Original subtitles

and we're

off I'm treading

lightly my toes are kind of

hurting slightly more pumped than I

would have

liked which is one of the classic ways

to yourself when you're soing

when you're on a quest to redefine

what's humanly possible the line between

Triumph and tragedy is Razor thin I'm

Jimmy chin from Mount Everest to

Antarctica I've had the privilege of

sharing Adventures alongside the world's

most daring

athletes in the pivotal moments when

life hangs in the

balance what drives the greatest

to keep pushing to stare down

fear to risk

everything these are the stories from

the edge of the

unknown to be on the side of a cliff

without a

rope totally untethered you know

free feels pretty freaking next level

free soling is the ultimate test of

climbing that's when it's all on the

line and that's the challenge of doing

something that hasn't been done before

is how do you know that you're

ready I've known Alex hanold for years

he's climbed the biggest walls on the

planet without a

rope pushing the limits of what's

possible

I was there when he free soloed the 3000

ft ALC Capitan in Yus Valley

California this was a climb so

futuristic and Visionary that not even

the top climbers in the world were

daring to think about

it how does someone prepare to do the

impossible I had been dreaming of free

selling OAB forever the psychological

challenge felt so vast

and if you feel really scared thinking

about it then you're you're probably not

prepared

enough I felt that Morocco would be a

perfect practice ground to get one step

closer to freeing

alab Morocco it's off the map no one

would know about it this was a place

where he could test himself both

physically and mentally with a massive

amount of climbing and then he wanted to

free solo one of the big walls at the

end of the trip he knew that the route

that he' chosen would be one of the

greatest big wall free solos in

history I can't wait to S all this stuff

I'm so curious if we can actually make

these walls feel smaller you know

yeah there's baby goats halfway up the

first pitch that's really

cute Tommy was really the only possible

partner for the training that I was

hoping to do in

Morocco we would it's like to climb with

somebody who climbs so fast like so

amazing Tommy is one of the best

climbers in the world when I started

climbing he was already a hero in the

climbing world and I looked up to him my

entire

life I think Alex and I just felt like

if we got together and climbed we could

do stuff that we couldn't do on our own

and from there it evolved into this very

close friendship we're only going to

bring five long and so knowing that he

had this giant objective my role just

became to help him survive essentially

yeah it was one of the on left Tommy

didn't want Alex to free solo but he

knew that Alex was going to go do it

anyways so Tommy decides that the best

way that he can support his friend is to

train with

him doing something that dangerous is

really about having full confidence that

you will be successful

Alex wanted to push himself with a huge

endurance

challenge a triple link

up to climb three of the biggest walls

in tajio with Tommy in one

day it would be the equivalent of

running three back-to-back

marathons at a world record pace so

what's your guess on time 22 hours 22 I

think like 5:00 a.m. top out that means

that we'd be doing 21h hour link up

that's my

prediction all right let's see who's

Clos

this okay La good to

go these big walls are extraordinarily

technical this is 512 513 terrain a

rating of difficulty that really only a

world class climber can climb remember

of not really loving this

pitch I don't remember this pitch hardly

at

all my finger slipped but it was a hard

move the hardest move on the RO

I knew Alex was going to free solo one

of the roots we were climbing

together thinking about being up there

that high off the ground without a rope

that's a terrifying

thought there we

go nice

dude so fun climbing like that pretty

solid it did six and a

half it's pretty sick to think that

Tommy's about to climb all the way past

the shade up there in this first block

like look how freaking far that

is oh Skin's a little more tender than

the last stre it's much harder to climb

sharp limestone in full

sunlight your fingers are sweating more

which makes your skin softer which makes

the rock cut your skin

more we had to climb very

delicately make sure we grabbed these

razor sharp holds and pulled on them as

little as

possible and you're also trying to stand

on these tiny little edges very precise

small movements with your

feet the rubber gets really hot and it

basically Cooks your

feet it's just hard to cover these guys

cuz basically they're the fastest guys

in the world on this Terrain

you might have worn out the film

crew you might get a day without a film

crew then be awesome okay let's go climb

Another

Mountain oh yeah more the Sun going away

is a welcome reprieve where you're like

oh thank God we're not getting cooked

anymore but the hard part in the dark is

navigating

you never quite know if you're going the

right direction I'm to my foot is

