealbreaker.

Caldwell: This is a day we will not soon forget.

Honnold: Mmm. Yeah. Hopefully tomorrow is not like it.

Caldwell: Yeah.

Caldwell: We woke up after cuddling in our sleeping bag for a few hours,

the nights were never that good.

Two dudes in one sleeping bag was actually not very comfortable at all.

Caldwell: Alex's armpits are sweating which is nice cause we shivered,

we shivered all night long.

Caldwell: I was hurtin' pretty bad after that whole Fitz Roy experience.

My fingers are pretty bad.

The skin split away from the underside of the nails on every single finger.

But we were on the top of Fitz Roy, which is one of the most awesome places ever.

Caldwell: Pretty epic camp setup, huh?

Honnold: Yep. Can't choose a more scenic place.

Caldwell: Kind of beautiful.

Caldwell: Even though we're sitting on the high point of the whole traverse,

after Fitz Roy was the real endurance test.

Honnold: Oh my god, my legs!

Caldwell: We still had a labyrinth of unknown terrain that had never been climbed.

To go for another 3 days was gonna bring us to a whole new level, and we knew that.

Honnold: We rappelled off the back side of Fitz Roy and then we traversed over to Poincenot.

Caldwell: And we were pretty hammered phsyically.

Honnold: Tommy's fingers hurt too much to climb.

Caldwell: Luckily Alex was in a little bit better shape so he took over.

Alex is a beast, there's no doubt about it.

Questing up 5.11 in gloves and a giant pack with approach shoes on,

most people are gonna pretty intimidated by that, he doesn't even think twice.

Honnold: At the base of Poincenot, Tommy handed me the rope and the rack and was like,

get us to the top.

So I led like a 1500 foot wall in a couple hours.

Caldwell: As long as one person can float the team at different points, it works out.

We got to the top of Poincenot right as the sun was going down.

Honnold: We are the summit of Poincenot.

Caldwell: Good work!

Caldwell: Found a bivvy spot and slept right on top of Poincenot.

Honnold: From there on out, everything started to getting like a little more ghetto.

Caldwell: You scramble down for a thousand feet and then you rap another 2000 feet.

There's just loose rock everywhere. Our rope got stuck.

We had to cut the rope in half.

We did like 40 rappels or something like that.

Honnold: None of this stuff is like, AMGA-certified you know?

Honnold: Here's Poincenot, big wall that we rappelled,

and here we are climbing Rafael.

Honnold: We were very tired. Very, very tired.

And all of our equipment was destroyed.

Caldwell: Here are my gross toes.

Honnold: Oh my gosh.

Caldwell: Rawr!

Caldwell: It was definitely a test in pain tolerance.

Honnold: My hands just feel achy.

Caldwell: Yeah. Yeah my hands, my hands look pretty good actually but....

Honnold: They don't really look that good, they look real red.

Caldwell: I mean I've had gloves on all day and it's made them look better.

Honnold: Even your nub looks like it's gonna split. Oh my god your fingernails look horrible!

Caldwell: That's what, that's why they hurt so bad! Yes, look at my fingernails.

Honnold: You look like a hobbit or something.

Filthy, filthy hobbit.

I just want to get into these apricots.

I wish we had like 2 gallons of lemonade right here.

Caldwell: Everything that we brought on this climb is now totally trashed.

So let's inventory. Our tent is full of holes.

I dropped one of my climbing shoes.

My sunglasses are totally broken. My shoes are falling apart,

and these were new at the beginning of this trip.

Honnold: I know, we hadn't even worn them before.

Caldwell: Look at my pants, they're about to turn into cutoffs.

Our sleeping bag we burnt a big hole in it.

Honnold: My spirits are broken too I think. I'm pretty sure.

Honnold: This whole traverse is one of the craziest experiences that I've had climbing.

You know I was so far outside my comfort zone for so much of it.

Honnold: Lose my crampons.

Honnold: It was cold and it was wet and, you know, physically I was completely haggard.

Honnold: I'm so thirsty.

Honnold: I was so fatigued, my vision was blurring in and out,

like I thought I was having a stroke or something.

Honnold: Now my mouth's really cold.

Caldwell: Alex drastically underestimated every aspect of this climb.

To see him really challenged was kind of cool for me in a way.

I was like, wow there's a crack there in the invincible man.

Honnold: Oh god! Oh!

Caldwell: But, I really couldn't imagine having a better partner, doing it with anybody else.

You have to keep morale high when you're suffering,

and I think both of us just come by that pretty honestly.

Caldwell: Alex thinks that uh, stirring our polenta with my broken sunglasses is gross,

but I don't know, I feel like licking frozen condensation off the inside of our tent is even grosser.

Honnold: Mmm. My lips hurt so bad.

Honnold: This is actually kind of an artistic shot.

You've got your bloody mitt with a taped up tip, eating polenta with sunglasses!

It was perfectly just tilt the sunglasses and you're like dude this is pretty ghetto.

Caldwell: The next morning we woke up.

Caldwell: Morning of number 5. Feeling spry.

Caldwell: You could see the weather window was closing.

Caldwell: There's Cerro Torre in the clouds, it's a bit blustery.

Caldwell: Wind had picked up, feels like things are changing,

but luckily all we have to do is climb De L's.

Caldwell: After 4 days of intense climbing and pretty high stress,

it was kind of surreal to be so near the end of the whole traverse.

Caldwell: Can't believe we're almost done. What an epic journey.

Caldwell: We just cruised up De L's, getting to the top and being done with the thing,

I was kind of blown away actually, I couldn't believe that we had pulled it off.

Caldwell: We're psyched! We finished it! Woo, on the summit!!

Yeah! Alex is never excited, what the hell, we just traversed the whole mountain range.

Caldwell: At least, I was psyched.

