[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
ETHAN PRINGLE: Come on!
Come on!
[GROANS]
FELIPE CAMARGO: Sport climbing is an obsession.
Demands so much effort.
Why do we do this?
Why do we invest, like, months, sometimes years?
[GRUNTS]
No!
I grew up in São José do Rio Preto.
It's this small city like, four, five hours away from São Paulo.
I went to this recreational center one day with my brother.
I was 10.
Saw this little climbing wall, tried it,
never really stopped ever since.
I was fascinated.
I was like fuck, this is cool, you know?
[TRANQUIL MUSIC PLAYING]
There was no other 10-year-old kids climbing.
I didn't know if I was good.
I just really liked it and kept doing it.
Climbing wasn't popular.
I think we only had like four rock climbing gyms in the whole country.
So, it was really hard for me to compete.
Then we heard about this youth championship in Guatemala.
I really wanted to go.
But my family didn't really have that much money
to just send me there.
But we were talking about it in the gym and this guy heard us,
and was like, "Maybe I can try to help out somehow.
I got something for you guys but it's not really money.
[LAUGHS]
So, they just gave us a ton of soda.
In the end, we made enough to pay for my ticket.
I was 14, I didn't speak English or Spanish.
I went by myself. Just went for it.
What happened there changed everything.
People started talking about me in South America.
[CROWD CHEERING AND WHISTLING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
ETHAN: The reason Felipe's story
is impressive to me
is that he made a really elite level of performance rock climbing happen
with way fewer resources than most people.
For us in America and for people in Europe, you know,
we had state of the art climbing gyms almost 20 years ago.
And in Brazil, they just had little, like, plywood home walls basically.
FELIPE: I wanna show that it's possible to climb hard
from anywhere in the world, you know.
Of course it's easier if you have amazing training facility,
but there's no reason that Brazilians can't be climbing 9b
or South Americans can't be climbing 9b.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
ETHAN: The way I would describe a 9b to a non-climber is like,
if you can think of the smallest hand-holds you can possibly think of
and you put like 50 of them up a wall
at a 20 to 30 degree angle with very few rests.
It's [BLEEP] hard. It's really hard. [LAUGHS]
FELIPE: I think there's around 15 people in the world
that have climbed 9b, so it's huge.
I want to be in that select group of people
and be the first South American to do it.
I've been training here in São Paolo
specifically to go to Spain to try to do El Bon Combat.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
ETHAN: It's safe to say
that El Bon Combat is one of the hardest routes in the world.
There isn't a single easy move on the route.
It's got some crazy, unique holds that you don't see anywhere else.
I dream about the route, I dream about the moves.
It's definitely an obsession.
I try to simulate the boulders and the hardest moves on the route.
I was lucky to find these perfect two little pebbles
that are really similar to the pebbles on the route.
[DRILLING]
I also found these two finger pockets, just like on the rock.
I found a hold that worked perfect for that.
I had to get over two and squeeze the third finger in.
ETHAN: Everyone who works on something
that's near their perceived limit
has to break it up into manageable sections.
You start with the smallest details, like how to grab the holds,
where to put your feet, how to position your body for the big moves
and then you just expand on that,
trying to bite off bigger and bigger pieces.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
FELIPE: Why do we do this?
Why do we invest, like, months, sometimes years?
Obsessed about getting to the top of that climb without falling.
For sure gonna get frustrated.
That uncertainty, you know, will I be able to do it or not?
If you're a professional climber, Spain is just the place to be.
It's like Hawaii is for surfers, Spain is for climbers, you know.
For sport climbers.
I first heard of El Bon Combat a few years ago.
This route, graded 9b, from Chris Sharma.
ETHAN: The fact that it's only seen one ascent
since its first ascent in 2015
probably means that it's like, pretty hard.
When Chris proposed that grade,
that would've made it the third hardest route in the world.
Come on, get it, dude!
So far, we go up the route three times per day.
That's kind of like a lot of tries.
[FELIPE GROANS]
FELIPE: Right when I got here,
I felt like the simulators that I set at the gym helped a lot.
Before the two top cruxes,
like, I felt really good on those moves since day one.
So I feel like it's just a little bit of muscle memory
from what I was doing in the gym already.
ETHAN: Come on, Felipe. Come on!
FELIPE: No!
ETHAN: Hey, dude! That was epic!
-Good job! FELIPE: Thanks.
Yeah, I got the pocket pretty well, adjusted, jumped.
And then, I got this right hand kind of badly...
