After 10 Years and 60 Roped Climbs of the Same Wall, He Free-Soloed El Capitan in Under 4 Hours
4 min read · RealCase summary
Alex Honnold spent more than a year preparing to free solo El Capitan's Freerider route — training in the United States, China, Europe, and Morocco, doing hour-long fingerhold hangs and pull-ups in his van daily, memorizing exact hand and foot sequences for the hardest pitches, and keeping a detailed training journal.
On Saturday, June 3, 2017, he climbed the nearly 3,000-foot granite wall — taller than the Burj Khalifa — with no rope or safety gear, using only climbing shoes and a chalk bag, following pre-marked holds across all 30 pitches of the route.
He started at 5:32 a.m. and summited at 9:28 a.m. PDT, a climb of 3 hours and 56 minutes. "With free-soloing, obviously I know that I'm in danger, but feeling fearful is not helping me," he said of his mindset performing at that level. The climb was filmed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and later featured in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo.
Key takeaways
- ›Spent about 10 years climbing different parts of El Capitan and had climbed the wall roughly 60 times using ropes before attempting it without one
- ›Trained specifically for the free solo attempt for six months
- ›Became the first person to climb El Capitan alone without ropes or safety gear, finishing the roughly 3,000-foot ascent in 3 hours, 56 minutes on June 3, 2017
Original source
Read the original (National Geographic)
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