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The ascent of Alex Honnold
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Subtitles (314 segments)
from time to time we come across someone
who can do something so remarkable that
it defies belief
and in this case seems to defy gravity
it's the story of Alex Honnold he's a 26
year old rock climber from Sacramento
California
but not just any rock climber he scales
walls higher than the Empire State
Building and he does it without any
ropes or protection it's a kind of
climbing called free soloing and the
penalty for error is certain death we
first heard about him in a movie called
alone on the wall harrowing account of
one of his most extraordinary feats the
first free solo climb of the Northwest
face of Half Dome a towering 2,000 foot
wall in Yosemite National Park this past
summer we met up with Alex at Yosemite
to watch what he does firsthand what
you're about to see is someone holding
on to a wall thousands of feet above the
ground
with nothing to stop him if he falls the
story will continue in a moment
here Alex Honnold is 2,600 feet above
the assembly valley floor trying to halt
himself at the slippery granite wall of
Sentinel he's so high he disappears into
the mountain Alex moves seamlessly
across a section of flaky unstable Rock
pausing to dry a sweaty hand in his bag
of chalk
there's nothing but him the wall and the
wind he's up here without ropes or a
safety harness all he has is a pair of
rubber climbing shoes this is what climb
is called free soloing and it's so
dangerous that less than 1% of people
who climb attempt it do you feel the
adrenaline at all there is no adrenaline
rush you know like if I get a rush it
means that something has gone horribly
wrong you know because the whole thing
should be pretty slow and controlled and
like I mean it's mellow does the
challenge appeal to you yeah for sure
being able to like you always being able
to push yourself like always having
something bigger to do or harder to do
or any time you finish a climb there's
always the next thing that you can try
this is Alex in the film alone on the
wall he's done more than a thousand free
solo climbs but none were tougher than
this one here he is just a speck on the
northwest face of Half Dome
you can barely make out the assembly
valley floor below as he pauses to rest
he's the only person known to have free
soloed the northwest face of Half Dome
what do you consider Alex's greatest
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