the three of us are all very happy to be
here we wanted to thank National
Geographic for having us it’s always an
honor to speak here but I first read
about Marc probably close to twenty
years ago Marc’s been exploring the
world for a long time and I consider him
probably one of the most prolific
exploratory rock climbers out there he’s
basically scoured the earth in search of
rock climbing and some of the most
difficult situations I’ve been in have
actually been on trips with Marc
obviously Alex and I have done a bit of
work together it’s kind of a symbiotic
relationship between athletes and
photographers and this is the cover
story that we shot together and you know
a lot of people think he’s just
straight-up crazy and I spend a lot of
time defending him and saying he’s not
crazy he’s actually just a very very
talented climber and there’s a reason
why all have Alex’s friends call him no
big deal Honnold because there’s
absolutely nothing that he does that he
thinks is a big deal so everything that
he says multiplied by a factor of
approximately 5 3 to 5 and then Mark who
I know is going to tell some stories
about me
he’s year after / I was gonna pick /
reason ok so that’s how I’m gonna set
the stage here you go mark
thank you thank you Jimmy well Jimmy is
a very modest guy and um you know you
notice that he didn’t really say a whole
lot about himself there but you know he
is also a world-class athlete in his own
right but really makes Jimmy so special
is the fact that he has the camera with
him when he’s doing this stuff
and he’s he’s usually the first call
that I make when I come up with with one
of these ideas and when Alex had I guess
what they’re called the greatest rookie
season ever in Yosemite National Park by
free soloing all these big walls a lot
of things started happening for Alex one
of which was that he got invited to join
the North Face climbing team and Jimmy
and I were already on that team and I
had this trip to Lowe’s gully and in
Borneo and Alex had just joined the team
and so my boss at the North Face she
said hey I got an idea what do you think
about inviting Alex Honnold on your trip
and my initial reaction was like wow wow
that sounds like a really bad idea like
I like to climb with a rope and this guy
seems really crazy like we’re not really
on the same page
you know but we are pro climbers and and
I remember my boss saying something like
look you know I’d really appreciate it
if you invited Alex and I and I like
thought about it and I was like okay I
gotcha I’m like he’s in and so we we
brought Alex along and it was his first
expedition my goal here is sort of just
a free climb as much as I can so that
means that I come just behind everybody
as long as I’m actually climbing that’s
more important to me than than pushing
our high point when Alex Honnold was
somebody that I didn’t know it’s really
interesting dynamic mentorship teach
them you know how we go about doing
these types of pioneering first ascents
but I’m learning a lot of stuff from him
too because he’s such an amazingly
talented climber over the years is like
the longer that I’ve climbed kind of the
more cautious I become every year I kind
of reel it in a little more and a little
more a little more
now I’m going out with this guy who’s
kind of like the opposite of that
he’s like letting the line out letting
it out or more a little more it’s it’s
it’s been good and that it’s it’s
helping me to realize you’re like I
can’t reel it in too much crazy location
where your thousand feet off the ground
in the middle of nowhere like you kind
of have to go for it in this sport
there’s a little scary around leaders
from the sick about preserving your
safety and all that I try so hard but at
the same time kind of preserving like
that fit that spirit of adventure and
going for it which is right at the
essence one over yeah dude
you didn’t even get pumped I don’t know
I’m numb doubt though listen how it’s
almost become a tradition every year
mark comes up with some crazy trip and
the next year we went to Chad which are
these photos just the middle of the
desert the middle of nowhere
climbing remote towers you know super
exotic like cultural experience to get
there crazy climbing really kind of
exciting well this was a kind of a
unique destination and this place is
called the Nettie plateau it’s on the
edge of the Sahara Desert I found out
about it just from like a rumor that I
heard when I was in Cameroon and then I
did a search on Google Earth which is
how I found the Annette e and the
Annette E is basically like the
Canyonlands desert in Utah
except that had never been visited by
climbers before and so we that’s what we
did when we were there as we went and we
we sought out the best towers like this
one that you’re looking at right here
which is called the wine bottle so we’re
we’re traveling out here we’re in the
nettie we’re in the middle of nowhere
and we’re scoping out this one tower
we’re looking at it we’re trying to
figure out which way we’re going to go
up and all of a sudden these guys just
sort of materialized out of the rocks
none of us were really expecting to see
anybody at this point and they were
