Climbing Video: Alex Honnold Free Soloing Half Dome

Climbing Video: Alex Honnold Free Soloing Half Dome

Posted August 24, 2009 at 7:19 am · Comments { 33 } ·

Click here for an update on this story

Most videos will continue to be posted in the new video section, but this video of Alex Honnold’s free solo of the Northwest Face of Half Dome bears special attention.

Witness:

Update: Unfortunately, the video appears to have been removed from Vimeo to “accommodate a few quick changes“.  Stay tuned…

Update #2: The clip will be back up in a week or so after it receives some polish

Update #3 – 9/14/09: Somewhat unsurprisingly, this video remains private.  Whether that has to do with Tim Kemple being busy doing some awesome work over in Spain, or the clip was never supposed to see the light of day in the first place remains to be seen…

Update #4 – 2/18/10: Click here for an update on this story

Update #5 – 08/25/2010: The entire First Ascent series, including the Alone On The Wall episode, can now be bought as a 3 DVD box set.  More details here.

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  • Philly Cheese

    Nerves of steel. Honnold is a modern-day legend for his soloing feats, much like Peter Croft and John Bachar before him.

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  • http://since-you-asked.blogspot.com/ Julian

    I’m starting to really dig this Alex Honnold guy. I’m not really interested in climbing the stuff he climbs, but it’s pretty damn badass, and he’s real laid back about it.

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  • http://thelifeandclimbs.blogspot.com Mark

    “One second. I’m like, freaking out actually” Uh. Yeah. Thanks. That means you’re human even if just a little bit, Alex.

    Freaking crazy. This guy, over all other climbers, inspires me so much.

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  • John Knoernschild

    Inspiring. I just did my first free solo on Saturday at Devil’s Lake. When I got 50ft. up, I looked at the second half of the climb and I thought for a second “should I bail onto the easy ledges to my right….” I composed myself, and finished it up. The feeling of total freedom that free soloing gives you in very addictive. That being said, I don’t think I could keep my composure on a 2000ft route. :)

    Props to Alex.

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  • http://mountainsandwater.blogspot.com/ peter

    My favorite part is his putting on his seatbelt in the van. Safety first,as they say.

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  • Breal

    Feats like this make almost everything that happens in the world of bouldering not even worth mentioning

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    • http://since-you-asked.blogspot.com/ Julian

      I hear ya, but disagree. At least for me, climbing is mostly about doing hard/cool moves, and bouldering is usually the best way to accomplish that.

      What Honnold is doing is intense, impressive, scary, and all that. Just that I have a very hard time relating since my risk tolerance is much lower. YMMV.

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  • Eggbert

    Cool vid, seems like a really smooth operator. How hard is this route 12a? So that’s what V4? Not sure I agree with you Breal. Kinda like saying the Jamaican dude who just smashed the 100-meter dash record at 9.58 seconds is not worth mentioning in the face of a recent 100 mile run win… Not that I care about high end bouldering really. Just an opinion.

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    • OBdizzy

      A quote from supertopo:

      “Just a note about the supposed grade of .12a given to the route. Its only 12a to a 5.14 climber. To everyone else it is probably somewhere around the 12b/c grade. I doubt Honnold can tell the difference anymore. In my opinion it is of very similar difficulty to Moonlight which regularly is said to be 12d. ”

      And BTW, for anyone who hasn’t climbed on polished dime edged granite slab, calling it “about V4″ is…. misleading. It’s insecure as hell, and the thought of yosemite sandbag “12a” slab with 2000 feet of air under my ass makes me queasy with tension. Brrrrrr.

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      • Eggbert

        Yeah of course it’s not the same as climbing some V4. But it’s also apples and oranges. Or apples and cars. Or something. Meh whatever. Hope they find the vid, was pretty sweet. One month and I’ll be out there (NOT soloing Half Dome however).

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  • sweatpants

    Not caring and not able to do, are 2 different things Eggnuts :-)

    also, I don’t floss sometimes… talk about living dangerously

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  • Eggbert

    LOL. I guess I care enough to read these forums, climbing mag, etc. Sort of a detached interest, as I will never climb V double digit or solo anything (intentionally).

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  • http://hennievj.blogspot.com hennie vj

    hey guys, sorry the video is being taken offline for a bit to accommodate a few quick changes. it should be back in a few hours

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  • sweatpants

    I’m having a hard time living without this video. It feels like it’s been days that it’s been down and i need it back immediately. I’m getting the shakes.

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  • justaguy

    video has been pulled from vimeo, apparently. one post said it is only temporary…..but whatever.

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Hopefully Congress will set aside non-urgent matters like healthcare reform to investigate the whereabouts of this video…

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  • death wish

    his mom must have seen it, along with some of the recent Bachar coverage in the press, and put 2 and 2 together…

    guess North Face didn’t learn their lesson from Dan Osman, hopefully they won’t have to get another example

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  • http://www.kemplemedia.com tim kemple

    …or we slipped, it got out early and will be back up in a week or so after its polished. tk

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  • Eggbert

    Tim– fix the sound, it was hard to hear the conversation occasionally. Thanks, good work! ce

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  • sweatpants

    nah that can’t be it. I’m certain that it is a large bunch of oversized ant like creatures that have stolen it. Seems more logical.

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  • TRONizzle

    bummer about that 1/2 dome vid getting taken down, but I just found this one! CHECK IT:

    ALEX HONNOLD IN TOULOMNE. SICK!

    http://kemplemedia.com/blog/

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  • GDavis

    Man! Just missed the video! On the bright side, I’ll get to see it for the first time it looks like on the tour. Yeah!!

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Indeed. It will be cool to see a longer clip that hopefully includes more of the climbing.

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  • Ivan Vargas

    i really wanna watch this but it’s asking me for a password, can anyone tell me what to do?

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    • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

      As noted above, the video was removed from Vimeo. Hopefully it will be back up soon.

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  • Morgan

    soon….how long is soon!

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  • http://dreaminvertical.wordpress.com/ Luke

    The version shot by the Sender Films team for the National Geo Adventure First Ascent series was quite good.

    I suggest going to the Reel Rock tour for lots of amazing footage of Honnold Soloing.

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  • MFM

    I saw this dude in the Reel Rock tour First Ascent film. What an amazing athlete. Besides his physical dominance, I can’t think of a more mentally taxing feat in all of sports. Sure, huck off a 150 ft cliff on skis, but does that take 3 hours of pure mental and physical concentration. Alex should have a bronze statue in Yosemite.

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  • Breal

    WTF? Where’s this video? It was supposed to be back up like a month ago!

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    • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

      You’re probably going to want to go see the Reel Rock Tour if you want to see this footage again.

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  • Pingback: Soloing and Risk. (Part 2) « Adventures in Dirtbaggery

  • Mary

    I just saw the the 24 minute video of Alex Hunnold call First Ascent Alone on the Wall at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. It was totally fantastic and would like to share it with family members over the Christmas Holidays. Am wondering how to get a hold of the video? Will it return to this site eventually?

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    • Matt

      Last I heard, the dvds of first ascent will be available in September 2010.

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