ETHAN: Yeah. -...so I like,
-got up, harder than normally... ETHAN: Yeah.
...then I got the potato and I was like, oh.
Then I wanted to shake left hand and I got palmed on the right.
I was like, aw, I think I blew it.
ETHAN: So close, dude. FELIPE: Stoked.
I was thinking,
and I was kind of starting to feel a little bit of pressure.
I do have some bad thoughts,
like, shit, now this rain's gonna come. What if...
ETHAN: So you definitely start imagining
what if I don't do it this season for some reason,
like, what if I hurt myself.
Skin is not as good as we'd hoped, as I would like it to be, but...
Yeah. It's alright. It's been worse.
[TRANQUIL MUSIC PLAYING]
I think that top's too gonna give me a little bit of trouble.
-Yeah. -Those ones are hard for me.
I could see you falling on the last move for sure, though.
Look at this secret.
Keep yourself stoked.
ETHAN: You got this, dude.
FELIPE: Another try.
[FELIPE SIGHS]
First try of the day, it felt really good.
Made it through that middle crux and then got to the rest,
was feeling like super fresh, I was pumped.
And then, yeah, got the two finger pocket really nicely.
ETHAN: Come on, you got it. Come on, get it, dude.
Yes, so good!
And as I was gonna jump to the sloper,
I just popped the left foot.
[SCREAMS]
I broke the hold.
No!
ETHAN: Oh, my God. FELIPE: Broke the foot.
ETHAN: Are you serious? FELIPE: Yeah.
ETHAN: Holy shit.
First it was a bummer, because I was feeling great.
I was sure that I was gonna ascend.
And then the move got a little harder, too.
I was like, oh, no.
You know, I don't know if I can do it again.
I broke the hold and now the rain's gonna come in.
[RAIN PATTERING]
Really surprised with the weather.
A bit too cold for the Brazilian.
Today was already really windy and cloudy and...
But it could just rain for a few days.
Yeah.
-So this is the extended forecast. -Yeah.
ETHAN: Where are we now? FELIPE: This is tomorrow.
ETHAN: Okay. FELIPE: 12 millimeters.
ETHAN: 12 millimeters. FELIPE: 15 millimeters.
Ten millimeters.
If it rains a lot in the morning and into the night,
it's not gonna dry, you know.
When the rain's coming, you feel the humidity and everything.
I just hope it's not like that
because the conditions really change everything on this route.
It's like nonstop rain.
It looks crazy.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
[SIGHS]
I mean, should I be honest and say,
like, should I talk about what happened with those guys?
DAVID LAMA: Alright, Felipe, I'm on belay!
[GLOOMY MUSIC PLAYING]
After hearing the news about David and those guys,
it totally changed my mentality.
I'm pretty bummed about them, and I'm thinking about them so much
that I forgot about the route a little bit.
I wasn't really, you know, worrying about it.
It makes you put things in perspective, for sure.
[GLOOMY MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
[FELIPE BREATHES HEAVILY]
ETHAN: Come on.
Come on, you got this. Come on. Everything you got! Come on!
Yes! That's it.
Yeah.
Yeah. Nice, man.
Nice, Felipe. Nice, Felipe. Come on, dude.
Come on. You got it.
Yeah, dude, yeah.
Nice, Felipe.
Come on.
Yeah, dude.
Yeah, dude. Cruisin.
So good. So good.
Yeah. Nice, dude. Everything you got! Come on!
Breathe. Yeah.
Yeah, dude. Come on. Try hard.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
Come on, Felipe.
Come on, dude.
Come on. Come on. Come on, get it. Come on!
Yes, dude. Come on.
Nice.
[SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Come on, dude.
Come on, Filipe. Come on.
Come on. Get it, dude. Come on.
Nice. You got this.
Come on. Come on.
Yes, dude!
Now, relax.
Come on, Felipe.
You got this, dude. Come on. Try hard.
Come on. Yes, come on, Felipe!
Everything you got! Come on!
Come on, it's yours! Come on!
Yeah, dude!
[SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
Yeah!
[ETHAN CHEERS]
[ETHAN CONTINUES CHEERING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
FELIPE: Why do we do this? I guess it's this unknown challenge.
When you first try it,
you don't know if you're gonna be capable to do it or not, you know?
It's something that's gonna be so hard for you
and you just have to be dedicated, train hard and try your best.
I really just wanted to push the limit for myself
and for Brazil and for South America¸ you know,
just to show that it's possible for us too, you know.
It's possible that we can do it.
Ah!
[ETHAN CHEERING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]