A deeply moving account of man versus nature.
This is a book which has many levels to it. Ostensibly it is an account of Alex Honnold’s free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite. On this level it is an account of the preparation over a number of years that went into this ascent and Alex’s need to learn all that he could about the rock face in order to be able to climb it unaided. Ironically Alex found that despite all this preparation whether he succeeded or not came down to how confident he felt on the day that the ascent was attempted.
At another level this book is the history of rock climbing and the creation or evolution of free soloing and the development of a national and international system for determining the difficulty of climbs and through this the means that climbers could compete with each other and with nature itself.
It is also a biography of both the author and Honnold and how their came to be friends over a period of time. It is also a history of the climbing in Yosemite and the various records created and held there.
At a more basic level it is about man’s attempts to overcome nature’s challenges.
All in all this is a very interesting book with the actual ascent of El Capitan contained in a single chapter.
At another level this book is the history of rock climbing and the creation or evolution of free soloing and the development of a national and international system for determining the difficulty of climbs and through this the means that climbers could compete with each other and with nature itself.
It is also a biography of both the author and Honnold and how their came to be friends over a period of time. It is also a history of the climbing in Yosemite and the various records created and held there.
At a more basic level it is about man’s attempts to overcome nature’s challenges.
All in all this is a very interesting book with the actual ascent of El Capitan contained in a single chapter.