Living life to the Max, bound for El Capitan
The quest for the next adrenaline rush never ends for Max Manson.
If Manson is not soaring in the same rarefied his father staked out in the pole vault, the 18-year-old senior from Monarch High School is following in the finger cracks of Alex Honnold, the rock-climbing legend from the movie “Free Solo.”
As Manson puts it: “I’m usually either fighting gravity or taking advantage of it.”
With a vault of 16 feet, 8 inches, super-impressive for any prep athlete except for Manson, he easily
defended his championship at the Colorado state meet, where no competitor can challenge him.
Up next? A real challenge: Hanging out on El Capitan, that 2,900-foot slab of granite revered as a temple by big-wall climbers around the world.
“The next adventure? Definitely climbing. My objective is The Nose on El Cap,” Manson told me Saturday. “But with a rope. Of course.”
El Capitan rises majestically as the once-and-future king of Yosemite National Park. El Cap is vertigo raised to an art form, with iconic features such as the king swing and the great roof. It’s the stuff of climbers’ dreams.
“Last time I was in Yosemite, we went to the base and climbed the first 100 feet of it. So I’ve had a little taste. But there’s still 3,000 or so feet more to experience. I’m so excited,” said Manson, who had stood atop all the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado by the age of 12.
He is the son of pole vaulter Pat Manson, who won gold at the Pan America Games three times during the 1990s and has sailed above 19 feet. Like father, like son. And the real star in the family on Saturday was Mia Manson, who won the Class 5A girls pole vault by clearing 12 feet. Like father, like daughter.
But check this out, Dad. Just for kicks, young Manson does backflips off cliffs into deep pools of crystal-blue water. He has scaled the Diamond Face on Longs Peak. And as an aspiring filmmaker, young Manson crafts videos made from 100 percent pure adrenaline, many of which can be found on Adventures To The Max, his Youtube channel.
“Climbing is like being out on a walk to me, except you’re walking straight up,” said Manson, who focuses on vaulting during winter and spring, then frees his mind and turns his passion loose on outdoor adventures the remainder of every year.
One of the bigger thrills Manson has ever encountered? Well, on a brilliant Colorado summer day in August 2018, he climbed one of the Flatirons, and at the summit, Manson bumped into the master himself: Honnold, the 33-year-old uber-athlete who became the first man to conquer El Cap without the benefit of climbing ropes.
“I had suspected (Hannold) was in the Boulder area. Word gets around. But I didn’t know which flatiron he has doing,” Manson said. “And I wasn’t expecting to actually find him. But I climbed up, and when I got to the top, there he was. I was like: ‘It’s Alex Hannold!’ And we got to talk for a while.” Did Manson get the selfie? Well, this is 2019, isn’t it? Nothing becomes official until it’s recorded for posterity on Instagram, so Manson bagged a self-portrait with Hannold, both of them shirtless to show off their climbing abs.
“Free Solo” won an Oscar for best documentary. I’d tell you it’s the most visually stunning sports movie ever filmed, but don’t know for certain. Why? Although I did indeed attend a screening of the flick, I slumped in my seat and hid my eyes behind a giant popcorn bin for most of the final 30 minutes, when the death-defying moves Honnold made on El Cap scared the liquid fake butter out of me.
“As a climber,” Manson said. “I left that movie really inspired to go to Yosemite.”
With another state championship medal in his pocket, Manson is headed out this week on a trip to California, with the goal of taking a leisurely little walk straight up the granite nose of El Cap. This is a dude that obviously knows how to live to the Max.