Climbing El Capitan stole the national spotlight with Alex Honnold’s death-defying free-solo climb on “El Cap”. The process of preparing and executing that dream was made into the Oscar-winning National Geographic documentary, Free Solo, by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.
REF:
https://films.nationalgeographic.com/free-solo
Maybe you’ve seen it.
It is the portrait of a straight-speaking, dedicated rock climber with incredible mental control who managed to do what was previously thought impossible. He climbed El Capitan without safety ropes, putting himself intentionally into a “you slip, you die” situation that goes on for one tenuous pitch after another for 3000 feet (900 m).
But that isn’t the only way to climb El Capitan.
In some ways what Alex did is the most mind-blowingly difficult thing to do, but there are other styles of climbing El Cap that are much harder in other ways.
And although this compelling story rightfully captured the minds and hearts of people all over the country it sits in context of one inspiring story after another that plays out on the steep walls of El Capitan.
ref:
https://www.yosemite.com/alex-honnold-and-climbing-el-capitan/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Solo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Caldwell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold
Yosemite:
https://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm
