VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Alex Honnold, Jimmy Chin & Vasarhelyi On ‘Free Solo,’ Confronting Fear

Husband and wife filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin came together for the documentary Free Solo, an amazing portrait of free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his dream of climbing the 3,200-foot El Capitan peak in Yosemite National Park – without ropes to catch him if he falls.

Honnold’s climb of El Capitan without a rope is celebrated as one of the greatest sports feats of all time.

During an exclusive interview about the film, Honnold revealed that he had prepared for the climb to the point where he felt completely comfortable. “I’m still afraid of falling and dying,” Honnold told uInterview. “But I prepared on the wall to the point where I knew that I wouldn’t fall off so it just really wasn’t that scary because I felt a hundred percent confident that I could climb without falling off.”

Honnold also opened up about how he got into free soloing. “I’ve climbed my whole life in some form, trees and buildings and little things like that when I was a kid,” he said. “Then I started climbing at the climbing gym then eventually transitioned to the outdoors. I dropped out of the university at 19, so I’ve been climbing outdoors full-time since then and free soloing has always represented an important part of climbing to me so its sort of something I do on the side. I mean I mostly climb with partners and ropes and my friends, but then free soloing has always sort of been this extra sort of peak experience something that I do on the side that’s a very significant part of climbing to me.”

What’s Honnold’s next adventure?

“We’ll see,” he said.

Free Solo is now playing in select theaters.