“Free Solo” Movie - Climbing El Kapitan with no Rope

Yeah true. I wonder though, if you could bring a guy like Leclerc or Dean Potter or Ueli Steck back from the dead and ask them if they want to change anything, would they?

Risk is in the eye of the beholder. Of all my hobbies, skydiving is the one I get the most shit about. It's statistically one of the safest. It's just perspective. I've come way closer to dying while surfing, riding motorcycles, or backpack hunting in the middle of some national wilderness than I have jumping out of airplanes, but guess which thing bothers my mom the most?

 

I’m completely confused about the safety rigs like Potter used and Steph Davis being his ex I thought she was too, but after your explanation I need to look it up. I only know what I saw online then of course like Papa said in Freesolo.

If there are BASE jumping laws in Moab or not they still do it often. And first of all it’s bullshit, just like in Yosemite, Potter would probably be alive if he wasn’t doing it at night to avoid rangers.

That’s another thread though...

 

The initial near vertical drop in on some of those waves is ridiculous and looks like a total crapshoot.

Teahupoʻo is the wave that would freak me out the most.

 

For a bunch of reasons. That monster dumps on a reef that's about 3' deep. It's bananas.

They all freak me out. Cortes Bank is wild too because it's like 100 miles from San Diego in the middle of nowhere.

 

I don't find many things in life to be incomprehensible, but approaching those big waves is certainly one of them. I've been pummeled nearly to death by 8' waves. Cannot imagine the monsters. Those guys are made of something special.

 

Getting back to The Alpinist and Marc-Andre....

I was just reading in the Motogp offseason thread about riders wages and contracts.

YES they are still vastly underpaid IMO, especially the lower levels like Moto2, Moto3, WSS, Domestic Championships, etc... BUT...

Here's Marc Andre - at the top of his sport, 100% risking EVERYTHING, and the biggest step up he did in his career was to move from a stairwell of a building to sharing a tent in the woods with his girlfriend while hitchhiking everywhere.

They said he finally got ONE sponsor on board which presumably paid for things like his trip to Argentina/Alaska, etc... but when you compare that level of financial success to say that of a MLB Pitcher (I read recently that Sherzer or someone will be making over $70k/pitch next season with his mega-deal and request to "rest" more next year) or forgotten 7th-10th man on an active roster of an NBA team who I think still averages over 7-8 mill/year for basically riding the pine and I'm more than just a little upset about just how unfair that is.

Yeah yeah, TV contracts, "owners making zillions in major leagues so players deserve a larger cut", but when I just break it down to what a world class guy like Honnold or Marc-Andre could generate in income vs say the worlds 190th best soccer player or 282nd ranked NFL player - eff me thats just not fair.

 

That's the choice you make when you go out of your way to avoid any documentation of your accomplishments because you need to be alone. Sorry, you can't have it both ways.

 

Absolutely. I was floored when the Doc voice over guy said he would just up and vanish, give them no heads up and they'd hear via 3rd party sources or other's social media that he was out there killing it and didn't want it documented.

I guess I'm just lamenting the fact this guy and I'm sure many others seemingly suffer economic injustice in comparison to others in the sporting world.

I have a LOT of respect for Marc-Andre and his ethics and for not being a typical kid his age that's entirely wrapped up in social media and self-promotion.

He was the Anti Jake/Logan Paul which is a huge compliment in my eyes.

 

Watched the alpinist. Cried at the end. Dammit!!

 

Disparity in income only matters if money is of interest to you.

 

Projecting economic incentives onto a person like Marc-Andre is non-sensical. If he were to have cared about any of that, he wouldn't have been anything like the person he was (which I found to be inspirational).

 

I surfed when I lived in Hawaii. Mostly Ewa, Shark Country, Waianae and Makaha. Almost drowned my first time at Waimea Bay. Big waves are a whole different thing lol

 

When these guys die I can shrug it off. They know the risks, they've had close calls, they know there's plenty of shit that can go wrong at any time. It's what they choose to do and how they want to live. Sometimes they get a bad roll and that's all she wrote.

 

Have you surfed blacks beach yet when it’s double overhead and the winter swells are in?

local scary….

 

Watched it last night.

Pretty sad to lose somebody like him, and his girlfriend at the end was clearly a broken person. Her line mid movie about "an avalanche could happen at any time" was pretty chilling.

Something I haven't seen anyone else mention was how supportive/awesome his mom is - she was instrumental in his upbringing and seems like the definition of a great parent.

I'm guessing here, but I don't think he would've classified what he was doing as a "sport". That was actually a topic of the movie - Alex Honnold mentioned how he came into climbing from the gym/sports side of it, whereas Marc came into climbing from being outside and in nature and that naturally evolving to climbing. Pretty stark difference between the two.

 

I haven’t looked at the financial side but I’m sure it’s the same as all action sports... some athletes get endorsements so the gear companies can sell things to the hobbies and weekend warriors.

Imagine what a Patagonia and or Himalayan and or Denali or any of the 7 peaks cost to traverse? All the travel and transport and support crews for the climb and the production.

I still haven’t watch the Alpinist the cold freaks me out from spending much of my childhood in frigid conditions before I knew you could drive south...

I see all sides of it... if he wanted to climb to connect with nature there is a bond to the earth and when spend time alone in the wilderness even if it’s just being there...

but if they need to fund the trips by letting someone sell and tell the story that’s a trade off... luckily some want both and thrive...

we mentioned Jimmy Chin, I went many years without having an understanding and appreciation for the story tellers. It is an art. Any of you that remember my story about working with Mouse McCoy May remember that it taught me that it’s not just cameras and fake images, there is actually a real value and talent in the story tellers. This made me revisit my kins oral history and to make sure to pass it down.

 

I know a couple top world ranked elite runners. They get paid from sponsors, but they're not really killing it with the bank. Maybe enough to have free time to run, but not much else. These guys do the 150-300 mile races.

 

I think many may have an aura of destiny type of approach too. Feeling like a guided life they lead and if it happens it was time. Also most I’d bet would want everyone to shrug it off like you said. Sure remember them for who they were and keep on keeping on. We discussed this very thing on whether or not to finish race weekends when someone ends. Nobody I know wants anyone sitting around crying for them, laugh and smile at the great memories and go make more with those still here.

 

This movie and Free Solo were both tough to watch for me when they showed the action shots. It just feels like you're watching someone committing suicide in slow motion.

I hope that's not taken as a slight to these people or to intimate that they're suicidal, but the inevitability of their end just makes me feel sad watching. As one of the old time climbers said, more than half of world class alpinists died. Those are shitty odds.

 

My theory is most of us don’t want to roll off. I feel like as soon as I do I’ll age 10 years in 6 months. It does make for increasingly ridiculous goals though. I said out loud that Dakar Malle Moto in 2025 was my goal. That’s absurd but what am I going to do? Not do it? (Probably)

Some people just actually have the opportunity to go for the extremes of achievement and risk. What are they going to do? Not do it?