there to rob us I don’t think there’s
any doubt about that that got one of the
packs right off that had you know ten
thousand dollars worth of camera gear in
it and it was Renault’s Turks pack and
run on like God in a tug of war with the
Bandit which I think most of us thought
was kind of insane because this guy had
a dagger with this other hand Renan was
filming the robbery and which is where
this photo comes from if if you’ve ever
been attacked by bandits you’ll know
they don’t like being filmed while
they’re robbing you
so this would be one of those times
where you get kind of like the instinct
for fight or flight and so for me you
know I was thinking all right I’m gonna
run away from here very fast and I was
right about to take off when I look over
and I see Jimmy pick up a small boulder
and hold it up over his head as if he
was cro-magnon man and I thought to
myself to her to Jimmy you know first of
all I don’t think of rocks gonna do a
whole lot right now and now I don’t feel
that good about running away because
Jimmy has decided he’s gonna fight and
I’m very loyal to my friends so I said
to myself okay here’s how it’s gonna
work mark I’m gonna look down at my foot
if I see anything down there that could
that could serve as a weapon I’m back in
Jimmy up if there’s nothing there I’m
gonna run and I look down and darn it
leaning against my foot is like this
gnarled Club we ang was like the biggest
piece of wood in the entire nettie
desert didn’t he picked it up it but you
can see a lot of wood the thing is that
these these bandits that he’s talking
about really were like fourteen-year-old
boys and they were like half our size
like you really mark is like an ogre
compared to them he’s holding a club
that’s like as big as their entire body
anyway there were five of us and we were
twice as big as them and then it’s like
three punk kids with like this little
tiny not really like it’s not okay can I
get a story
over there to be fair though they
probably looked like half our size and
punk kids from a hundred yards away
where you were standing all I saw was
mark yeah anyway well it’s true when we
had the final faceoff with the guys I
didn’t see Alex there it was me and
Jimmy and I had the club and and Jimmy
had the rock so they put the stuff down
and they basically disappeared back into
the rocks one guy actually had Jimmy
sunglasses and he could have kept those
but he gave them back and that was a
great adventure for us and you know we
we the three of us you know and these
other people we team up with we we make
a good team and and so I think I’m the
one who’s you know sort of supposed to
find where we’re gonna go next and I do
a lot of my research in places like
National Geographic magazine that was
how I found out about the moose and Dawn
Peninsula there was just a little
mention of it like a one-sentence thing
that said moose and Dom Peninsula and
that was really all I need and then I
went from there and I started searching
and looking on Google Earth this is the
map that’s actually in the article and
this is what inspired me was when I saw
the topography here and they call this
the Norway of the Persian Gulf
there’s fjords with giant cliffs coming
out of the ocean the unique thing about
this place is the only way that you can
really explore it effectively is by boat
and so I came up with the idea that we
would charter a boat and that we would
use the boat as our way to access all
these different fjords and to explore
and have a you know camp that we could
come back to the Jimmy’s going to talk a
little bit about what happened next well
nothing terrible but of course you know
being on a trip with Mark I expected to
both
or something else like that but I’m
everywhere you looked with these
beautiful fjords and beautiful limestone
walls and these beautiful villages kind
of tucked into the ends of these fjords
and you know we would be hiking up these
incredible incredible mountains right
above the ocean and it was really really
spectacular you know you’d be going
along and on the boat and you’d
literally be able to point towards
something you’d be like wow that looks
like an amazing climb or that looks like
an amazing mountain and we would sail up
and anchor and then be able to go climb
these things of course you know and
Aleks and the other climber on the team
was hazel and they wanted to go do a
route and then run on and Mark went to
do a route and Mikey Schafer who is my
assistant on the project and an
incredible climber and great friend as
well we were going to do a route so you
know we were on this wall and about a
thousand feet up the wall Mikey pulls
off this rock and it’s hurtling at me
and basically about 50 feet above my
head it explodes and hits the wall you
know Mike he’s like hey you okay and I’m
like yeah I’m fine and he continues
climbing he climbs around the corner and
I don’t see him and I wait for about
half an hour and the Rope just hasn’t
moved and I thought well I guess he’s
probably stopped and just setting
something up and but about half an hour
later I hear him yell hey Jimmy I’m off
belay which means that he’s climbed up
to a point
built an anchor anchored himself into
