I've been filming climbing for a couple decades and one of the scariest things I've filmed is Alex Honnold soloing The Phoenix the slippery, steep, 513 crack that runs for 130 feet Nobody had ever soloed a route that hard in Yosemite It was late spring, I had just arrived in the valley to film with Alex for a TV news show that was profiling him We're all hanging out the first day and there was a meeting with the rangers called for the next morning at 9:00 Alex leans over to me, he's like, "Sweet!" "That gives me time to go climb The Phoenix before." "You wanna go up there with me?" And I was like, sure! Next morning at five a.m we drive up into the valley The Phoenix crack sits high above this canyon and right around the corner from it is Cascade Falls Because it's spring, the waterfall is raging To get to The Phoenix you have to rappel in because the crack starts halfway up this wall the waterfall is so powerful you feel like the rocks are shaking under your feet I rapelled into the anchors at the top of the route As I was getting my camera ready Alex rapped in and took a quick look at the climb Normally Alex is so chill about everything but he flashed me this quick nervous smile that made me think wow, he's feeling something here This is big for him He rappels down the route and he starts swinging out This route is so steep Alex goes down to the bottom of the route, takes off his harness and he has me pull up all his gear on the rope I was having this moment like oh yeah, maybe this is why Alex invited me here not to film it or capture this amazing footage but just to like get his stuff out of the way so he can climb it cleanly as soon as he starts off that ledge he's already so far above the ground that he's well into the no-fall zone Too much wider and you won't be able to see him that well a friend is across the valley filming the long shot I'm up above, just thinking move gently, don't drop anything The Phoenix starts with tips liebacking up a thin corner which isn't really ideal for soloing I remember it feeling pretty insecure and kind of tenuous it's hard to go from 0 to 60 like that to go from just standing on the little belay stance to climbing pretty hard tips corner I have pretty fat fingers so they felt very thin the corner ends in a little sequence trending up and right which is generally considered the crux I found it maybe not as bad as some folks because I have fat fingers, so I was able to jam it pretty well One of the scariest things about filming Alex soloing is he moves so slowly you don't know if he's stuck or has a sequence wrong You just sit there and hold your breath As he comes out of this undercling section the crack looks so thin I zoomed in and got close in and it was so, just, sickening to see what he was actually holding onto I had to zoom back out My camera was just shaking The rest of the route is basically a consistently overhanging thin hands crack That part, again, I found kind of hard because I have really big hands and so tight hands just feels hard for me Even though it's really straightforward and pretty simple the pump definitely builds You do definitely get tired because it's pretty overhanging Higher up, Alex started moving a bit faster Almost less methodical, perhaps I remember thinking, is he getting tired and rushing through this? The route kicks back a little steeper and his position now above the river is outrageous Yay! He finally reaches around, swings over and pulls into this little stance I was like, ah, he's safe After Alex finishes the climb we jumar out the ropes I'm like, holy shit, he just made history he's climbed the hardest route that's ever been soloed in Yosemite after that he didn't have some adrenaline or altered mind state He was self-critical He said he felt a little tense on the climb and he didn't really like how he'd performed The Phoenix, I actually found it pretty hard for the grade for myself, given my own strengths and weaknesses But, you know, it was a great route After the climb we drove into the valley just in time for the 9 A.M meeting with the rangers and the TV crew Nobody had any idea what Alex had just accomplished
