17 January 2019

The Free Solo competition is dead - Honnold won

FREE SOLO is the mind blowing documentary of Alex Honnold preparing and, without a rope, climbs the 900 meters Freerider 7c in Yosemite. Watching him training and doing the boulder crux was almost like watching a horror movie. He and his girlfriend come out as such nice people and just thinking about him falling 900 meters to the ground... On the other hand, there is probably a greater risk trying to summit K2... Photograph © 2018 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. Alex has recorded 961 climbs including three 8c+'. This is his comment of Freerider which he did 17-06-03."Solo! 3:56 on route. The end of an epic life dream. Such an experience. Logged it as a boulder problem - thanks 8a." 8a has a general policy to not publish solo or death potential climbs but we have often made exceptions for Alex Honnold, as his free solos are out there anyway. The very good thing with Freerider is that he has probably more or less killed the free solo genre. Sure some will continue to climb without a rope but the competition is over.
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