totally numb right here that's that's

what I was saying oh I really want this

route to go easily and

quickly yeah all right

dude wa for the next lap

huh when you're pretty exhausted and

it's

dark it's easy to start making some

mistakes

hey guys I see

them they're already like up

there we were many many hours into a

link

up it was dark and we were quite

tired your headlamp illuminates like a

10t bubble around you so that's your

entire world and you just exist in that

10ft bubble

in some ways that can actually be sort

of

centering but you still have to be able

to find the

route yeah oh oh man I'm getting the

like release in my feet after taking off

my

shoes that was a lot of rock

climbing I can care at the end of the

triple we were both

exhausted and then I was planning on

spending one more week so that I could

do a big solo

project I don't free solo at all this is

what it is I'm willing to do things that

I might like end up you know pretty

maimed but I really really try and stay

away from things that where I'm just

going to totally

Splat it's pretty like thin distinction

it's all very loose honestly but I

absolutely understand the appeal of it

like emotionally that's how I feel

logically I'm like I should never do

that yeah maybe you got to just go with

the emotion sometime I'm just go do

it those are the things where I'm like

as a father I can't do that you know

it's got to be logic not emotion you

think

yeah looking back on Morocco there's

just this level of angst and

turmoil I felt like I should be training

harder I should be climbing more I

should be doing more you know because I

had this huge goal in front of me and I

was just like I just didn't know if I

was ready and felt like I should be

doing more doing

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more my next challenge was to free sell

re

pre to a lay person they look at a big

wall and they're like that looks insane

they assume that I just walk up to a

cliff and just climb it with no you know

planning no path no no anything but the

reality is couldn't be further from the

truth a lot of people think Alex is a

free

soloist he must throw risk to the wind

he doesn't

care but actually he's one of the most

calculated people I

know everything that he does it's so

methodical and

intentional how long have you been on M

how long may going to be on the mountain

mhm I know hopefully less than 4 hours

oh really okay so like on the 1500t

route basically like 40 ft of climbing

scattered throughout different sections

that I want to figure out

okay watching Alex prepare is hugely

inspiring he's meticulous about how he

approaches

it it's about the climbing and it's

about managing the fear it's about

struggling with doubt to do something

that's never been done before

it's not always obvious which parts will

be easy or hard when you take the Rope

away so I practice the route with a

little bit more intentional mind towards

the free

solo to spend some time thinking about

what will actually be scary or

not the Crux pitch of rier propre was

the hardest

part it's about 1,000 ft off the ground

and when I had first climbed this route

I had fallen off that pit

that it's pretty steep kind of small

holes in big

reaches I was concerned about that

pitch Le Rivier pu in Morocco would be

considered one of the greatest free

solos in

history and I think when you have a

superpower it's really hard not to use

it but it was

Heavy the route requires Precision

climbing one mistake and he

dies I remember Alex and Tommy saying

goodbye to each

other and I could see it in in Tommy's

face the hug might have been a little

bit longer and you know it's one of

those goodbyes that

was knowing that you know Tommy might

never see Alex again

it doesn't feel good to make your

friends and family worry about you which

is why most of my freeing is normally in

private so that you don't put that

burden on anybody

else it felt very different than most

free

solos cameras made it slightly harder

but I also knew that was a good way to

prepare myself for harder things down

the

road shooting a big wallfree solo was

terrifying you know we spent days

rigging on the route trying to imagine

someone climbing it without a rope would

made us very

nervous I definitely feel fear I mean if

I didn't feel fear I wouldn't have to do

all the prep work I would just go up and

do the

route the correct way to manage fear I

think is to gradually broaden your

comfort

zone until your com Zone includes things

that seemed previously

impossible I'm shreding

lightly some climers remember like every

movement of every route I'm definitely

not gifted like

that I knew the hardest parts pretty

well but the rest of it was all a bit of

a question

mark slightly more pumped than I would

have

liked a lot of the lower climbing I was

thinking about it as I did

it like do I grab this one or is this

secure is it that foot or this other

foot should I try a different

foot I got my finger stuck in one of the

pockets which is one of the classic ways

to yourself when you're

soling in retrospect maybe I could have

given it another day or two of prep work

[Music]

