The evolution of climbing styles and ethics has shifted around, at first ditching the adventurous spirit of Yosemite’s (trad climbing) halcyon days, to the safety of sport climbing, with all manner of subcultures and genres sprouting, such as “freebasing.”
Freebasing, having nothing to do with the cocaine version, is when you climb a hard route with no rope (normally known as “free soloing”). Except that you carry a parachute. If you fall off the climb your free solo automatically turns into a free base. Base-jumping is jumping off high, man-made and natural edifices with a parachute, instead of jumping out of a plane.
Free Alpinism
The world became aware of free soloing in 2018, with climber-director Jimmy Chin and wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s groundbreaking climbing doc “Free Solo,” which was released around the same time that co-directors Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen were wrapping up the shooting of “The Alpinist.”“Free Solo,” a stirring character study about climbing prodigy and fascinating personality Alex Honnold, also featured IMAX-quality, drone-camera-heavy filmmaking to capture Honnold’s unharnessed 3,000 foot ascent up Yosemite valley’s crown-jewel rock face, El Capitan—and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
The Man Himself
The utterly guileless Leclerc is immensely charming, and while his shy, mildly inarticulate, slightly stoner-dude persona seems completely at odds with the shocking degree of extreme focus and physical prowess needed for his particular brand of adventure, he, much like Honnold (according to both their mothers) are strongly ADHD.More and more the “Rain Man” aspects that used to be seen as a handicap are now recognized as the flip side of the genius needed to survive and thrive in the midst of these extreme lifestyle choices. When describing high mountain situations that normal people think of as absolutely horrifying, Leclerc, with a disarming goofy grin, nonchalantly uses terms such as “relaxing, just cruisin’ around.”
This endearing, complete lack of social media savvy and egoless presence are incredibly refreshing. Especially in a world where each younger generation becomes increasingly saturated with people using phone cameras as basketball air-pumps to inflate their own Instagram self-images.
There’s zero false modesty with Leclerc. He’s utterly disinterested in acclaim, glory, and especially Instagram likes. At one point, the directors are forced to abruptly regroup after Leclerc becomes bored with filming, disappears off the face of the Earth, only to start appearing on other climbers’ social media pages, having wandered off to enjoy good times with his climber buds. Leclerc’s is the purest, most Zen-like of reasons that climbers climb; not because the mountain is there, or to test himself, but simply because standing in the middle of extreme, death-defying situations is his bliss.
And the examples of this are truly astounding. The footage of Leclerc ascending sheer, near-featureless faces of granite and ice are so graceful, so defiant of physics, that it’s almost easy to forget just how unthinkably dangerous it all is. Unless you’ve had a bit of climbing experience yourself, in which case Leclerc’s vertiginous sorcery will leave you with no fingernails after the movie ends.