the wall and now I can take him off
belay and so I yell okay you’re off
belay and I take my rope out of the
belay device and I wait for about five
minutes and I hear this blood-curdling
scream basically like haha and I was
like what’s going on and Mikey had
gotten up to the anchor and was pulling
the rope up and pulled the rope up all
the way to the end and at the end of a
rope that having completely cut in
like not even attached to anything and
that’s me on the other end and he’s like
he’s like pull on your rope and I’m like
what and I pull on the rope and the
whole thing slithers down into my by my
feet so we’re like a thousand feet up
his face and there’s like another couple
thousand feet to go and that’s the
expression you get when you’re stuck
well fortunately mark and run on being
the good friends that they are came and
saved us but those are kind of like the
occupational hazards you sometimes have
on these shoots so yes I saved Jimmy J
yeah and that I will just say that’s
when a few stories around like that is
super super serious because like Mikey
you know thought he was on belay the
whole time had he waited the rope or
head he like fallen or anything he would
have just fallen to his death like a
thousand feet without ever even knowing
that his rope had been cut like it’s
pretty crazy to get a rope cut without
either person knowing it’s like it’s
pretty much a worst-case scenario in
climbing I mean we all were like whoa
that’s a pretty serious but so the real
beauty of this type of trip is the deep
water soloing which is a soul lying
above the ocean and that’s kind of what
we were searching for is we like probed
all these fjords we would like search
along and look for cool cliffs that were
right over the ocean that were steep
enough and with deep enough water
beneath that you could safely climb out
the cliff and then fall into the water
this is Hayes what was actually one of
the best all-around female climbers in
the world the thing with deep water
soloing though I mean I say that it’s
super casual super fun you know
best-case scenario it’s like a mix
between going snorkeling and going
climbing and it’s like really nice but
think it’s worst-case you know you can’t
actually hurt yourself he pull rocks off
you land in things or you could also
take horrible falls in this case hazel
is actually kind of playing she
tightened up and do a dive maybe before
she hit the water but um but this is the
kind of position that you could be and
if you broke a hold or something you
know you pinwheel off backward and then
in this case Vern on actually pulled the
rock on to his head and cut his head and
so I’m like digging around trying to
find out if he’d actually like broken
anything we’ve gotten pretty deep into
this without talking at all about the
people and when I started doing my my
research about
about this area the Moose on dum
Peninsula I immediately found references
to the kuzari people well I wanted to
meet these people this is like a really
important part of this expedition for me
well we got into this village called
sybbie and we had a couple of Oman teas
on our team and they were our
translators so we went ashore and we met
these guys well Alex turned out he had
his climbing shoes in his pack and and
he said something to me like hey marked
you mind if I if I go look around a
little bit and I was like yeah sure
whatever Alex you know do it we’ll do
what you need to do and so he wandered
off and I kept having this conversation
Jimmy of course is taking photos he had
a certain point these guys start
freaking out and they all start yelling
and they’re pointing up at the cliff and
we’re like what’s going on you know and
of course I’m thinking I’m pretty sure I
know and there’s Alex scaling the
gigantic cliff in the back of the
village so they’re there of yelling all
this stuff and I’m talking to Abdullah
and on mic Abdullah what’s going on you
know what do these guys saying and he’s
like you know it’s really hard for me to
translate but basically they think alex
is a witch
the thing was earlier I was talking
about the deep water soloing and how you
know that’s kind of what we were looking
for and it was it was fun and it was it
was good climbing but it definitely
wasn’t the best climbing there and so I
think that the this kind of thing like
these big bridges these like mountain
climbs were kind of the the best thing
that we had to offer the beauty of this
type of comment to me was was being able
to explore these different little
features and just play around in the
landscape and then we also did quite a
bit of climbing with the rope climbs
like this where we just basically
climbed straight out of the water with a
rope this particular one was just much
too high to be even considered as a
deep-water solo these by the time we got
to the top we were probably 300 feet
above the water which you know is
obviously way too far to fall so this
photo to me sort of sums up the beauty
of deep water soloing and a the
aesthetic that we are looking for on
this trip you know you basically climb
the best thing you can find you fall off
and then you can barely see it but
