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How the presence of a film crew actually helped free solo climber Alex Honnold scale the 3,000ft El Capitan
When husband-and-wife film-makers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi decided to make rock climber Alex Honnold the subject of their next documentary Free Solo, they didn’t anticipate they would be embarking on a two-year-plus odyssey that would culminate in a death-defying ascent of the El Capitan rock face in Yosemite National Park, California. The plan had been to make a character study of their friend who was renowned for free soloing — climbing with no ropes, using only hands and feet.
It was only once they started filming that Honnold informed them of his intention to focus on his long-cherished dream of soloing El Capitan — a near 3,000ft-high rock formation with an almost vertical face. It was a task many thought impossible, with death a very possible outcome.
“It wasn’t as if I suddenly decided,” insists Honnold. “I agreed to the project knowing the only thing I cared about was free soloing El Cap. It’s just they didn’t know anything about it.”
Chin and Vasarhelyi immediately paused the project as they wrestled with the ethical implications of Honnold’s decision. “I was already uncomfortable filming him free soloing, even without El Cap,” says Chin. “You don’t want to be the one that’s pushed him to go do something and he falls.”
After six months of soul-searching, they decided to keep...