Owwwwoooo! Alex. Me. Wooooo!

Caldwell: It was one of the more intense adventures of my life.

And there's a lot of times when I thought we were in way over our heads.

But that's what makes for really rich experiences.

Cordes: What those guys did, it, it's incredible. It's amazing.

Chouinard: I mean it just knocks me out.

Garibotti: Their level of skill is very, very, very inspiring.

Haley: This is Alex's first climb ever in Patagonia, which is pretty frickin' rad.

Cordes: I mean, it's a lifetime's worth of climbing in one outing.

Garibotti: It's impossible not to be really psyched and to celebrate what they did.

Caldwell: You're looking good, man. You're looking road-hard.

Honnold: Yeah, I think I feel ridden hard. Yeah.

Caldwell: This is how I look. In the mind I feel very happy though.

Honnold: It was super satisfying to come down here and

get lucky with the weather like that and just get to climb everything.

But for me it wasn't so much about the objective or the summits that we climbed,

it was about having an adventure with Tommy.

Honnold: You're dressed like Peter Pan right now.

Caldwell: Oh they smell really, really bad, actually.

Honnold: You're a model. I'm so pooped. I don't even have you in frame.

I can't even hold this thing. Oh my gosh I gotta take a nap.

Honnold: Doing the Fitz Traverse here has sort of like

opened my eyes to the potential of alpine climbing.

Maybe in like a year I can motivate to do something like this again.

But I'm definitely never gonna be like an alpinist who just pursues trips like this all the time.

You know it's just like, so tiring.

Caldwell: We ended up being out for almost a week.

Fitz and Becca had already flown home in the meantime back to Colorado,

so, the whole hike out I think I was walking extra fast because I knew she was

probably sitting at home worrying about me.

We got back into town super haggard.

I was able to call her and tell her that we'd done it.

When I think about what we did, this was huge.

This was a moment that I will never forget.

But we were definitely being a bit more risky than I would love to be.

Especially being a new dad, it makes me wonder if this kind of climbing is even worth it.

Caldwell: Dear Fitz, sitting safely now in El Chalten,

pondering the merit of mountain climbing now that I'm a father,

Risk is selfish.

The biggest tragedy I can imagine is not being there to see you take your first steps.

But for me, climbing makes everything else fit into place.

It's what lights the fire, makes me a dreamer.

The need to battle is built into the fabric of who we are.

I find my battle on the mountain.

It breathes life into me despite the risk and fear that reside there.

If I can show you one thing, I hope it will be to pursue your own chosen struggle

wherever you may find it, with vigor, optimism, and love. I love you. Daddy.

Crow caws

Crow caws

(parachute opening)

Dean Potter: As a child, I had always been scattered,

and then as soon as I touched the rock I found focus.

Really the first place I started to fit in was Yosemite.

This strange community lived this out-there lifestyle.

(HOWL!)

As with most young climbers, I just wanted to prove myself.

To blow doors on what's been done.

Free soloing - that was the ultimate. Being out there alone with no protection.

Somehow its like the fear activates the heightened state.

WOOOO!!

With everything I'm doing, I'm trying to become more free.

Freedom of self-expression is where huge breakthroughs happen.

Wanting to be more like the birds and fly - that ultimate expression of freedom.

Baboom!

Park Ranger (On Radio): We got a base jumper. El Cap Meadow.

Potter: It seems like our country now is so strapped down with rules, it's ridiculous.

Park Ranger Hi, how are ya?

Potter: Hi, how are you doing?

Park Ranger: Turn off the camera.

Potter: No thank you. How come you're pulling me over? I think you're harassing me.

You know, sometimes I can be really intense.

Filmer: Do you guys think Hans is going to be psyched to come back?

I don't give a fuck about Hans. Want me to break your camera dude? Go away.

Really um, in your face.

If you're looking at this tool, I'm not very happy.

And maybe pushing it too far.

The monkeys are sending dude.

But for me, its just about doing my art and being free!

Jumping the spire. WAAA! Jumping the spire!

3, 2, 1, See ya!

Oh fuck yeah. Wooo

Nice job on that last one.

WOOO!

I just feel it so strongly, needing to go towards that unknown and that fear.

My whole body is tingling.

You've got to let go. You've got to relax. You got to flow. You got to breathe.

And then I break through into that calm focused,

heightened awareness that attracts me to all these things.

(parachute opening)

Schulte: When you're climbing something high into the no-fall zone,

everything goes really quiet.

You're almost moving automatically.

It's a whole different side of me that I don't come into contact with

unless I'm highballing.

(LAUGHTER)

Williams: It's this primal instinct that overcomes me.

(SCREAM)

It's like a mother, lifting, you know, a car off her baby.

I cannot fall right now.

(SCREAM) OH MY GOD!

(SCREAMS)

Webb: I really like highballing because

the lines just tend to look way sicker.

And if I've got to get scared to get to the top of it

then so be it.

Woods: Dealing with the height, dealing with the consequences,

dealing with the fear.

Emerson: My mind will just race with

the horrible negative things that could happen.

Webb: You kind of go into panic mode.

Beall: Everything internally is just screaming to get down.

(SCREAMS)

Beall: Why am I up here again?

OH MY GOD! (SCREAMS)

Webb: That's when things start to get out of control.

Hukkataival: Just a recipe for disaster.

AHHHHH!

(GRUNTS)

Spotter: You okay?

Emerson: In the last ten years

the level of bouldering skyrocketed.

Kehl: V10 was huge and now it’s V15, V16.

Emerson: You start to reach a limit as to

how small the hold could actually be.

So the best guys are looking for ways

to push things in a different direction,

and they're looking up.

Traversi: Trying to push the limit on much higher boulders.

Beall: Huge proud objectives.

Awe-inspiring lines.