there’s hazel going snorkeling in the
corner so we were sitting on the boat
one day and we were planning out to go
and climb that one right there and I was
like getting the gear together and hazel
and Alex you know they see me racking up
this is the stuff that we use to like
climb when you want to have like some
safety and they’re like what are you
doing I’m like I’m racking up and
they’re like guy you don’t need that
stuff they’re like we’re not taking
ropes on this one and I’m like no we are
we’re roping up I’m like that’s what a
1500 foot cliff he’s actually like 220
mm okay 2,000 foot cliff and I’ve been
climbing for a pretty long time thirty
years you know how old are you Alex yeah
so I like I can tell what I’m looking at
a rock climb I’m like that’s a rock
climb right there and I have the ability
to see parts that look difficult and I
can you know just sort of you know
determine yeah that looks like something
where I should use a rope I talked them
into bringing the gear along and thanks
to Jimmy who said we needed it for the
photos and he ended up being right so we
get to the base of this climb this thing
right here we’re up at the at the bottom
of it and Hazel’s got the rack okay
that’s the little devices that you put
in the rock alex has the rope they’re
taking that stuff because they’re
stronger than me and they’re better and
they both just take off but I yelled up
to Alex hey like what’s going on you
know what if we need to rope up and
remember this guy here he’s the world’s
greatest free soloist and Alex yells
down to me says oh don’t worry I’ll stop
when I think it’s appropriate for us to
robot
true story he can’t deny it and of
course that never happened I definitely
didn’t use the word appropriate so he
told the whole clef yeah yeah you did
make it all the way very good effort
yeah survive yeah well I think that kind
of sums up what I saw a lot of on the
boat and it’s always entertaining and I
would go pretty much anywhere in the
world with these guys because they keep
me fairly under change I think we were
just going to end the evening with a
short clip of some of the footage that
we shot on this trip and hope you
enjoyed soloing is defined by climbing
without a rope and so deep water soloing
is soloing rock climbs above deep water
now this is the first time that I’ve
ever deep water so load yeah I had the
notion in my head that it was like kind
of a and low commitment but I found out
on this trip that it’s a lot more
serious than I thought the water turns
into rock when you go high enough you
will really hurt yourself
this
you
Oh
here we wanted to thank National
Geographic for having us it’s always an
honor to speak here but I first read
about Marc probably close to twenty
years ago Marc’s been exploring the
world for a long time and I consider him
probably one of the most prolific
exploratory rock climbers out there he’s
basically scoured the earth in search of
rock climbing and some of the most
difficult situations I’ve been in have
actually been on trips with Marc
obviously Alex and I have done a bit of
work together it’s kind of a symbiotic
relationship between athletes and
photographers and this is the cover
story that we shot together and you know
a lot of people think he’s just
straight-up crazy and I spend a lot of
time defending him and saying he’s not
crazy he’s actually just a very very
talented climber and there’s a reason
why all have Alex’s friends call him no
big deal Honnold because there’s
absolutely nothing that he does that he
thinks is a big deal so everything that
he says multiplied by a factor of
approximately 5 3 to 5 and then Mark who
I know is going to tell some stories
about me
he’s year after / I was gonna pick /
reason ok so that’s how I’m gonna set
the stage here you go mark
thank you thank you Jimmy well Jimmy is
a very modest guy and um you know you
notice that he didn’t really say a whole
lot about himself there but you know he
is also a world-class athlete in his own
right but really makes Jimmy so special
is the fact that he has the camera with
him when he’s doing this stuff
and he’s he’s usually the first call
that I make when I come up with with one
of these ideas and when Alex had I guess
what they’re called the greatest rookie
season ever in Yosemite National Park by
free soloing all these big walls a lot
of things started happening for Alex one
of which was that he got invited to join
the North Face climbing team and Jimmy
and I were already on that team and I
had this trip to Lowe’s gully and in
Borneo and Alex had just joined the team
and so my boss at the North Face she
said hey I got an idea what do you think
about inviting Alex Honnold on your trip
and my initial reaction was like wow wow
that sounds like a really bad idea like
I like to climb with a rope and this guy
seems really crazy like we’re not really
on the same page
you know but we are pro climbers and and
I remember my boss saying something like
look you know I’d really appreciate it
if you invited Alex and I and I like
thought about it and I was like okay I
gotcha I’m like he’s in and so we we
brought Alex along and it was his first
expedition my goal here is sort of just
