Alone on the Wall - 04/08/21

 Hello Wild Spirits, 

Book 24: Alone on the Wall (8/10)

Premise: Alex Honnold's professional climbing career finishing with his free solo climb of El Capitan.

This book takes an in depth look at the career of the one of the world most famous climbers. It was written both by Alex and David Robert. Alex gives his first person perspective, while Robert fills in the gaps of what other climbers and people around him wrote or said. 

Free climbing is when a climber goes up a wall with no rope or gear besides a chalk bag. They are not allowed to use any manmade holds on the wall. This is where Alex exceled. The book covers many of Alex's climbs as a professional climber, and part of North Face's team. He set speed climbing records on several occasions, and is generally considered one of the best climbers in the world. 

This book spans several years but near the end falls into the grove of Alex agreeing to do the movie "Free Solo", and deciding he wants to free solo El Capitan and be the first climber to do so. Several injuries set back his progress but that doesn't stop Alex from training to accomplish this goal. 

It's hard to pick long passages of this book to write about put it's a very enjoyable experience to read and watch. The skill, dedication, and endurance it takes to do these climbs is praise worthy in itself. Some of the climbs take 20+ hours. But the amount of joy and hapiness these climbers get from doing what they love radiates through the pages and is a great read. 

So don't forget to double check you're secured to the wall 

and remember dear readers, Stay Vivid.