Williams: These guys have all proven

that they can climb hard stuff two feet off the ground.

But who can climb those same moves thirty feet off the ground?

Traversi: Who is willing to push themselves the furthest?

Williams: That's the next frontier, and it's a terrifying frontier.

Woods: All of my fear is compounded into one boulder.

Woods: I fucking puss'd out.

Traversi: Highball bouldering might be the hot new thing nowadays

but its been around for quite a while.

Going back to John Gill,

I don't even know how long ago that was.

Sherman: In 1961 I want to say,

John Gill, father of American bouldering,

he did this line up in the South Dakota Needles.

Sherman: It was tall.

37 feet.

It turned out to be so hard,

it went decades before anybody repeated it.

I did possibly the third or fourth repeat.

You know, you're going to get really hurt if you fall.

Chuck, you've fallen off of it, how far is that?

Fryberger: Yeah I mean it's a pretty bad memory.

I try not to think about it too much.

You know, I'm the guy that fell off the Thimble.

That's my 15 minutes of fame.

John Sherman brought me to the Thimble, talked me into it.

Sherman: If you fall, chances are you're going to live.

You might not climb again.

Fryberger: John Gill did this thing wearing hiking boots.

I'm thinking to myself,

I'm a stud, I'm fit, let's get it on.

Sherman: Watching him get shut down on it was fricking cool.

(LAUGHTER)

Fryberger: Eating my knee pretty hard right there.

Whiplash, dislocated plates in my vertebrae.

I had a concussion from where my temple impacted my knee.

One of the lessons that was most clear to me

is that the old guys were really badass.

Sherman: We used to call it high bouldering.

Am I good enough to do this?

And if I'm not I'm going to the hospital.

Before we had pads,

we would put a sweater over a rock.

Yeah, that was our padding.

Yeah, I'm kind of beat up from jumping off all those boulders.

I've got two artificial hips now.

The popularity of bouldering higher and higher

came with this introduction of pads.

Emerson: Pads started getting bigger and bigger.

Schulte: Now that we have all these monstrous pads,

you can go as high as you want to really.

(GRUNTS)

Sherman: I'm just going to say,

yeah we were idiots for not having pads

and the current generation are pussies for using them.

How's that?

Emerson: Jason Kehl was one of the first people

who got 10 pads together and did the first really big, big highballs.

Kehl: I'm coming from a small town in Maryland

and I wanted to recreate myself.

Make a name for myself.

Do things that people were impressed by.

(SCREAM)

Emerson: He did a problem called Evilution,

one of the first really big, big highballs.

50 feet.

Schulte: That was page one for hard highball bouldering.

Emerson: But the test piece of the 21st century highballs

belongs to Nalle Hukkataival.

He did a problem in South Africa called Livin Large,

and it is gigantic.

It's not just this really difficult sequence.

It's this difficult sequence and this huge highball.

(AHH!)

Webb: Not only is it like 30 foot tall,

the holds are really bad, the feet are really shitty,

and one of the hardest moves is the move to the lip.

(NOO!)

Hukkataival: You got to be a good technical climber

and you've got to have your head game together.

If you lose your mental control,

it's not going to end well.

(AHH!)

Webb: Livin Large was in my opinion

one of the most impressive things ever done in climbing.

It's insane.

Woods: Everyone was just like

huh, so you're climbing V15 at 30 feet.

Emerson: I think it's been unrepeated for 6 years.

So many strong people have tried it and haven't done it.

Nalle, Jimmy Webb, Daniel Woods

are the best boulderers in the world.

And they're very competitive.

Jimmy and Daniel see Nalle do this huge 30 foot highball,

and they have to go and try it.

Woods: I'm more used to like short roofs and stuff,

something safe.

Emerson: Daniel Woods is a really interesting case.

He’s the strongest boulderer in the world.

He does the hardest first ascents.

Webb: Daniel has been pushing the limits

of hardcore bouldering for years.

(AHHH!)

but um he doesn't necessarily have

the best head for highballs.

He'll do like the most heinously difficult moves you've ever seen,

and then as soon as he gets like 20 feet off the ground

he just like freaks out.

Woods: I just want a fucking rope.

Emerson: Nalle and Jimmy seem to have no fear at all,

and you look at Daniel

and he's like kind of scared and struggling to keep up.

Woods: I got really scared though.

Woods: Nalle and Jimmy,

their vision of highball bouldering is crazy.

(AHH!)

Woods: You alright dude?

Webb: I'm fine.

Woods: Oh my god.

Woods: One of the more scared situations I've spotted.

Woods: Watching Jimmy do something so bold and dangerous at his max

was inspirational.

Webb: That has got to be the best feeling.

Woods: I was like damn dude,

I need to get my shit together.

I've always been very intimidated with high things.

I’ve always had not the best head.

And it was something that I wanted to surpass.

Be able to conquer it you know?

Woods: So, I came out to Bishop

to try to battle that psychological aspect.

Bishop - it's the land of the highballs.

This desert littered with giant egg-shaped boulders.

(WOO!)

Webb: I think Daniel is realizing to really push things,

to really push himself,

he has to get higher off the ground.

(SCREAMS)

Emerson: When you drive to Bishop, the first thing you see

is the Grandpa Peabody Boulder.

It's home to a number of test pieces including Jason Kehl's Evilution.

But the next step is the bigger harder face on the right side.

Kehl: I looked at that amazing steep face but it was definitely futuristic.

Emerson: It's this huge obvious project that everyone in Bishop knows.

Webb: The big one. The big proud line.

Woods: It's the next level for hard highball bouldering.

V15+ difficulty.

There's a committing dyno at the end.

And has a no fall zone with V10 climbing in it at the top.

Like with any new climb labeled as cutting edge,

there's this rush of climbers who go and try and do it first you know.

Webb: Carlo Traversi was there.

