Commit and figure it out

You’ll find a way.

Alex Honnold’s free solo climb of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park. Free solo means without a rope. Copyright National Geographic.

Down the rabbit hole

I’ve been on a little voyage of discovery recently. Would you like to come with me?

A few weeks ago, I watched Free Solo, which is an excellent — and nerve wracking — documentary about Alex Honnold’s incredible achievement of climbing El Capitan’s 3,000ft Freerider route in Yosemite without a rope.

However, this isn’t an article inspired by Honnold directly, despite there being a wealth of inspiration to absorb from how he dreamed, practiced and mastered this monumental climb. Instead, I was intrigued by the equally fascinating path of the filmmaker, Jimmy Chin.

As I researched the background of the film, I went further down the rabbit hole. This had us watching Meru, another of Chin’s movies, co-directed by his wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Going deeper still, I peeled through Chin’s adventure photography and read about his climbing.

So, with interest piqued, as a Christmas present, we bought a subscription to Masterclass, which hosts his…