Free Solo

Yes! Another Jimmy Chin helmed documentary. You know I had to see this! Pro tip: you should also check out his other documentary Meru. It is beautiful. But this time he teamed up with fellow director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi to document legendary free solo climber Alex Honnold. For anyone who doesn’t know, free solo is a term used in the climbing world meaning you climb with absolutely no ropes. Most often you climb alone, with no ropes, no harnesses, NOTHING. So if you fall you will die. No pressure. Alex Honnold is well known in the climbing world and does a lot of free solo climbs. In this documentary he attempts to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite. El Capitan is 3,000 feet high and is incredibly hard to climb even if you have ropes. This was a nail biter. You get to see all of the preparation and the many setbacks that Alex had to go through in order to attempt this feat. Then of course you get to see the actual climb. Chin provides some really beautiful shots and helps those of us who know very little about climbing to understand what Alex is doing and how difficult it is. My palms were sweaty the whole time and I was really on the edge of my seat. This was such a fun little documentary with very very high stakes if something were to go wrong. It was exciting to be able to have a front row seat to Honnold making history.

Film or Movie: Film
You’ll like this film if:
1. You like climbing
2. You like stories about testing the limits of what’s possible
3. You like to see incredible physical feats