a free climb as much as I can so that
means that I come just behind everybody
as long as I’m actually climbing that’s
more important to me than than pushing
our high point when Alex Honnold was
somebody that I didn’t know it’s really
interesting dynamic mentorship teach
them you know how we go about doing
these types of pioneering first ascents
but I’m learning a lot of stuff from him
too because he’s such an amazingly
talented climber over the years is like
the longer that I’ve climbed kind of the
more cautious I become every year I kind
of reel it in a little more and a little
more a little more
now I’m going out with this guy who’s
kind of like the opposite of that
he’s like letting the line out letting
it out or more a little more it’s it’s
it’s been good and that it’s it’s
helping me to realize you’re like I
can’t reel it in too much crazy location
where your thousand feet off the ground
in the middle of nowhere like you kind
of have to go for it in this sport
there’s a little scary around leaders
from the sick about preserving your
safety and all that I try so hard but at
the same time kind of preserving like
that fit that spirit of adventure and
going for it which is right at the
essence one over yeah dude
you didn’t even get pumped I don’t know
I’m numb doubt though listen how it’s
almost become a tradition every year
mark comes up with some crazy trip and
the next year we went to Chad which are
these photos just the middle of the
desert the middle of nowhere
climbing remote towers you know super
exotic like cultural experience to get
there crazy climbing really kind of
exciting well this was a kind of a
unique destination and this place is
called the Nettie plateau it’s on the
edge of the Sahara Desert I found out
about it just from like a rumor that I
heard when I was in Cameroon and then I
did a search on Google Earth which is
how I found the Annette e and the
Annette E is basically like the
Canyonlands desert in Utah
except that had never been visited by
climbers before and so we that’s what we
did when we were there as we went and we
we sought out the best towers like this
one that you’re looking at right here
which is called the wine bottle so we’re
we’re traveling out here we’re in the
nettie we’re in the middle of nowhere
and we’re scoping out this one tower
we’re looking at it we’re trying to
figure out which way we’re going to go
up and all of a sudden these guys just
sort of materialized out of the rocks
none of us were really expecting to see
anybody at this point and they were
there to rob us I don’t think there’s
any doubt about that that got one of the
packs right off that had you know ten
thousand dollars worth of camera gear in
it and it was Renault’s Turks pack and
run on like God in a tug of war with the
Bandit which I think most of us thought
was kind of insane because this guy had
a dagger with this other hand Renan was
filming the robbery and which is where
this photo comes from if if you’ve ever
been attacked by bandits you’ll know
they don’t like being filmed while
they’re robbing you
so this would be one of those times
where you get kind of like the instinct
for fight or flight and so for me you
know I was thinking all right I’m gonna
run away from here very fast and I was
right about to take off when I look over
and I see Jimmy pick up a small boulder
and hold it up over his head as if he
was cro-magnon man and I thought to
myself to her to Jimmy you know first of
all I don’t think of rocks gonna do a
whole lot right now and now I don’t feel
that good about running away because
Jimmy has decided he’s gonna fight and
I’m very loyal to my friends so I said
to myself okay here’s how it’s gonna
work mark I’m gonna look down at my foot
if I see anything down there that could
that could serve as a weapon I’m back in
Jimmy up if there’s nothing there I’m
gonna run and I look down and darn it
leaning against my foot is like this
gnarled Club we ang was like the biggest
piece of wood in the entire nettie
desert didn’t he picked it up it but you
can see a lot of wood the thing is that
these these bandits that he’s talking
about really were like fourteen-year-old
boys and they were like half our size
like you really mark is like an ogre
compared to them he’s holding a club
that’s like as big as their entire body
anyway there were five of us and we were
twice as big as them and then it’s like
three punk kids with like this little
tiny not really like it’s not okay can I
get a story
over there to be fair though they
probably looked like half our size and
punk kids from a hundred yards away
where you were standing all I saw was
mark yeah anyway well it’s true when we
had the final faceoff with the guys I
didn’t see Alex there it was me and
Jimmy and I had the club and and Jimmy
had the rock so they put the stuff down
and they basically disappeared back into
the rocks one guy actually had Jimmy
sunglasses and he could have kept those
but he gave them back and that was a
great adventure for us and you know we
we the three of us you know and these
other people we team up with we we make
a good team and and so I think I’m the
one who’s you know sort of supposed to
