Here’s How They Filmed Alex Honnold’s First-Ever Free Solo of El Capitan

When Alex Honnold pulled himself over the top of El Capitan in June of 2017, he completed something that will go down in history as one of mankind’s greatest physical feats. Summiting a 3,000-foot granite wall while relying only on your own body is something that deserves dissection. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin made a film called Free Solo that does just that. It’s a look at not only the amazing physical feat but also inside the mind of the man who did it. The filming, of course, was an incredible feat in itself. “We needed elite, professional climbers that were also incredible filmmakers and cinematographers,” says Chin. “Meaning there are only about three or four people in the world you can call.”