I'm slightly over gripping like I'm

holding on too tightly which is why my

feet are sort of tense when I move

them I don't place them smoothly and

quietly I'm like moving sort of Helter

Skelter do you hear that it's off to the

left sounds exactly like someone is

yelling Alex over and

over they're like climbing behind me

highliners on the other side so I can

sand be up here normally when you're

freeing you're totally alone in some

incredible environment but as I was

freeing I kept hearing this weird

yelling it was just this crazy french

guy dangling from a tight RPP in the

middle of the canyon and he kept yelling

at himself like Al

Al oh the guy just whipped

holy

huh and then he would fall off and then

he would bounce on the Rope and then you

try to get back up and then you fall off

and I remember that it made the whole

thing feel a little bit more like a

circus in this case with most climbers

with ropes the whole point is to fail

over and over and over until you

eventually succeed in something uh but

you know with free sing projects that's

totally off the table you have to make

sure you never fail and just do the

thing that you're trying to do first try

just got to climb one more

pitch when I get into the difficult

climbing like doesn't matter what's

going on around me I'm just

[Music]

climbing which really is part of the

appeal of free Solen you know it's that

level of

focus the Crux pitch of rier pre is just

this overhanging panel up high on the

wall it's more fatiguing than the other

pitches because the angle kicks

back and because it's steep fatigue

builds as you climb it your arms start

to get quite tired as you

go but that's why Tommy and I had done

the triple ahead of time to

prepare I knew that my fitness was high

enough that it wouldn't matter that the

hard part was at the top

[Music]

oh

yeah I got myself like a like a B minus

like an8 out of 10 I

guess so it wasn't your Fest

S

no no

but you know that's just part of

it sometimes you just got to be able to

perform I remember thinking he looked

noticeably

disappointed he wasn't happy with the

fact that he felt scared on the route

and he felt jittery not

smooth and he knew that that would not

work on El Cap but getting used to

having a film crew shooting him on a

long climb like that helped prepare his

mindset for when we were shooting on Al

cat well shall we do another

one he's got the post solo glow he does

whatever you could say about today you

definitely still have the post solo glow

you did just climb a 512 big wall

without a rope compared to Al cap the

preparation that I put in for reier p

was pretty minimal you know I climbed it

a couple times and then I did one day of

direct

preparation whereas with elcap I spent

18 months or so practicing for the

solo when I left Morocco I was in the

the best shape of my

life I just done each of the hard

challenges that I had set for myself so

like confidence was high when I was

showing up in e in the best possible

shape

he's moving

fast I mean that's like one of the most

exposed moves like anyone

cap Alex is having the best day of his

life oh god

wow oh my goodness oh my God I can't

believe what I just

witnessed oh God

oh oh good to see you

again Alex's free solo LEL cap will go

down as the greatest rock climbing

accomplishment in history what a journey

yeah this was a generation defining

climb the moon landing of

climbing the reality is that I likely

we'll never work on anything to that

scale again just because I don't know if

any specific climb will ever mean as

much to me as as elap

did whether or not that will eventually

translate into not sing as much I don't

know I don't

know we'll see if I even want to because

I've solid a lot like I've Sol like

almost anything I care

about Alex's ability to manage fear and

to free solo the biggest walls in the

world is truly remarkable but what

inspires me the most is is the intention

and purpose that he brings to his

life he pushes us to all ask

ourselves are we living the life that we

want to

live when you're standing beneath a big

wall and you're about to climb it

without a rope it's hard to match that

kind of

intensity something tells me parenting

will be a much bigger and more

meaningful experience long

term but hopefully it's not going to be

quite as scary

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