Traversi: I knew it was going to be one of the hardest boulder problems in the world.

Webb: Daniel Beall was there,

Emerson: a local crusher who's devoted years to this project.

Beall: I'm 80 or 90 days into this thing at this point.

I’m just like what do I have to do to do this fucking climb?

Woods: It's going to be hard and scary.

I don't know if I can do this thing.

I could potentially hurt myself

but it's one of the most badass lines

and if I do want to do these taller things,

I have to get out of my comfort zone.

Woods: The beginning is this crazy V12 crimp ladder.

Beall: Tiny little glassy crimps.

Traversi: They're extremely sharp.

Beall: You hit this little ripple, which is awful.

Traversi: And then jump into a flake behind your head.

Woods: From there, the two moves to the lip of the boulder

are probably in the V14 range.

Beall: It's impractical to try to work the upper section from the ground,

so we ended up bring out a ladder to work on the jump move to the lip.

You're 20 feet off the ground at this point. You have to do a full commitment jump out the roof.

Woods: You set your foot up and then you look all the way back,

and you're like oh my god, I'm scared shitless.

Traversi: If you can get to the lip,

you're staring at a giant headwall of the top of a 50 foot boulder.

Beall: You still have a V10 technical section after that.

If you were to fall off it could go really badly.

Webb: It's going to be a nail-biter to watch people go for that.

Woods: We're taking heat after heat,

burns after burns,

and throwing ourselves at this thing.

Beall: You know, a competitive environment.

Traversi: Try and see who's willing to push themselves the furthest.

Woods: Whoever does it first will be entering a new zone in highball bouldering.

(SCREAMS)

Sherman: That is what drives the best climbers.

Waiting to see who's going to man-up first and send the thing.

Spotters: Come on Daniel. Breathe, breathe.

Come on Dan, stand tall. Stand. Come on.

Get the hold. Yeah Deep breath.

Emerson: Daniel was the first one to link all the moves to the lip without falling.

Woods: I was like fuck, this is my shot at the first ascent.

Webb: But for him, the crux became the mental aspect of it.

Woods: Getting up onto the upper headwall,

it's within grasp you know.

But questing up this giant face to a scary top out...

I wasn't trusting myself up there.

I think I just let fear get the better of me.

I'm the biggest puss, why am I such a puss?

I definitely want to get the first ascent,

but with a line like this the consequences are massive,

so I need to get better prepared before going into the deep end.

Emerson: Daniel is very hard on himself.

He's haunted by these things that he feels like he can't do.

Woods: This line is just playing with my head,

kind of taunting me and making me look like a fool

but I just realized that you're not actually battling the rock.

You're always battling yourself.

The rock presents this problem

and you have to learn about yourself to succeed on it.

Trainer: Last one, Last one. Good, down, rest.

Woods: I've learned that I'm a very fearful person in life.

I worry a lot. I have some anxiety you know.

And um I'm just trying to learn how to be more present

and be able to face it face-to-face and overcome it.

(DOG BARKING)

Woods: After training, when I get home, I meditate.

Just train your mind to not have any thoughts that are distracting you.

I went to the psychology section of the book store,

looking for something to help me out a little bit,

give me that extra edge I need.

I just broke down the climb into three sections

and the different breathing techniques I would use for each section.

Woods: The first one is inhale mouth, exhale mouth.

For the midd section you don't need to be so amped,

you need like a combination.

And then when I get to the slab I need to completely settle down,

so I'm going to inhale through the nose, exhale through the nose.

And then you're at peace, and then you top out and you're psyched.

Woods: This thing sits in the sun all day long,

it bakes and these holds are very condition dependent

so you need it to be cold.

So I'm definitely going to have to resort to doing this boulder in the nighttime.

The thought of going up on that upper slab in the night is pretty terrifying.

Luckily we have a good crew of people

who are willing to help haul out the 20 pads

and hold lanterns and lights

and just be there to help cheer us on, you know.

It's a community effort.

I went off by myself and just chilled for a second.

I need to be humble and to be like, look this thing is a lot greater than I am you know.

It's like, slow down Daniel,

don't get ahead of yourself.

Yeah, you know you're strong enough but are you present enough?

(spotters cheerings)

Woods: A lot of emotions rushed through me when I got to the lip.

I'm already tired.

I can feel all the nerves in my fingers pulsing,

and there was something in my head telling me to stop.

But I was able to calm myself down

and focus on what was in front of me.

And then I was like oh crap, I'm actually going for it now.

SCREAMS

Spotters: Yeah daniel come on man

(WOO!) (CHEERS)

Woods: Sure I climbed something hard

but I achieved something much more than just a number.

Best feeling ever.

I conquered fear.

Narrator: Horseshoe Canyon Ranch:

a sleepy patch of rural Arkansas.

Narrator: Where a new set of footwear counts as a big event.

Narrator: But once a year,

this little slice of heaven is taken over by hundreds of rock climbers,

who come gussied up and chomping at the bit,

to spend a weekend in hell.

Honnold: 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell is the craziest climbing event in the country.

Johnson: It’s like the Burning Man of climbing.

Chasteen: Teams of two climb all day and all night, you don’t stop.

Robinson: And partying the whole time.

Chasteen: The object is to climb as many routes as you possibly can in 24 hours.

Collins: This year you have these super sick pros coming in.

Unidentified: Everyone knows about Alex Honnold.

Tower: And then those other guys.

Robinson: These elite climbers are gonna battle it out.

Earle: Honnold can out climb me any day of the week. But I bet he’s never been in a fight.

Berry: Take that Honnold. UGH!

Honnold: I’m coming for you, Mason.

Cowboy: Welcome to Arkansas.

Collins: People come to Horseshoe Hell from all over the country.

You have total beginners, old-timers.

