History of Dalcon/Amplion

My review of the new documentary, Free Solo –Five Stars!

How are we to think about a young man who climbs a 3000 ft shear rock face, El Capitan, alone, with no safety rope? The words that might come to mind first include, crazy, death wish, thrill-seeker, adrenaline junkie, publicity hound. We have a tendency to want to categorize and compartmentalize people, and yet, we are frequently presented with examples of people who appear to be completely unique. If you immerse yourself into the world of Alex Honnold through the new documentary, Free Solo, you will find yet another example of the amazing diversity that represents the human race. You will also find knots in your stomach as you see amazing video of him, alone and unequipped—a human fly on the side of a beautiful and massive mountain.

His free solo ascent of El Cap follows by seven years his previously unimaginable free solo of Half Dome, a 2000 ft wonder at the other end of Yosemite valley. We have often seen that when one person reaches an assumed unachievable athletic goal, that others will accomplish it, typically faster, higher, better. Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile was surpassed in 46 days. However, in the seven years since he soloed Half Dome, no one else has even stated an intention to try it. John Long, another world class climber, has stated: “There isn’t anything else I can think of that requires that level of concentration, for that length of time, with the penalty being certain death if you make the tiniest mistake”.

By the end of 2014, Honnold had achieved international fame for his exploits. He had been featured on the covers of National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, Outside, and 60 Minutes had profiled him. He had a slew of corporate sponsors, had co-written a best-selling memoir, and started a nonprofit foundation to improve the lives of needy communities around the world. And he still chose to live in his van so he can follow the sun to amazing places and focus on climbing. With over 1000 free solo ascents, if he had a death wish, his wish would have been granted by now.

Who is this guy? As the movie unfolds, we see a pleasant, likeable, simple young man who is clearly intelligent—he graduated with a 4.7 GPA from high school and attended Berkeley for a year. He is a vegetarian, doesn’t drink or use drugs. He is an avid reader with interests in classic literature, environmentalism, and economics, and he describes himself as an atheist. He is clearly completely focused on climbing, which doesn’t make him unique, many are. However, his passion is combined with an exceptional talent and an intuitive understanding of how to break a huge, seemingly unreachable, goal into a series of learnable steps.

Some of his poise can be attributed to his detailed preparation. He is obsessive about his training, which includes hour-long sessions every other day hanging by his fingertips and doing one- and two-armed pullups on a specially-made apparatus that he bolted into the doorway of his van. For El Cap, he also spent hours perfecting, rehearsing, and memorizing exact sequences of hand and foot placements for every key pitch. He is an inveterate note-taker, logging his workouts and evaluating his performance on every climb in a detailed journal.

He achieves a level of self confidence in his ability and knowledge of the steps to the goal that enables him to smoothly and safely accomplish what every other person on earth truly considers not only unachievable, but unimaginable.

What should we think about such a person? A lot, of course. And, once again we are reminded, if you can think it, you can achieve it.

Link to Free Solo Trailer