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Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

thesoloist-vr.com

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Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#51

Post by marttt »

pdevr wrote: post #45

A colleague recommended "Free Solo" to me a few years back. There was this part where the doctors claim (paraphrasing) his brain is unique in that he is much less afraid of danger than us. The part towards the end, where he does the actual climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, is also worth watching.

There is a 4+ minute Youtube clip that includes the central climbing scenes from "Free Solo" [0].

Amazing guy. The National Geographic documentary had Hollywood-esque layers that slightly annoyed me (ominous music etc), though. A documentary by Werner Herzog about Alex Honnold would be fascinating; something in the vein of his 1974 "The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner" [1,2]. I would have loved to see more of the philosophical, introspective side of Alex Honnold in the NG movie. In case of Herzog's ski jumper Walter Steiner, it was very much there.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnRoda7Ke2w

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Ecstasy_of_Woodcarve...

2: Full movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTdQ2fGlrq8

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#52

Post by Fricken »

jasonkester wrote: post #28
lordnacho wrote: post #10

Makes me feel weird just watching him. One wrong move and you die. So you need to have extremely high confidence in each move. But how do you build that without falling off something? Practice in a safe environment? Ok so when is it safe to try for real?

It's unfortunate that most people are first exposed to rock climbing by watching videos of free soloing. It really distorts your perception of the sport. It's no surprise, of course. Free soloing is pretty much the most riveting thing you could watch on a screen, whereas every other form of climbing is frankly quite boring to watch if you don't know the sport intimately. Mostly, it's people pushing their own personal…

When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I saw this[1] television segment on John Bachar. It blew my mind, and was imagination fuel for the rest of my childhood. At 45 I still love climbing. I don't think it was unfortunate at all that my first exposure to climbing was via a free soloist.

[1]https://youtu.be/sLivlvAkhs0

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#54

Post by [deleted] »

ejolto wrote: post #42
impish19 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'd like something that makes you _weirder_ I recommend this: https://www.netflix.com/title/81500204 This film opens with a testimonial from Alex Honnold for Marc-André Leclerc - whom the film is about.

What is the title of the film? Your netflix link 404's in my country.

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#55

Post by Aeolun »

jasonkester wrote: post #28
lordnacho wrote: post #10

Makes me feel weird just watching him. One wrong move and you die. So you need to have extremely high confidence in each move. But how do you build that without falling off something? Practice in a safe environment? Ok so when is it safe to try for real?

It's unfortunate that most people are first exposed to rock climbing by watching videos of free soloing. It really distorts your perception of the sport. It's no surprise, of course. Free soloing is pretty much the most riveting thing you could watch on a screen, whereas every other form of climbing is frankly quite boring to watch if you don't know the sport intimately. Mostly, it's people pushing their own personal…

> Free soloing is pretty much the most riveting thing you could watch on a screen

It’s not riveting to me at all. I can hardly watch. I can understand the allure of doing it, but watching it without the knowledge of knowing I can do it (like for existing routes I’ve already done) is hard, constantly feel like they’ll fall, even though you know the video wouldn’t be published if it were so :/

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#56

Post by [deleted] »

impish19 wrote: post #18
lordnacho wrote: post #10

Makes me feel weird just watching him. One wrong move and you die. So you need to have extremely high confidence in each move. But how do you build that without falling off something? Practice in a safe environment? Ok so when is it safe to try for real?

If you'd like something that makes you _weirder_ I recommend this: https://www.netflix.com/title/81500204 This film opens with a testimonial from Alex Honnold for Marc-André Leclerc - whom the film is about.

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#58

Post by [deleted] »

misotakacs wrote: post #37
robotresearcher wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you drive a car? Ride a bike in traffic? One false move and you are dead. You, like most people, are probably competent at these things that would be very risky but for your skill.

As a climber, I don't think it's comparable. The death rate among notorious soloists (as compared to rate among people who bike in traffic every day) agrees here. Each bad move on a solo is death. For driving, biking in traffic, it has to be a series of bad circumstances to mean death.

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#59

Post by mach1ne »

Vinnl wrote: post #39

> available exclusively on Meta Quest VR headsets I'm afraid this is going to be our future. There's web standards and VR browsers that allows us to enter any VR experience using your preferred device, but like Podcasts, there's a lot of effort to create silos that companies can act as a monopolist in.

To me, the VR headset market seems to be mirroring the early console market. Initially there are many options to choose from, but eventually they are reduced to two or three realistic competitors. Right now it seems to be Valve and Meta.

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#60

Post by kqr »

stickfigure wrote: post #29
lordnacho wrote: post #10

Makes me feel weird just watching him. One wrong move and you die. So you need to have extremely high confidence in each move. But how do you build that without falling off something? Practice in a safe environment? Ok so when is it safe to try for real?

Have you ever climbed up a really tall ladder, like a 3-story extension ladder? It's... kind of terrifying. You're a long ways up, you can see the ground, the ladder is flexing under your weight. But other than the fear, it's actually pretty easy; all you have to do is keep climbing and not do something stupid. To a phenomenally accomplished climber like Honnold, a 5.11 route is like climbing a ladder. That's hard to…

You might not even have to find a really tall ladder. I know I can walk and balance just fine on a 5 cm (2 in) wide piece of wood on otherwise flat ground. But put me on a 5 cm wide bar over cold water, and I start to doubt my abilities to walk.
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