find where we’re gonna go next and I do
a lot of my research in places like
National Geographic magazine that was
how I found out about the moose and Dawn
Peninsula there was just a little
mention of it like a one-sentence thing
that said moose and Dom Peninsula and
that was really all I need and then I
went from there and I started searching
and looking on Google Earth this is the
map that’s actually in the article and
this is what inspired me was when I saw
the topography here and they call this
the Norway of the Persian Gulf
there’s fjords with giant cliffs coming
out of the ocean the unique thing about
this place is the only way that you can
really explore it effectively is by boat
and so I came up with the idea that we
would charter a boat and that we would
use the boat as our way to access all
these different fjords and to explore
and have a you know camp that we could
come back to the Jimmy’s going to talk a
little bit about what happened next well
nothing terrible but of course you know
being on a trip with Mark I expected to
both
or something else like that but I’m
everywhere you looked with these
beautiful fjords and beautiful limestone
walls and these beautiful villages kind
of tucked into the ends of these fjords
and you know we would be hiking up these
incredible incredible mountains right
above the ocean and it was really really
spectacular you know you’d be going
along and on the boat and you’d
literally be able to point towards
something you’d be like wow that looks
like an amazing climb or that looks like
an amazing mountain and we would sail up
and anchor and then be able to go climb
these things of course you know and
Aleks and the other climber on the team
was hazel and they wanted to go do a
route and then run on and Mark went to
do a route and Mikey Schafer who is my
assistant on the project and an
incredible climber and great friend as
well we were going to do a route so you
know we were on this wall and about a
thousand feet up the wall Mikey pulls
off this rock and it’s hurtling at me
and basically about 50 feet above my
head it explodes and hits the wall you
know Mike he’s like hey you okay and I’m
like yeah I’m fine and he continues
climbing he climbs around the corner and
I don’t see him and I wait for about
half an hour and the Rope just hasn’t
moved and I thought well I guess he’s
probably stopped and just setting
something up and but about half an hour
later I hear him yell hey Jimmy I’m off
belay which means that he’s climbed up
to a point
built an anchor anchored himself into
the wall and now I can take him off
belay and so I yell okay you’re off
belay and I take my rope out of the
belay device and I wait for about five
minutes and I hear this blood-curdling
scream basically like haha and I was
like what’s going on and Mikey had
gotten up to the anchor and was pulling
the rope up and pulled the rope up all
the way to the end and at the end of a
rope that having completely cut in
like not even attached to anything and
that’s me on the other end and he’s like
he’s like pull on your rope and I’m like
what and I pull on the rope and the
whole thing slithers down into my by my
feet so we’re like a thousand feet up
his face and there’s like another couple
thousand feet to go and that’s the
expression you get when you’re stuck
well fortunately mark and run on being
the good friends that they are came and
saved us but those are kind of like the
occupational hazards you sometimes have
on these shoots so yes I saved Jimmy J
yeah and that I will just say that’s
when a few stories around like that is
super super serious because like Mikey
you know thought he was on belay the
whole time had he waited the rope or
head he like fallen or anything he would
have just fallen to his death like a
thousand feet without ever even knowing
that his rope had been cut like it’s
pretty crazy to get a rope cut without
either person knowing it’s like it’s
pretty much a worst-case scenario in
climbing I mean we all were like whoa
that’s a pretty serious but so the real
beauty of this type of trip is the deep
water soloing which is a soul lying
above the ocean and that’s kind of what
we were searching for is we like probed
all these fjords we would like search
along and look for cool cliffs that were
right over the ocean that were steep
enough and with deep enough water
beneath that you could safely climb out
the cliff and then fall into the water
this is Hayes what was actually one of
the best all-around female climbers in
the world the thing with deep water
soloing though I mean I say that it’s
super casual super fun you know
best-case scenario it’s like a mix
between going snorkeling and going
climbing and it’s like really nice but
think it’s worst-case you know you can’t
actually hurt yourself he pull rocks off
you land in things or you could also
take horrible falls in this case hazel
is actually kind of playing she
tightened up and do a dive maybe before
she hit the water but um but this is the
kind of position that you could be and
if you broke a hold or something you
know you pinwheel off backward and then
in this case Vern on actually pulled the
