A movie saying that the state of climbing rocks of 1,000 meters with a bare hand without a lifeline was shot like this is ongoing, the shooters are all climbers

Alex Honnold doing free climbing without rope or lifeline, climbed up with a bare hand a monolith " El Capitan " in Yosemite National Park in 2017. This state is released on YouTube as a documentary movie, but the scene behind the scenes is being revealed as taking a great difficulty in shooting.

It was in June 2017 that Alex Honnold of rock climber released a state of challenging El Capitan with bare hands without a lifeline or harness. You can see how it looks from the following articles.

Like a "Legend of Zelda BotW" Without a rope · No climbing seriously climbing a cliff and climbing with bare hands like this - GIGAZINE

The movie reflecting Honnold 's rock climbing was produced by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi who made documentary films and climber & photographer Jimmy Chin . In the following movies, the two talk about the challenges and difficulties of movie shooting.

How They Filmed the First El Capitan Climb With No Ropes | Vanity Fair - YouTube


Image woman is documentary film writer Vasarhelyi.

Next to Vasarhelyi is Chin who is a climber and a photographer of national geographic.

El Capitan is 3,000 feet high (about 1000 meters) and is known for being much higher than the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower .

Honnold is one of free climbers who perform rock climbing without relying on tools for ensuring safety. Even if you are a climber, if you do not damage rocks and you can complete rock climbing without falling, it can be "accomplished" in your life. However, Mr. Honnold says that he is mainly going for free climbing.

The route of rock climbing of El Capitan is like this.

Vasarhelyi was interested in Mr. Honnold, "I am not good at speaking with people since I was a child, rather than rock climbing alone with a rope bare hand, would someone" become a partner? " It was said that it was in the character "I was scared to say a voice."

There are 4 to 5 places where it is difficult to ride up El Capitan, one of which is "Freeblast Slab", one of which is a psychologically and physically difficult point for Ms. Honnold, said Vasarhelyi I will.

There are difficulties in various places such as "Boulder Problem" and "Enduro Corner", and it was said that several people were arranged to cover all these and to shoot.

The most important thing for making a movie is to make a team with human resources who are professional climbers but also photographers. In other words, there are only a few people in the world who can shoot themselves.

Each photographer needs to handle ropes as close as 1000 meters while having equipment of 45 to 50 pounds (20 to 23 kilograms). As the photographer goes up while taking a picture, the rope to be worn becomes heavier as going up. Techniques that deal with these tools and techniques to shoot while moving along the wall are also needed.

"Freeblast Slab" which is one of the difficulties of El Capitan has little unevenness and where it is necessary to support the body by rubbing against rocks rather than hitting limbs. This act called "friction climbing" entails great danger.

Friction of rubber material used for shoes holds the key, so it seems that attention was placed on "foot" in this scene.

Because Honnold has fallen from "Freeblast Slab", psychological challenges also exist. That's why Vasarhelyi said that he put consciousness in the "story" in the movie.

The place called 'Boulder Problem' is technically very difficult.

In this part where many climbers feel horror, he seems to be filmed from a remote place so that the fear of the climber who is shooting is not conveyed to Honnold.

The problem with this shoot was that I did not know how much battery it would have. I took down the camera, downloaded everything, and said that he was not sure whether he was really shooting until he saw the image.

When waiting for the image of the photographed rocks now, Honnold appears from the bottom of the frame ......

It seems that I was able to confirm that the state of climbing was stopped.

"Enduro Corner" is a place where you need to insert fingers and go up vertically. I pulled my arms and pushed with my leg ... ... so the movement continued, so it seems that the arm is very tired. However, it is said that Honnold cleared here in 5 to 10 minutes if it is an ordinary climber, it takes one hour.

Although it is a technically difficult place, it is a highlight from the image and it was taken from just above.

Apart from photographers shooting from above, Mr. Chin said that he was shooting from the side alongside Honnold and joined near the summit of El Capitan. At that time, Honnold who finished the difficulty showed a smile.

Mr. Hinnold told Ms. Honnold, "Why can not you wait for 60 seconds?" Honnold replied, "I can rest for an hour afterwards," he said that he did not wait without climbing .

People who saw Honnold's appearance tend to think that there is a desire for death, but this is a misunderstanding. Mr. Vasarhelyi indicated that the part "Honnold can connect with people through the success of climbing" is the place the most wanted to say by the movie.