Review: Free Solo

Free solo climber Alex Honnold climbing up El Capitan in Yosemite

The Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo will leave you breathless and your palms sweaty. Who in their right mind would want to climb up a practically sheer mountain face with just their bare hands without any assistance, let alone ropes?

But that's what a free solo climb is, and it takes a person with a certain physical agility, endurance and mindset to be able to execute these climbs successfully and Alex Honnold is one of them.



The cinematography alone is breathtaking, seeing Honnold a tiny speck climbing up a giant mountain and God knows how many metres below him. One false move and that could be the end.

But he embraces this challenge fully, having learned mountain climbing from his father and it suits his personality, quiet, shy, geeky, loner, determined. He's also vegetarian and does yoga to keep his body flexible -- you cannot be overweight or stiff to to do what he does.

El Capitan is a challenge climbers like to try

He had always been eyeing El Capitan (The Chief), which they constantly refer to as "El Cap" in the film, which is in Yosemite National Park. Its elevation is 2,308 metres or 7,573 feet. You can actually hike up to the top, or if you're like Honnold, you can climb up it.

The media and people at book signings ask him if he's crazy to attempt El Cap, and as he has a self-deprecating humour, he goes along with the joke, but inside he is burning to try.

Throwing a wrench in the works is his girlfriend who he meets at a book signing in Seattle. She even causes him to be injured twice, which freaks out his fellow climbers who are trying to help him prepare for El Cap.

Free Solo also documents the pressure filmmaker Jimmy Chin and his crew are under in trying to make this film. All his cameramen are professional climbers but they are worried about distracting Honnold and technically can they get this all on film? And what if he falls? Then what?

Professional climbers helped film the documentary

It's all laid to bare in the documentary and every time someone slips, the audience gasps. As a viewer you have a bit of insight into the mind of someone who likes doing free solo climbs, what is involved in preparing for these climbs (they practice with ropes may times beforehand), and that not everything is smooth sailing.

But his climb is also like a metaphor for life -- we all face challenges, but it depends on how we want to face them. Do we want to just run away and hope it goes away? Or do we want to attack it full on with enough preparation and determination?

It's a heart-thumping story from beginning to end, hence the sweaty palms, particularly in my friend YTSL's case! I'm not going climbing anytime soon, but now have a bit of an understanding of why people do what most think is completely insane.

Chai Vasarhelyi and Chin who won an Oscar for Free Solo

Free Solo (2018)
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Starring Alex Honnold
85 minutes