What do you think about Alex Honnold in the docu film Free Solo?

No. I have fainting spells and it is not safe to climb anything.

It doesn’t inspire me – no. I think it’s kind of crazy but I get that that’s his passion. I couldn’t watch the film although I heard it’s great because I have a fear of heights but yay for him. I read that the filmmaker had some ethical dilemmas about filming it in case Honnold fell and died.

Personally, I am more inspired by people who risk their lives to help others than by daredevils although I think they have a right to do it.

Everyone has the right to kill one person in their lives – the person him or herself.

If this guy wants to risk life his to climb up a rock, mazel tov for him. His choice to try, his choice to die.

He was horribly miscast, and it was probably the worst Star Wars movie I have never seen.

@ragingloli – reread the question. Then rethink your answer.

@elbanditoroso I think he’s jesting.

My niece (who is an avid rock climber) was just telling me about this on Sunday. She went to Yosemite this past week and ran into Alex Honnold and Lynn Hill. I had no idea who either of those people were. But she was apparently star struck.

When she explained to me what these people were famous for, my knee jerk reaction was “Holy shit! Why would anyone do that?!”

I had been experiencing mild angina just thinking about my niece climbing El Capitan—and that’s with proper climbing gear.

When it’s a stranger, I have enough distance to admire them. When it’s someone I care about, worry trumps admiration.

Though beneath the worry, I’m happy that my niece has found something that has brought her so much joy and peace.

Honnold is an interesting case study in how minds work. He is able to completely dissasociate from any fear, which is alien to me, I would get queasy completley anchored but looking down from the side of El Cap.

And he is obsessively meticulous in his planning, to the point it seems a form of OCD.

@zenvelo I got queasy just watching the trailer for the film.

While watching last night, the bottom of my feet several times just kept producing that weird vibrating sensation I feel when looking down from atop a house roof and the Empire State Bldg. tourist deck.

Is there a name for that sensation? Vertingling? Lol

@zenvelo The filmmakers did ask him to get his brain MRI’d. The result was very interesting.

^^ Sounds German or Yiddish!

^^ Wow. Wonder if the word Jedi came from German and Yiddish.

@raum To feel better just watch the docu. And then with your niece doing it with ropes and harnesses, there should be no worries. None imo.

Just never let her go free solo ever. : )

I haven’t seen the film, but for the second part of the question:

“Could you see yourself risking your life in doing something you are most passionate about where a making single mistake kills you?”
– I can, but climbing mountains isn’t that for me. I could see risking my life to protect endangered species from wildlife poachers, for example.

Frankly, I never understood the compulsion to stare death in the face, particularly when accomplishment of the task yields compensation insufficient to eliminate the tug of future such adventures.

@zenvelo I would wager that there is a high percentage of people on the spectrum among avid rock climbers.

For a lot of people on the spectrum, climbing is almost a compulsion. A combination of proprioceptive input and hyper focus on complex problem solving.

There’s also this other aspect of being autistic called special interests. Where they pretty much live and breathe it.

There are countless videos of little autistic toddlers climbing onto the roof of their house. My friend’s kid has this compulsion to climb. It’s almost like breathing air for him. Even after getting a cast (from climbing), the little guy was trying to climb with his cast on. I’d imagine Honnold was probably like that as a kid.

There’s also a tendency to disassociate from fear. Autistic people may have a hard time with a lot of everyday things that are easy for NT people. But there are a lot of instances where they are perfectly calm and collected in an emergency. It’s almost like adrenaline calms them down and helps them focus.

@mazingerz88
I like vertingling!
Or vertinglen. Ich vertingle.

I worry that she will attempt riskier climbs as her skill set continues to improve.

Mostly I worry because she will always be my baby niece even if she’s technically an adult.

If a clueless psycho-evil alien places a planet-killing-bomb with a timer atop El Capitan then tells us earthlings the only way to stop it is for just one human being to reach the top with no equipment….the fool has no idea we actually have a real chance of doing it.

Except the whole rock will be covered with spring-loaded sawblades.
Anyone climbing up there will be this armless, legless thing, will he not? Tumbling down the rock, like a turd in the wind.

I would call in the demons in Evil Dead 2…