>>> I thought about it for
years, and every year, that's
really scary.
I'll never be content unless I'm
putting in the effort.
>> What if something happened?
What if I don't see him again?
>> Look at that.
>> That is crazy.
>> Okay, that is 33-year-old, Alex Honnold
the greatest free solo climber.
The film "Free solo" everybody
is freaking out.
Natalie saw it, the whole
office.
Everybody jumped on board.
That's why everybody is out
here.
>> I had to meet Alex.
New York Times said, and I
quote, Alex's free show low
climb should be celebrated as
one of the greatest athletic
feats of any kind ever.
>> I agree.
>> Welcome.
Let's start with just explaining
the basic for those who -- you
don't have to be a climber to
enjoy this movie, by the way.
The cinematography.
What is free climbing?
>> Climbing a wall with no rope,
just your hands and feet with no
equipment.
It's all mental, I guess.
>> If something happens, what
happens?
If something goes wrong?
>> Something goes wrong, you
fall off and fall to your death
>> Thank god that was not what
>> But looking at this, when you
talk about el cap, that seems
crazy.
Tommy who is featured in this
who climbs the wall says in the
movie, it's crazy to think you
could achieve this.
Why is it so crazy?
>> Well, it's just -- el cap is
a 3,000 foot wall.
It's daunting.
It's just the scale that has
never been attempted in this
way.
Obviously I don't think it's
crazy because I did it.
>> You're so humble about it.
>> It took many, many years for
me to feel like it might be
possible, for me to believe that
it was possible.
>> What is the mind-set --
that's training with Tommy, that
part with the rope.
>> The karate kid part?
>> Yeah.
>> What does it take, the
mind-set, to be able to
accomplish something like that?
>> I mean, for me it took many
years of preparation, a lot of
physical training, physical
practice, memorizing the moves
and the mental side of it, vish
twalizing the experience, the
emotional component of it, how
it would feel to be up there.
It took a lot for me to feel
like it was possible and then to
do it.
>> Were you scared doing this?
Any moment, whoa, nely.
>> When I actually successfully
did the climb I wasn't scared
and it all went smoothly.
I've been dreaming about it for
I think seven years at that
point, and I had been too scared
to do it before then.
There's a reason I didn't do it
seven years ago, because it
seemed way too scary, way too
hard.
One of the beautiful things
about climbing, the wall never
changes.
I was climbing yosemite the last
12 years, I spent three months
there.
You come it's the same wall,
same rock.
You keep working at the project.
>> Explain seven years.
You map this out like down to --
you've got every groove pretty
much mapped out.
>> Yeah.
>> Every step, your karate kicks
you have to make the
>> The importance is the
sequence of movements, left
hand, right hand.
>> In the movie there is a
scene --
>> Remembering in which order
how to move your hands and feet,
shift your weight, so your
holding in the right way.
>> And the day you made the
climb, was there something about
that morning?
I feel like the way it was shot,
the crew was waiting to see when
you felt mentally whatever it
was in the air that morning,
that early morning.
What was it?
>> So, it wasn't anything that
morning.
It was actually more it was the
end of this long journey and I
had done everything that I
needed to do.
And I knew if I didn't go now, I
would basically procrastinating,
I guess.
I had done the things I needed
and it was time.
And so I just went.
>> It is so intricate.
And one false move -- when they
do the pan away, when you
watched it on imax, did you get
the gravity of it then?
>> Honestly when I saw it on
imax the first time, last week,
it was so much more immersive
and seeing it -- I had to do a Q
& a.
When I did the question and
answer session, I needed five
minutes to come down.
That was so intense.
Seeing it on the big screen --
>> How little and how vast.
>> I'm telling you.
If you're queasy when it comes
to heights, there's no
experience like watching it in
the imax.
This movie, you have to see it.
I mean --
>> The bigger the screen the
better.
>> And you get that full
panorama of how beautiful that
is.