what you're about to see defies belief
and the laws of gravity
a young man clinging to the side of a
sheer rock face a thousand meters up
with no ropes no harness nothing to
catch his fall all that keeps him from
plunging to his death are his toes and
fingertips this madness is called free
soloing and no rock climbing in the
world does it better than 26 year-old
Alex Honnold using only his body
strength and amazing mental stamina
Alex scales cliff walls as high and
steep as the world's tallest buildings
but if you're anything like me just
watching this report from American 60
Minutes Lara Logan will have you
clinging to the sofa for dear life here
Alex Honnold is 2,600 feet above the
assembly valley floor trying to hold
himself as a slippery granite wall of
fentanyl he's so high he disappears into
the mountain
Alex moves seamlessly across a section
of flaky unstable rock posing to dry a
sweaty hand in his bag of chalk there is
nothing but him the wall and the wind
he's up here without ropes or a safety
harness all he has is a pair of rubber
climbing shoes this is what climbers
call free soloing and it's so dangerous
that less than 1% of people who climb
attempt it do you feel the adrenaline at
all
there is no adrenaline rush you know
like if I get a rush it means it's
something that's gone horribly wrong
you know because the whole thing should
be pretty slow and controlled and like I
mean it's mellow
does the challenge appeal to you yeah
for sure or to being able to but you
always been able to push yourself like
always having something bigger to do or
harder to do or any time you finish a
climb there's always the next thing you
can try this is Alex in the film alone
on the wall he's done more than a
thousand free solo climbs but none were
tougher than this one here is just a
speck on the northwest face of Half Dome
you can barely make out the assembly
valley floor below as he pauses to rest
he's the only person known to have free
soloed the Northwest face of hostile
what do you consider Alex's greatest
achievements today that he's still alive
if you look at the past people that have
made a real habit of selling you know at
least half of them were dead in the 70s
John Young was one of the best rock
climbers in the world today he's an
elder statesman in the climbing
community it's indescribable what it's
like to be up real high because you know
but you you can get some kind of idea
about it just by walking to the edge of
a cliff or as you're willing to lose
your stomach yeah and the product the
real challenge about climbing without a
rope is the fact is that feeling can
come up full-bore in a split second and
you have to control that yeah you're
going to have to you got you don't have
to dial that one back really quickly or
else your diaphragm is going to close
you're not going to be able to breathe
she have no chance you're going to die
from when
started climbing when I was maybe 10 or
11 I don't even remember when it was so
long ago but I mean that's all I ever
was into really back then he was a shy
skinny kid with big ears today he's
still skinny but his 5 foot 11 inch
frame is a hundred and sixty pounds of
muscle for someone his size he has big
hands they have to carry his whole body
weight when he's hanging off the rock
yeah pretty big fingers so it's hard to
get it into a thin crack show me where
they like this before you started
climbing I don't think he requires vigor
for a climb I think that I honestly
think my connective tissue inside would
like gun like they just all just gotten
beefier you know I think it's all they
crack climbing like twerking your
fingers in different ways so this is
really your home yeah this is when I'm
in the u.s. this is mostly my my home
you know it's pretty comfortable it's
pretty cozy you know it's easy to move
around you just talk on the side of a
road
yo days without showers yeah almost
everything Alex owns is in this van he
survives on less than $1,000 a month you
can go anywhere near tomorrow morning I
wake up and I could drive to the East
Coast and then climb there for the next
two months he doesn't like to admit he's
any good which is why he's known to his
friends as Alex no big deal you know I'm
not very powerful climber
I'm more of an endurance climber like
icon you dig long roots is there anyone
else in the world right now who can do
what Alex Honnold can do I think there's
probably a handful of people who
possibly could get close to what he's
doing he's all right probably
unquestionably the best guy alive today
to capture Alex free soloing Sentinal we
assembled a six-man team of experienced
climbers who would film at different
positions along the route we attached
four more cameras to the wall and to 60
Minutes team set up on the valley floor
but as the climb got closer alex got
restless so the day before he snuck off
with his friend Peter Mortimer and
adventurer filmmaker to do something
that would calm his nerves he climbed an
impossible vertical wall called the
Phoenix
I never would have agreed to go out
there with like a bunch of people it
just would be craziness and honestly you
guys wouldn't want to see it like it
would be weird it would be weird
yeah why what would be weird about it I
