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Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

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Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#71

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

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 was this part where the doctors claim (paraphrasing) his brain is unique in that he is much less afraid of danger than us.

I'm very skeptical of that claim. It seems just as reasonable that he has a perfectly normal brain that is exactly as afraid of things as the rest of ours, but he's spent a lot of time doing terrifying things and has learned to suppress how his body reacts to it.

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#72

Post by zydex »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #71
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 was this part where the doctors claim (paraphrasing) his brain is unique in that he is much less afraid of danger than us. I'm very skeptical of that claim. It seems just as reasonable that he has a perfectly normal brain that is exactly as afraid of things as the rest of ours, but he's spent a lot of time doing terrifying things and has learned to suppress how his body reacts to it.

Did you watch the documentary?

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#73

Post by codecurve »

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.

Also a climber, and occasional soloist. You can absolutely make a bad move on a solo and not die.

The soloists who achieve notoriety are either pushing the limits, or seeking adrenaline, which skews the stats, especially when you check the number of them that passed doing non-climbing activities. It's not particularly fair to compare that demographic to the average folks who bike in traffic every day.

Soloing well within your limits is like riding a bike on a quiet road, there are things that can go wrong, but something extraordinary has to happen for it to be serious.

Soloing close to (or outside of) your limits is like riding a bike on a busy motorway. The margins for error disappear and mistakes are far more likely to be fatal.

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#74

Post by Fricken »

aeonik wrote: post #16
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?

He climbs all these routes with a rope dozens to hundreds of times before free soloing them. The routes that he free soloes are also considered relatively easy to intermediate in skill level, well within his skill level. The really incredible part of his free soloes is just how long his body can last. It's Olympic levels of endurance.

One of Alex's most impressive feats was doing the triple crown in a day, in which he soloed El Cap, Half-dome, and Washington spire (the 3 tallest faces in Yosemite) in a single 18 hour push.

Physically the feat is comparable to running an ultra marathon, but to maintain the necessary mental focus for the entire push is beyond my comprehension.

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#75

Post by 4lun »

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.

404 here too (UK), but from the details I believe it's "The Alpinist"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11790780/

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#76

Post by saiya-jin »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #71
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 was this part where the doctors claim (paraphrasing) his brain is unique in that he is much less afraid of danger than us. I'm very skeptical of that claim. It seems just as reasonable that he has a perfectly normal brain that is exactly as afraid of things as the rest of ours, but he's spent a lot of time doing terrifying things and has learned to suppress how his body reacts to it.

Nope. Tons of climbers climb as hard, and scary things as he does, in fact much harder he wouldn't be able to climb, probably ever.

He doesn't behave the same, where normal climbers would freak out and do a fatal mistake he repeatedly remains calm as on sunday tea party. You can train some resistance to fear of death and indeed all climbers do (myself included), but almost everybody hits some wall within their current skills. His wall is way further than almost any other climber. Not that he is the only soloist, far from it.

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#78

Post by yesenadam »

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?

Alex apparently doesn't feel fear/anxiety in the way people with normal brains do, e.g.

"In 2016, he was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging scans that revealed that, unlike other high sensation seekers, his amygdala barely activates when watching disturbing images. He however confesses feeling fear occasionally. Through imagination and practice, he has desensitized himself to most fearful situations."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold

https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#79

Post by gmadsen »

marttt wrote: post #51
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…

Meru is a lot better and interesting documentary in my opinion. Not Hannold, but same circle of people and ice climbing

Re: Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

#80

Post by ryeights »

zydex wrote: post #72
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There was this part where the doctors claim (paraphrasing) his brain is unique in that he is much less afraid of danger than us. I'm very skeptical of that claim. It seems just as reasonable that he has a perfectly normal brain that is exactly as afraid of things as the rest of ours, but he's spent a lot of time doing terrifying things and has learned to suppress how his body reacts to it.

Did you watch the documentary?

If you listen to interviews with Honnold, he’s very clear about the fact that he still feels fear. If you watch the clip of his first free solo of Half Dome, you can even see him have a little freakout moment standing on one of the ledges during the climb.

The only abnormal thing about his brain scan was that his amygdala activated less than usual when he looked at frightening or disturbing images, which would be entirely compatible with deliberate desensitization (perhaps through ~20 years of practicing climbing with no protection?)

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