Unidentified: Everyone that comes to Horseshoe Hell is there to have a good time.

Robinson: And everyone has these outrageous team names.

Unidentified: Then you have Alex Honnold.

He’s the most recognizable climbing figure in the world.

Towers: For Alex this is a very serious event.

Robinson: Alex Honnold isn’t here to have fun. He’s here to win.

Pearson: If I were to say to him “let’s go have fun” it would be like speaking another language.

I don’t think he would understand what I mean.

Pearson: I said we gotta come up with a great team name.

We could be Thelma and Louise.

Pearson: He called our team Honnold and Pearson.

That’s our team name? How boring.

Honnold: I mean I hate to sound like a fuddy-duddy

but like I don’t need a team name, I don’t need a costume,

I’m just gonna go out and I’m gonna climb a lot.

Producer: And why don’t you need those things?

[Hummingbird sounds]

Honnold: Should we try to shoot it?

Honnold: Yeah I see that. Fuck that little bird.

I didn’t even know hummingbirds made noise.

Frisbie: I think he's here to get first place.

Narrator: But don't be too quick on the draw,

because Honnold's not the only horse at the county fair.

(HORSE WHINNY)

Unidentified: Alex’s main competition is Nik Berry and Mason Earle.

Earle: My name’s Mason Earle.

Berry: Nik Berry.

Earle: I’m an outdoor adventure enthusiast.

Berry: I’m in the transition of becoming a nurse.

Producer: Have you heard of Alex Honnold?

Berry: Yes, I’ve heard of Alex Honnold.

He’s the guy from 60 Minutes.

Tower: Nik and Mason are small potatoes compared to Alex Honnold, you know?

Unidentified: They're the underdogs.

Robinson: I wouldn't say B-squad exactly

but they're not on the front pages of the magazines.

Berry: Uh, Mason and I actually met in Indian Creek.

My old roommate was shooting photos of me on this route,

knocked a rock, and it hit me in the head.

And uh, blood started coming down my eyes.

And I just kept trying to climb,

eventually had to give up because I couldn't see cause the blood was in my eyes.

And Mason just happened to be there.

He just made me feel so warm and comforted and ever since then we've been such kind kin.

Unidentified: Nik and Mason are super lovable,

but they just don't have that competitive edge that Alex Honnold has.

Unidentified: They’re lacking that killer extinct.

Berry: I've never actually done a climbing competition before.

Earle: It's just I just feel silly saying I want to win, but we’re gonna try our best.

Narrator: Will these two young bucks get trampled?

Honnold: I’m coming for you Mason.

Narrator: Or can they tame the wild stallion that is Alex Honnold?

Honnold: This is like being in a cowboy movie.

Narrator: Fortunately, Nik and Mason have a secret weapon.

Berry: We've got some tricks up our sleeves.

Earle: Nik and I's biggest advantage that um,

nobody else has is, uh,

our coach, coach Todd.

Earle: Todd's got a good look.

It's sort of the Missouri Zen.

Chew in the lip, hair done up.

Like a tobacco fueled rocket.

Narrator: Todd Johnson was the first champion back in 2007,

and he’s still obsessed with this event.

Johnson: Mason called me up, said Hey Todd, can you give me some help?

What they’re doing is what I dream of doing.

Earle: Todd's a real scientist in his approach to Horseshoe Hell.

Johnson: I've got a training program I emailed them.

Changing their diet.

The route list I’m doing for them is my fantasy.

Earle: Next thing you know, he had a highlighter out.

And he just went into coach mode.

Berry: "Alright, here's the plan guys."

"You’re gonna do all these routes."

Earle: He's got this big spreadsheet, all the routes we have to do,

all the point totals, the time limits we have for each section.

Johnson: If you want to win, you've got to climb one route every three minutes.

Earle: If you do all this, you guys will beat last year's score.

Unidentified: Todd may give them the competitive edge.

Tower: Those guys bringing a coach in is kind of a different level.

Unidentified: Three on one. It's like a cage match with three midgets against Andre the Giant.

Collins: Good morning Horseshoe Hell!

Collins: I want to see you face to face with your partner with your right hand raised.

Collins: Look deep into their souls.

Collins: Partner!

Crowd: Partner!

Collins: You!

Crowd: You!

Collins: Youuuu!

Crowd: Youuuu!

Collins: You talked me into this!

Crowd: You talked me into this!

Collins: When the sun rises upon the dawn of tomorrow,

Crowd: When the sun rises upon the dawn of tomorrow,

Collins: We will rise like zombies in the bowels of night!

Crowd: We will rise like zombies in the bowels of night!

Collins: We are lions in a field of lions!

Crowd: We are lions in a field of lions!

Collins: RAAAWWWRRRRRR

Collins: Let's climb!

Collins: Oww!

Chasteen: The shotgun sounds and people scatter to start their 24 hours.

Collins: The rules are pretty simple.

Chasteen: All routes have to be up on lead.

Collins: You can climb every route twice.

Chasteen: The harder a route you do, the more points you get.

Chasteen: Then your partner jumps on.

Chasteen: He or she does his pitch.

Collins: If you fall, no points.

Collins: That's pretty much the gist of it.

Narrator: When Horseshoe Hell kicks off,

folks are running around nuttier than a squirrel turd.

WOOOOOO!!!

Narrator: And Honnold’s climbing like he’s got a bee in his britches.

Robinson: Honnold, he started off climbing really hard.

Pearson: Yeah.

Narrator: But poor old Nik and Mason have a hitch in their giddy-up.

Earle and Berry: One, Two, Three, Shoot…

One, Two, Three, Shoot!

Berry: Oh, you crushed me.

Earle: First pitch of the day.

Johnson: It’s lactic acid on the hard routes that will absolutely fry you.

Earle: Alright Nik I’m with you.

