Alex Honnold and David Roberts wrote this book "Alone on the wall" to recount the most astonishing achievements of Honnold's extraordinary life and career, brimming with lessons on living fearlessly, taking risks, and maintaining focus even in the face of extreme danger.
On June 3, 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person to free solo Yosemite's El Capitan. The followings are reading notes of this book.
- Free soloing a big wall is all about preparation.
- He's pushed the most extreme and dangerous form of climbing far beyond the limits of what anyone thought was possible.
- Free soloing means climbing without a rope, a partner, or any hardness (pitons, nuts, cams, bolts) to attach oneself to the wall.
- If you fall, you die.
- George Leigh Mallory response in 1923 to climb Everest "Because it is there".
- Free climbing means that the leader was his protection only to safeguard a fall.
- Rock routes climbed free are rated on a scale of difficulty, called the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) that ranges from 5.1 to 5.15.
- The hardest climbs in the world are rated 5.15c.
- Visualizing everything that could happen.
- What's the point in having an amazing vehicle if you are afraid to drive it?
- The universe shrinks down to me and the rock you don't take a single hold for granted.
- Climbing down is almost always harder than climbing up.
- supertopo.com - the world's best rock climbing guide info
- Doubt is the biggest danger in soloing. As soon as you hesitate, you're screwed.
- Yosemite triple crown: three of the park's biggest walls: Mt Watkins, El Capitan, Half Dome.
- We will all continue climbing in the ways that we find most inspiring, whether or not we're sponsored, the mountains are calling, and we must go.
- I could suddenly travel full-time without feeling like I had to come back for something.
- I considered a potential free solo of El Cap to be the holy grail of climbing.
- Being uncomfortable was a lot better than being incapable.
- The season was over, but I was more motivated than ever.
- I knew it was possible. I knew that I could do it.
- That moment made me hope that I will have even a fraction of his enthusiasm for climbing when I'm in his age, or just his passion for life.
- It was a good reminder to stay humble and keep asking for help. Each of my friends had something to teach me or remind me on the route.
- Real soloing rquires me to climb exactly as I normally would with a rope, it's climbing that has only one solution.
- I was fully prepared and knew exactly what to do. It was the time for execution.
- I was overwhelmed with happiness and gratefulness.
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