There is no protection
Men who challenge death
Born to die
Just for love
That's the protagonist we have today
Alex Hornold was born in 1985 in California, USA. His parents were professors at community colleges, and Alex Jr. was the only son in the family, so it stands to reason that such a family should be full of joy and academic atmosphere. On the contrary, his parents belonged to people who did not like to express themselves: his father was suspected of having Esberg syndrome, he rarely communicated with Alex from childhood to adulthood, and even the father and son drove out for hours without talking; his mother only had one sentence for Alex, "Not good enough", with little praise and encouragement. Such a family makes little Alex gradually become autistic and does not even know how to communicate with strangers.
At the age of 5, he began to get exposed to strenuous climbing training, and maybe this sport was really suitable for Alex who didn't like to communicate. By the age of 10, his love of rock climbing continued unabated, and he spent most of the week immersed in the joys of rock climbing. Climbing not only did not affect his studies, but also allowed Alex to re-learn to communicate. He graduated with honors from high school and was accepted to civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. After a period of study, Alex discovered that his major had nothing to do with rock climbing, which led him to drop out. At the same time, his family changed, first his grandfather died, and then his parents divorced, which was too much for Alex, who was only 19 years old, and made him even more distracted to study, and finally dropped out of the University of California. After dropping out of school, Alex gave all his energy and enthusiasm to the sport of rock climbing. Although at that time he was only an obscure rock climber.
In 2007, Alex saved up money to buy an old Ford van, which he drove to Yosemite National Park for rock climbing, reaching the top in just one day. It was also this climb that Alex "became famous", and at the age of 22, he became the second person in the world to climb the famous American scenic spot Astroman and Rostrum with his bare hands.
In 2008, Alex challenged the moon-blooming arch in Zion National Park in Utah, which many people thought was impossible to accomplish, but he climbed to the top through a narrow gap in a steep cliff. While everyone was still talking about his climb, Alex returned to Yosemite National Park and began climbing on the northwest side of the huge granite mountain in the shape of a hemispherical shape - Half Dome, which is nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, the highest mountain in Yosemite, nearly 1,000 meters higher than the surrounding peaks. Its northwest wall is about 600 meters long, with a slope of 93% (the first in North America), which is one of the most challenging climbing places in the world, from here to climb, you can see the difficulty of the challenge, but Alex lived up to expectations and successfully reached the top again.
Alex's passion for this kind of climbing is called freehand climbing, which is a very dangerous climbing activity, climbers can not use any other tools, such as ropes, hooks and the like, and can not use any protective measures such as parachutes, can only use their own hands and feet to climb. As a result, the mortality rate of this sport is as high as 50%, ranking first in the world's top ten extreme sports, and many famous climbers have died. However, Alex was not intimidated, but became more and more passionate about rock climbing.
Alex still didn't stop after shocking the climbing world, and his next plan was to climb the three largest rock walls in Yosemite National Park in California, in 24 hours, namely Watkins, Chieftain Rock and Semi-Dome. Of course, Alex would never take a blind risk, he knew the dangers of climbing with his bare hands. So before each climb he will be well prepared and will practice repeatedly. The same is true of this challenge, after a long training session, he began the challenge in 2012 and after 19 hours, completed the feat of a total mileage of 2134 meters.
In 2014, on Alex's 29th birthday, he gave himself a "big gift" to climb the Sentero Luminoso Rock, known as the "Path of Light" in Mexico. Considered one of the hardest to climb in the world, Alex and his friends first climbed up under the protection of a safety rope to clear the rubble, and then climbed it with their bare hands for more than three hours to reach the top.
In 2017, Alex challenged chieftain rock in Yosemite National Park again, and although he had previously challenged it, this time he was going to climb it with his bare hands through a climbing route called Freerider. This route is more than 900 meters long, almost 100 meters of perfect hand seams, the rest are finger seams that can only be stuffed into one or two joints of the fingers, or the wide seams on the half side of the body of the fortress, or the large light plates without rock points. The "big light plate" is a type of line, which refers to a rock wall without real rock points, and the whole person hangs on the stone by friction. It is generally said that this climbing mainly relies on "faith", and the greater the belief, the more fierce the foot is stepped on, and the greater the friction. With such a large light board, he practiced at least 90 times with a rope.
In order to conquer Chieftain Rock, he must remember thousands of actions, and the slightest mistake will kill him. After countless training sessions, the freehand climbing challenge begins. Beneath the abyss, the dense jungle is like a small carpet. The angle of the rocks was almost vertical to the ground, and Alex supported his entire body almost exclusively by the strength of his upper limbs. Throughout the climbing process, he needs to maintain a high degree of concentration and perseverance. A sneeze, a cramp, an annoying bug, all have extremely high rates that can cause the center of gravity to shift, thus losing his already "precarious" friction with the walls, leading to falling off a cliff. After a difficult 3 hours and 56 minutes, Alex managed to reach the summit of Chieftain Rock.
It is this kind of "desperate" challenge again and again that Alex has gradually gained recognition in the climbing world. He was on the cover of National Geographic magazine, and the New York Times tracked his climbing.
In 2015, he won the Golden Ice Pickaxe Award, which is known as the Oscar of mountaineering and arguably the highest honor in mountaineering.
What makes it difficult for many people to understand is that Alex would not be afraid? Yes, he really doesn't fear. A doctor once examined him and found that the amygdala test in his brain responded abnormally. This amygdala is actually the core of controlling fear emotions, and in general, when people perceive danger, the amygdala will make what we call "fear response", such as rapid heartbeat, cold sweat, dizziness and so on. Alex's amygdala does not seem to have a switch, which means that even if he perceives danger, his amygdala will not activate, which also leads to his very low sensitivity to the perception of danger. Perhaps because of this, climbing with bare hands can attract him.
Alex not only loves rock climbing with his bare hands, but he prefers to be photographed, but he doesn't want to feel photographed. Therefore, every time the photographer who follows him, he must also train with Alex, just to find the best shooting angle, while ensuring "stealth" shooting, so as to minimize the impact of shooting on Alex.
Alex's cinematography team was in awe of extreme sports and nature, and for this purpose they made a documentary film, "Freehand Rock Climbing", for which it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. But his camera crew once said that Alex climbed Chieftain Rock with his bare hands was the scariest day of their lives and would never want to experience it again.
People have mixed reviews of Alex's bare-handed challenges, some people think he is a hero, and some people think he is too crazy to cherish life. In fact, whether climbing with bare hands is a "gimmick" or "true love" for Alex, he has been climbing alone. We are in society, in fact, like rock climbing. Whether you like the world or not, life will move forward. Maybe that's the ultimate spirit.
After conquering Chieftain Rock, the film crew asked Alex what he was going to do next, and he had only one sentence: "Today is my suspension training day, and I will do suspension training next." ”
Alex's experience has taught us that there is a group of ordinary people who do difficult, painful, but great and pure things. And not for the knighthood of officials, not for world peace, only for a heart of love.
I think the best thing in life
It's about doing what you love
You can also make a living from it