Digital Photo Pro: From a non-
climber’s perspective, it looks
like “Free Solo” documented
the greatest athletic feat
ever accomplished.
Jimmy Chin: There’s an argument
to be made for it. I think the greatest
athletic achievements and the great-
est athletes are remembered by how
well they performed under pressure—
when the stakes are the highest—and
what level of execution was required
in order to succeed.
I think the stakes were very clear
with Alex’s attempt on El Capitan—it
was life and death. So, it’s not like losing
the Super Bowl by dropping the ball in
the end zone or missing a last-second
shot in the NBA championships.
The thing that makes it unique
is that the technical difficulty of the
actual endeavor was extraordinarily
high. It’s already world-class climbing
with a rope. You could equate it with
a world-class endeavor like the Super
Bowl or the NBA championships or
the World Cup, except that at any given
moment you could die with a single
mistake. That’s one thing.
But knowing that you have to execute
perfectly throughout and not make that
mistake...the stakes were something
you could not ignore. They were all
around you.
So, the mental strength
required is almost unfathom-
able, as well. Have you ever wit-
nessed anything like this? You’re
no stranger to extreme dangers.
I’ve been working with some of the
greatest athletes in the outdoor world,
whether that’s snowboarding or ski-
ing or mountaineering or climbing for
20 years. But I’ve never seen anything
close to this.
How did you go about captur-
ing what Alex was doing on El
Capitan? It seemed like a balanc-
ing act, so to speak, between
getting into the best positions
but not interfering with him.
Alex has been dreaming about this for
many years, and I’ve known him for
over 12 years. He’s been systematically
preparing, soloing bigger and bigger
routes, and I’ve worked with him docu-
menting these routes.
We’ve also climbed all over the world
together, and I’ve seen the decisions
he’s made throughout his career on
climbs and in life. We know each othervery well. The trust that has built up
between us over time was really critical.
Over the course of production, he
was practicing for two years how he
was going to do the climb, and we were
essentially practicing how we were
going to shoot it.
I was also shooting stills for a National
Geographic assignment on top of that.52 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com