don't know I think would blow your mind
it'd be weird like just the position is
outrageous this is what he means by
weird look at the angle of this wall
it's more than 90 degrees and covered
with mist from a nearby waterfall the
route itself is only around a hundred
and fifteen feet long but the cracks are
so slim his fingertips could barely fit
inside them towards the top of the climb
the angle of the wall pushed him
backward it only took him eight minutes
but when Alex reached the top he was the
first to free solo this route in the 34
years since it was established there's
only a handful of people can actually do
that with a rope and the idea that he's
doing that without a rope that's that's
an amazing thing to even consider the
next day he was ready to tackle Sentinel
1,600 foot face basically called a
sunshade line all the way up to the
middle of the wall yeah and showed us
his plan for the wrap over the past few
weeks he'd climbed Sentinel with ropes
and climbing gear twice to prepare
scouting out the best places for his
hands and feet then he hiked for nearly
two hours just to reach the base of the
climb we watched him on a video monitor
from half a mile away how tough is this
Jerry
nobody's ever solo the North Face to
center before like nobody's ever thought
about doing it before so he's on that he
started now he's off respect Chocula so
you almost have to like just stop and
remind yourself I mean he is up there
with nothing no no no nothing nothing
right when he pulls into that crack
that's like the point of no return
it becomes world class right there and
he's he's in it now I don't even like
the sound it at the point of no return
well you don't you're not going to
reverse it it's too hard that's that's
the that's the one thing you gotta
understand on these things once it gets
to this level the only way off is up
you're not you're not going back down it
says to
difficult I like to think that I know
what I can and can do
sometimes when other time is here what
you've been doing
they say it's unsustainable which really
is their code for you know you can't
keep doing this and stay alive it's not
like I'm just pushing and pushing and
pushing until until something terrible
happens I mean I don't know I just I
don't look at it like without
perspective but maybe that's why it's
dangerous for me you know maybe am I too
close to and I can't tell that I'm like
speeding towards the cliff I mean I
don't think that I will continue to do
this forever but I don't think that I'll
stop because of all the risk and all
that I think I'll stop because I'll just
lose the love for it as he approached
one of our fixed cameras Alex grabbed a
tiny piece of rock and pulled himself up
in this position most of his weight is
on just four fingers here's another one
a really difficult time harsh right here
you can see them like his fingertips are
only going into the first digit like the
line on your hand literally that's why
it's only only ten minutes earlier one
thing every free solo climber seems is
water it seeps out of cracks in the
mountain and that's what alex ran into
halfway up centeno yes you know his
wipers beat up like that legs yeah it's
wet that's not good no the worst of all
thing a possible that it looked like
your shoes did get wet
yeah my shoes did get wet so the the big
fear would be that like you step on or
you like climb through wet rock and then
without knowing it you put your foot
onto something you know and then you
just slip right off it that would be
like the worst case scenario like
thinking that you're going to step onto
some foothold and then just having your
foot blow off his weight shoes didn't
seem to bother him take a look at him as
he climbed up to another one of our
fixed cameras
he's so relaxed even at this height
from up here 80-foot pine trees below
look like grass
and yes he is whistling
then came the toughest 50 feet on
Sentinel and the hardest sequence of
moves he had to make if he moves too
slowly his arms would give out but if he
rushed he could slip and fall it's a
position Alex sense
he lives for where he's right now that
this is this is this is the crux of the
biskits as they say the hardest part and
ok look what he's holding
yeah well there isn't anything it's also
really steep right there you can't
nobody even Alex Honnold can't can't
hang indefinitely on his arms they're
going to give out and then he's got to
have the strength to pull himself up
yeah he's got to have been in the foot
holes aren't very good so he's got to
basically paste his feet on you know
over the ceiling and hope they stick
Alex somehow clings to the wall as the
camera moves away you can see the river
half a mile below him he's through the
worst of it and from here it's 400 feet
of what he calls easy climbing very good
he could be dropped all the way to the
top in just an hour and a half the first
thing you do before talking to us was
take off your shoes okay hey Alex how's
the view up there the view is awesome
action on way psyched about the view and
the light right now is awesome and all
these other folks is amazing Alex
Honnold has just said another record but
for him there'd be no celebration just a
two-hour hike down the easy side of the
mountain
[Music]