rock on to his head and cut his head and
so I’m like digging around trying to
find out if he’d actually like broken
anything we’ve gotten pretty deep into
this without talking at all about the
people and when I started doing my my
research about
about this area the Moose on dum
Peninsula I immediately found references
to the kuzari people well I wanted to
meet these people this is like a really
important part of this expedition for me
well we got into this village called
sybbie and we had a couple of Oman teas
on our team and they were our
translators so we went ashore and we met
these guys well Alex turned out he had
his climbing shoes in his pack and and
he said something to me like hey marked
you mind if I if I go look around a
little bit and I was like yeah sure
whatever Alex you know do it we’ll do
what you need to do and so he wandered
off and I kept having this conversation
Jimmy of course is taking photos he had
a certain point these guys start
freaking out and they all start yelling
and they’re pointing up at the cliff and
we’re like what’s going on you know and
of course I’m thinking I’m pretty sure I
know and there’s Alex scaling the
gigantic cliff in the back of the
village so they’re there of yelling all
this stuff and I’m talking to Abdullah
and on mic Abdullah what’s going on you
know what do these guys saying and he’s
like you know it’s really hard for me to
translate but basically they think alex
is a witch
the thing was earlier I was talking
about the deep water soloing and how you
know that’s kind of what we were looking
for and it was it was fun and it was it
was good climbing but it definitely
wasn’t the best climbing there and so I
think that the this kind of thing like
these big bridges these like mountain
climbs were kind of the the best thing
that we had to offer the beauty of this
type of comment to me was was being able
to explore these different little
features and just play around in the
landscape and then we also did quite a
bit of climbing with the rope climbs
like this where we just basically
climbed straight out of the water with a
rope this particular one was just much
too high to be even considered as a
deep-water solo these by the time we got
to the top we were probably 300 feet
above the water which you know is
obviously way too far to fall so this
photo to me sort of sums up the beauty
of deep water soloing and a the
aesthetic that we are looking for on
this trip you know you basically climb
the best thing you can find you fall off
and then you can barely see it but
there’s hazel going snorkeling in the
corner so we were sitting on the boat
one day and we were planning out to go
and climb that one right there and I was
like getting the gear together and hazel
and Alex you know they see me racking up
this is the stuff that we use to like
climb when you want to have like some
safety and they’re like what are you
doing I’m like I’m racking up and
they’re like guy you don’t need that
stuff they’re like we’re not taking
ropes on this one and I’m like no we are
we’re roping up I’m like that’s what a
1500 foot cliff he’s actually like 220
mm okay 2,000 foot cliff and I’ve been
climbing for a pretty long time thirty
years you know how old are you Alex yeah
so I like I can tell what I’m looking at
a rock climb I’m like that’s a rock
climb right there and I have the ability
to see parts that look difficult and I
can you know just sort of you know
determine yeah that looks like something
where I should use a rope I talked them
into bringing the gear along and thanks
to Jimmy who said we needed it for the
photos and he ended up being right so we
get to the base of this climb this thing
right here we’re up at the at the bottom
of it and Hazel’s got the rack okay
that’s the little devices that you put
in the rock alex has the rope they’re
taking that stuff because they’re
stronger than me and they’re better and
they both just take off but I yelled up
to Alex hey like what’s going on you
know what if we need to rope up and
remember this guy here he’s the world’s
greatest free soloist and Alex yells
down to me says oh don’t worry I’ll stop
when I think it’s appropriate for us to
robot
true story he can’t deny it and of
course that never happened I definitely
didn’t use the word appropriate so he
told the whole clef yeah yeah you did
make it all the way very good effort
yeah survive yeah well I think that kind
of sums up what I saw a lot of on the
boat and it’s always entertaining and I
would go pretty much anywhere in the
world with these guys because they keep
me fairly under change I think we were
just going to end the evening with a
short clip of some of the footage that
we shot on this trip and hope you
enjoyed soloing is defined by climbing
without a rope and so deep water soloing
is soloing rock climbs above deep water
now this is the first time that I’ve
ever deep water so load yeah I had the
notion in my head that it was like kind
of a and low commitment but I found out
on this trip that it’s a lot more
serious than I thought the water turns
into rock when you go high enough you
will really hurt yourself
this
you
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