Johnson: Time is the biggest issue.

They need to keep going.

Berry: We’re already hurting.

Hopefully we can just maintain the pain.

Honnold: So I guess my basic strategy is just to do difficulty over volume,

doing a lot of hard routes.

Honnold: I skipped the easy stuff because I cannot be bothered to climb 5.7.

I'm just like…

Unidentified:: He was climbing all the hard routes as fast as he could.

Robinson: But it's a risky strategy.

How long can you sustain that?

If you fall one move from the top, all that energy and skin - gone.

Narrator: But this is Alex Honnold,

who’s got a fancy reputation for not falling.

(NOO!)

The news echoed through the canyon.

HONNOLD FELL!

WHAT? HE FELL?

HONNOLD FELL?

HONNOLD FELL!

Berry: How was that fall, Honnold?

How was that, how'd that feel?

Probably those big cankles of yours, holding you down.

Earle: Oh Nik, you're mean.

Honnold: I fell on one of my routes so I suck,

but I’m going to flog myself to death because of it.

Earle: What the fuck, dude?

Why did I, why did I fall there?

Berry: TNF will probably drop him after this comp.

I don't think they sponsor failures.

Earle: Nik and I however are like three hours ahead of schedule.

Unidentified: Nik and Mason were crushing it.

Johnson: So right now,

we're on schedule to beat last year's high score,

uh, by almost a thousand points.

Earle: Todd has definitely raised our game.

Johnson: You guys are rockin!

Honnold: Coach Todd helpin' them out. I mean that's super helpful obviously.

Johnson: Pop it! Stay with it Nik, stay with it!

Excellent job, excellent job.

Honnold: I realized that I need some kind of help.

Berry: Thanks coach.

Johnson: Save your fingers.

Honnold: Somebody to keep track of score, keep track of routes.

Robinson: He needs somebody to carry the clipboard, someone to lift his spirits.

(laughs)

Narrator: From among the crowd of Honnold’s many admirers stepped one brave soul

to help him take the bull by the horns.

Narrator: Marisa Frazier brings the kind of positive attitude Honnold needs about now.

Pearson: She had more energy than the two of us put together.

Honnold: Marisa was the best.

Pearson: She was so supportive.

Marisa: Keeping up a really good pace!

Pearson: And she loved taking selfies with Alex.

Narrator: With Marisa on board,

Alex was happier than a possum eating a sweet potato.

And he was back on track.

Honnold: Nice pitch. Yeah I gotcha.

Narrator: Meanwhile, the Horseshoe Hellians keep the stoke burning,

as dusk settles on the canyon.

Chasteen: By the time 8 o’clock rolls around

it gets dark and the headlamps come on,

glow sticks come on,

people just stay moving.

Climber: Here's some psych man

Climber: Thank you!

Climber: Wow that was like an instant psych transfer.

Climbers: (Snake hiss)

Johnson: We’re looking at having a really good score.

Johnson: As long as we don’t lose energy during the night,

we’re gonna rock and roll.

Johnson: Easy climbing to the top Mason.

Honnold: Marisa did fine, I mean she kept track of our scores right.

Honnold: But then like in the middle of the night she got really drunk

and like free soloed some 5.5

and then when she got down she like fell asleep on the pad

and so we lost her for a couple hours.

And then she woke up all like,

"Oh god, what did I do with the scorecard?"

Honnold: We had this kinda surreal experience

where a bunch of drunk chicks showed up and started making like sex noises.

Girls: Oh, oh yeah.

Honnold: Grab it, grab it harder, ah.

Girls: Yeah that one right there, that feels good.

Pearson: Squeezing the hold, and stroking the hold,

and putting your hand in various cracks.

Honnold: I was like, what is wrong with these girls?

Pearson: They hung out for about an hour

before they got too drunk to focus and then they left.

Girls: Oh, fuck my life, ok.

Girls: We’re drunk and lost.

Narrator: The long nights of Horseshoe Hell are when the beasts come out.

The strong keep sending

and the weak cry for mama.

Robinson: Everybody's seeing cross-eyed, just trying to bang the routes out.

Climber: About 4 am, you're pulling from the bottom of the well.

Chasteen: People push themselves to the limit.

Climber: Getting a little rough.

Climber: Not gonna lie man I'm feeling bonking out quite a bit.

Chasteen: You see people passed out in the grass.

Berry: Your hands hurt really bad,

your feet hurt like hell,

it's just like this insane burning.

Earle: It was just kind of like agony.

Berry: The last thing you want to do is climb,

and you have you know, 60 more pitches to do.

Producer: Why do you have to just keep going?

Berry: Because you gotta try to beat Alex Honnold obviously.

Cameraman: What time in the morning is it?

Earle: It's like 4:20 or something.

Berry: 4:20 dog?

Earle: Oh, shit!

Earle: Ooh, that happened first try.

Johnson: We're having some trouble on some 13s

and Honnold kinda showed us up and,

and cruised 'em.

Earle: Did you send all those 5.13s?

Honnold: I sent all three of those like basically back to back to back pretty much.

So I basically did 6 of em.

It's like 3000 points in like 45 minutes.

Honnold: I mean I feel like it's one of those things if you guys don't have enough points

I should just go to bed right now and call it a day

Earle: All his shit-talking.

Cameraman: Do you have a response?

Earle: Tell Honnold that we’re not gonna show him any mercy.

Narrator: When dawn breaks,

hope is renewed

and life returns to the ranch.

Chasteen: When that sun comes up,

you get that last shot of adrenaline for that last hour.

Climber: Here's the digits, uh,

a little sore but I'll definitely be able to pick up a beer afterwards.

Climber: I am feeling invigorated now that the sun is up.

Climber: WOOO!

Johnson: So we got 7 more routes that we need to get in before 10.

I know they can do it.

