Brave climber’s singular story
hauled himself to the summit, becoming the first person to complete a free solo climb of El Capitan.
The death-defying feat, as well as the year and a half of Honnold’s life leading up to it, was captured by verite documentary filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Their feature film, “Free Solo,” is opening in Bay Area theaters on Friday, Oct. 12. It chronicles the months leading up to Honnold’s climb, in which he kindles a new relationship with a young woman (Sanni McCandless), closes the deal on a home in Las Vegas and trains mentally and physically.
The film has received wide acclaim, including the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. As of Sept. 30, it had pulled in more than $300,000 at the box office from its limited release on only four screens, breaking the perscreen record for a documentary set by “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006.
As a soloist, Honnold has established first ascents around Yosemite and on walls around the world that most other climbers wouldn’t dare consider. El Capitan represented his Holy Grail, and committing to making the film is what pushed him to give the climb a shot.
“I’d been dreaming about soloing El Cap since 2009 or something, and kind of waiting for it to happen,” he said. “Each year I’d be like, ‘Maybe this is the year it’ll happen,’ and then I’d drive in and be like, ‘There is no frickin’ way; that is completely outrageous.’ And at a certain point I was like, ‘This is never going to happen without me putting in the work and actually making it happen.’
“So shooting a film about it was also sort of a way to hold me accountable to that and actually start the process. Because when you don’t tell anybody about it and it’s totally your own personal dream … at some point you need to just say, ‘I’m going to work on this thing; these people are going to help me work on it; it’s all going to be a little more official. We’re doing it. Here we go.’ ”
During a podcast recording with Chronicle Travel Editor Gregory Thomas in Yosemite Valley in September, Honnold reflected on how the climb and the film came together, what he loves about living in a van, and how he sees free soloing developing.
Here are some excerpts from that conversation: On living in a van: The beauty of the van is having a simpler life, having everything in arm’s reach, never having to wander around looking for things because it’s all right there. And just being more intentional about your time. Typically when you’re living in the van, you’re doing exactly what you want to be doing at all times. You’re parked in the place you want to be doing the thing you want to do. You’re rarely like, I’m wasting time in the van. … You’re always doing what you want to be doing. On being the subject of a two-year documentary film: When I watch the film now, I mean, it is a very honest portrayal. I’m like, those are the last two years of my life. There it is, just laid out in film . ... I’m like yeah, that’s all totally fair … for better, for worse, because obviously there are parts that I watch that make me cringe a little bit and then there are some parts that I watch and it’s total glory. You’re like, “Ah, that’s amazing.” On sitting back and looking at El Capitan as a climber: That’s the thing about El Cap, it really stirs the imagination. You look up at the wall and you’re like, what opportunity for adventures. There’s just so much. On the risk of being a victim of rockfall in Yosemite: Rockfall in Yosemite is not something I think about. … When you look at the scale of some of the rockfall on El Cap, if I get obliterated by 1,000-ton rockfall it’s like, well, that was my time, you know? I spent my life living in some of the most beautiful places on Earth, and sometimes they fall down. That’s fair.