Earle: Mmm fuck dude.

Berry: About 7 or 8 in the morning, Mason just lost it.

He was completely delusional,

doing all these weird moaning voices.

Earle: Ughhh mmmmmm

Berry: Ehhrrr Ehhhhr. (LAUGHS)

Earle: Ehhmmm.

Earle: Mmmmm.

Earle: Having to grunt on 5.8s.

Johnson: And motivating them, whatever tricks I could pull out, I tried.

Johnson: Good job Mason, last pitch of the day.

Johnson: This is your last one guys, I promise.

Earle: Yay, I’m done with coach’s list.

Johnson: And then, no this is your last one.

Earle: We're gonna have to try some fucked-up 11d.

Johnson: No, this is actually like a really fun route.

So, end on a happy note, with a smile.

Earle: I'm so happy.

Earle: (GRUNTING)

Earle: Thanks buddy.

Johnson: Yep.

Johnson: Nik gets down from the last one and he said uh,

"We finished your effin' list, I'm not doin another one!"

Berry: We wanted to make our coach proud,

that was the whole point.

Berry: God my feet hurt.

Berry: Flip flops feel so nice.

Honnold: This is hopefully my last route of the day.

I'm pooped and my hands really hurt,

and I already have many many points,

and I'm just kind of over it.

I'm so tired.

Pearson: He continued to just push that score.

He wanted to see how high he could get.

Chasteen: 10 o'clock comes.

Everybody turned in their score cards.

They're psyched that it's done.

Earle: Absolutely, we put in everything we possibly could've.

Berry: I just want my bed, a shower.

Earle: I wish I had a bed, I've got like a sticky leather couch cushions.

Chasteen: 11 o'clock, reality sets in and everybody just crashes.

The place is dead quiet.

Chasteen: Meanwhile, our scoring team is figuring out who climbed the most routes.

Chasteen: The awards ceremony starts later that night.

Robinson: Everybody gathers together in the center of the canyon to find out who won.

Chasteen: Ok so the results are in, people.

Chasteen: With a record-smashing 77,310 points,

Mason Earle and Nik Berry!

(CHEERS)

Earle: Here I'd have to check with my parents

but I'm pretty sure this is the first trophy I've ever gotten my whole life,

which is kind of exciting.

Earle: I was telling Todd, I was like, Todd, this is, this really your victory, you know?

Earle: He's like, "Yeah."

Johnson: Yeah. I’ll brag about it. I’m coach.

Robinson: It took two pretty good climbers,

and a coach,

to beat Alex Honnold.

Honnold: I didn't beat Nik and Mason's team score,

so I gotta come back and claim it.

We'll see.

Berry: 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell

is the worst experience I’ve ever had of my life,

and I will never return.

Ever.

Narrator: And with that ringing endorsement,

24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell draws to a close.

As these long suffering climbers

finally get to wet their snouts and go hog-wild.

Chasteen: Saturday evening the real party begins.

People are done, they're ready to like, let their hair down.

Collins: The party as usual, went a little overboard.

Tower: That was a little much.

Maybe it wasn't enough,

I don't know what it was,

I barely remember.

Unidentified: Marisa just full on went for it with Spiderman.

Robinson: Who was that masked man?

Was it Nik? Mason?

Caldwell: You got it.

(NOO!)

(OOF!)

(GRUNT)

(AHH!) (GRUNT)

(AHH!)

Caldwell: It's just a monumental project.

Branch: Hey guys, its John Branch from the New York Times. How's it goin up there?

Caldwell: Good John. Good to hear from you man.

Jorgeson: Hey John, it's Kevin.

Branch: Hey Kevin. Uh, how high up are you guys right now?

Caldwell: We are about 1200 feet up the wall at our base camp.

This has been our home for 9 days now.

Branch: I've asked a couple people if you're basically Ahab chasing Moby Dick?

Caldwell: Yeah, totally. I've actually called this that exact thing.

This is my Moby Dick for sure.

Caldwell: No project has consumed me as much as the Dawn Wall.

It's the steepest blankest face on the best big wall in the world.

This year we started our big push in the middle of winter

because the holds are so small and we needed the best friction we could find.

Caldwell: It's gonna be awesome.

Caldwell: Things went well, like really well.

The hardest section of the route is this 250 foot traverse right in the middle of the wall.

Jorgeson: OH YEAH!

Jorgeson : Holy shit!

Caldwell: When we did pitch 14 it was this huge breakthrough,

and it got us halfway through the traverse.

Jorgeson: Yeah Tommy!

Caldwell: BOOM!

Caldwell: But I was still really worried because the next day was pitch 15.

Caldwell: It's the closest thing I've come to climbing like a sheet of glass.

Jorgeson: Come on Tommy!

Caldwell: You're just waiting to slip off at any moment.

Jorgeson: Come on!

Caldwell: The holds are tiny, it's like credit cards glued to the wall.

And you just have to pull down on them as hard as you can

and then pull as far as you can.

Caldwell: I suddenly felt this confidence.

I felt like I just wasn't going to fall.

And that was really cool to come to that after you know seven years of working on that pitch.

Jorgeson: I was over the moon psyched

to watch Tommy send pitch 15.

It was one of the more impressive pieces of climbing I've ever seen.

Jorgeson: Yeah buddy!

Caldwell: BOOM!

Caldwell: At that point I was like, we are on a roll.

I mean there's a million things that have to come together right to send the thing,

but I was way more confident than I ever had been.

Caldwell: YEAH HAHA! Psyched dude!

Jorgeson: The next day, it was on the next page of the New York Times and it just exploded. Caldwell: YEAH HAHA! Psyched dude!

Jorgeson: The next day, it was on the next page of the New York Times and it just exploded.

News Anchor: Two guys perched on a cliff above Yosemite.

News Anchor: Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson

News Anchor: They're attempting to free climb the Dawn Wall.

Caldwell: Suddenly the whole world was watching this climb.

Jorgeson: Which wasn't the best timing

for me personally.

Caldwell: Kevin had tried this pitch you know hundreds of times

and he had never been able to do it.

It was actually harder than any piece of climbing he had ever done in his life.

There was just a lot of pressure on him.

Jorgeson: AHH! AHH! AHHHH!

Jorgeson: Everyone's tuning in to a story of climbers living on the side of a wall,

and one of them is stuck.

News Anchor: Well history is on hold right now is Yosemite National Park.

Kevin Jorgeson is stuck.

Jorgeson: I'm tired.

Caldwell: Yeah

Jorgeson: One thing that I was battling was two split fingers.

So I took two rest days of just staring at my fingers,

willing them to heal.

Cameraman: Today is day eleven.

Jorgeson: Tommy do you have the ibuprofen?

Jorgeson: Oh yeah!

Jorgeson: The mission is for me to finish pitch 15.

Jorgeson: Sending vitamins.

Jorgeson: I know the moves, I’m going to do it.

Jorgeson: The best conditions are when it gets dark.

There's a nice cold breeze blowing up the wall.

You've been waiting for days for the skin to heal.

For this moment to come.

Now is the time to do it.

Jorgeson: I felt weightless.

I was floating across the pitch.

Caldwell: Come on.

Hold it together.

Jorgeson: (GRUNTS)

Caldwell:Come on Kevin! Do it man! You got it.

Come on.

You got it. Come on.

Find it.

Good. Come on.

Jorgeson: AHHHHHH!!!

Caldwell: Oh no!

Jorgeson: Everything was perfect.

Caldwell: That was so good dude!

Jorgeson: And I still didn't do it.

Jorgeson: Tonight didn't go so well.

It was a battle and I didn't win.

I don't know what this means. I don't know if that's it?

Jorgeson: We repelled back to camp.

It was real quiet.

Tommy and I weren't talking.

I'm demoralized. I'm devastated. I'm beat to shit.

Jorgeson: I wanted to do that pitch so bad tonight.

Caldwell: I know. I wanted it too.

Jorgeson: I don't want to hold you back is the thing.

Caldwell: I’m definitely willing to wait for a while.

Jorgeson: Okay.

Jorgeson: I know I can do that pitch.

Caldwell: Yeah for sure.

Jorgeson: And I feel like if I can do that pitch I'm gonna be so fucking psyched.

There's nothing that's gonna stop me between there and the top.

Jorgeson: Tommy just said,

"I don't care how long it takes for you to send pitch 15.

We'll top out together."

Caldwell: We had worked on this thing together for seven years.

I had mentored Kevin.

I just tried to stay super optimistic.

But each day that I waited for Kevin there was a chance that weather could move in.

Living on the wall is rough.

I figured that just wall life would get me down

and I might not be able to do these pitches, which are almost as hard right afterwards.

Caldwell: While Kevin rested for two more days,

I decided to start working on pitch 16.

It's always been one of the biggest question marks on the whole wall.

Caldwell: When I first started looking for this climb up here seven years ago,

I had no idea where the route was going to go.

I spent the first two seasons alone just swinging around,

examining every inch of granite, looking for climbable features.

Caldwell: I don't know what's wrong with me but I love this shit.

Caldwell: Starting at the bottom of the wall there's a series of diagonal cracks

that go for a thousand feet, and then they end.

250 feet to the left of that there's another series of corners that angles up towards the top.

The traverse pitches 14 and 15

lead you across the face until the next crack system.

Well, almost.

There's this 8 foot blank section

completely smooth

nothing that you could even get your fingernails behind.

Caldwell: I had spent two years searching this whole route

and it came down to just 8 feet.

Caldwell: Nope, coming off.

Caldwell: You climb like 25 feet off the portaledge

and then you get to this last flake on the wall.

And all around you is total blankness.

The only feature is 8 feet left.

It just looks a million miles away.

But there was this spark of an idea that maybe, I could just jump.

Caldwell: (AHHH!)

Caldwell: I mean I'm not really very good at dyno-ing,

but I mean it seemed like the only way.

Caldwell: Oh, getting a little tired.

Caldwell: This is probably one of the craziest dynos I've ever tried

and it's right in the middle of El Cap so it's sick.

Caldwell: When Kevin started trying the dyno

he was doing really well on it.

It made me believe that it could be done.

(AHHHH!) It made me believe that it could be done.

(AHHHH!)

Caldwell: In my mind this move was the last piece

to make this giant climb come together.

Caldwell: (AHHH!)

Caldwell: This incredibly violent move,

hucking yourself as hard as you can across the wall.

Caldwell: Really close!

Jorgeson: Oh, I sprained my ankle.

Caldwell: In 2011, Kevin sprained his ankle on the move and was out for the season.

Caldwell: You okay man?

Caldwell: In the off-season, I figured out a way to practice the move at home in Colorado.

I mapped out the move and built a wall specifically like that.

The distance from the starting hand hold to the finishing hand hold

is 101 inches, and the angle of the wall is 89 degrees.

Caldwell: I'd just go out there for two hours a day

and huck myself at this thing.

Becca would look at me and just just be like

"he's going insane, he's totally going insane!"

Becca: Oh, the dyno.

The dyno is Tommy's nemesis for sure.

He's been going out in snow storms, like windy, whatever.

It doesn't stop him.

He's committed.

Caldwell: I just gotta do it so I can do that every time

and then I gotta put on a smaller hold.

Caldwell: I had this feeling that I was literally just 8 feet from glory.

Jorgeson: How bad do you want it?

How much of a battle are you willing to have to do this pitch?

I'm gonna try again and I'm gonna succeed.