Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold (Full Episode) | Climbing a 4,000 Foot Cliff | SPECIAL

[Music] [Music] oh that's Alex honold everybody no ropes no safety net one of the most famous climbers in the world achieving something no human had ever done before beyond belief the greatest climber in the world has achieved the greatest feat in climbing history is there anything left to climb after you climb Al Capitan is there anything bigger than that I mean there are technically some bigger walls in the world but they're in very remote places like Greenland ultimately what's at stake with climbing is always your life you could die in a lot of different ways on [Music] wall [Music] [Music] are you smiling oh that's you a accomplishing your biggest life dream has sort of two sides there was a long time after Alex frol Al cap that he seemed to me a little bit lost in that journey I saw him be really depressed and frustrated now he's found other ways to give back and keep contributing to the world I think doing things around climate change is part of that this is your training the Greenland Expedition is is unique because it is so remote a wall that has never been climbed a place where climate research has barely been done that lights Alex up in a way that nothing else does look at the walls over there this is this is crazy now I'm starting to get very excited this is uh definitely feels like the trip is starting like look at all this rock it's almost like a fantasy landscape it's like so big and so remote and so wild if we manage to climb in cordac it'll be the biggest first desent I've ever done very excited the first picture I saw of inor black was low resolution kind of far away it looked like the scariest wall I've ever seen it was like swirling Black Rock It was kind of like how about this is you know like couldn't we climb this I was like I don't know but in some ways that's the best type of climbing objective where you're not totally sure I'm at a point in my life where I think the Expeditions should be about more than just climbing what makes this Expedition so special is that it combines a potential first descent with groundbreaking climate science when it comes to climate change Greenland's one of the most important places on the planet it's gotten about 52° warmer over the last 40 years more and more of its ice is melting raising the sea level around the world ortac is extremely remote and scientists rarely have an opportunity to study the area around it so we're going to take the long way to the bottom of the SE it'll be an expedition of about 100 miles Gathering critical scientific data in places that no one has been able to get to [Music] before you know I've definitely always cared about the world around me I would say that I haven't always had the opportunity to actually do something useful what's wonderful about a trip like this is that you know we have the right team in place to actually do meaningful work as we go climbing [Music] we in polar bear territory now yeah so there's some things we have to be aware of things we have to practice is to deter the bear and not shoot the bear all we do is about scaring the bird all the way back yeah that's it aim for something like the grass whoa feel the cake huh yeah definitely feel the Kake hopefully this is the last time you will shoot imagine getting eaten by a bear like that's crazy but I don't I'm like has anyone look behind us recently it's like are there any bears around in m cortac is about 4,000 ft tall I have no idea what the Rock will be like which is why I've asked two of the best climbers in the world to join me are you doing two thank no I mean whoa Mikey schaer has done first asense on all the major peaks in Patagonia maybe the most experienced first ascensionist on the [Music] team I did my first big wall before I could legally drive I've always been drawn to doing first ascents it's not like a conquering thing it is far from that I could care less about concrete mountains it's this interesting blend of artistic creation yet extremely technical exploration strong Hazel Hazel finle is a professional climber from the UK Hazel is really experienced with this sort of first descent exploratory Adventure rock climbing I started climbing when I was about six years old my dad taught me how to climb and I think I just sort of found my love for adventure and that's what I've been doing ever since I do have a lot of experience climbing Sea Cliffs so got to kind of combine the experience of big Walling and Sea Cliff climing all the way left way left oh that was really good that was a really good warm up yeah you call it a warm up Alex is so experienced a climber he out I'm out he just capped out walked away yeah he's probably spent more time on Rock than almost anyone in the world I think nice Alex and then the other reason he's so good is obviously because he can keep calm stay cool and not freak out when he's a th000 m off the deck with no Rob that's exciting see hear the water running but it's amazing to hear how much water is going through the system from the scientific perspective the most important member of the team is Heidi Sylvester May biggest fion is ice to study how glaciers and ice sheets react to climate [Music] change [Music] oh wait wait wait there a really big hole yeah let's go and take a look this is pretty loud oh wow no way a this is giant wa yeah look at this look how deep it goes this is a big one yeah oh yeah you can see like all the way into the hole deep oh yeah I see it it's uh it's deep enough that it just turns black pretty far this huge Hall is called a Mulin it acts like a drain funneling mwater to the base of the glacier it's the best it's all pretty big and pretty uh pretty intimidating this m should allow us to figure out what's happening beneath the glacier so we're going to repel down into it Glaciers are rivers of ice normally they flow slowly pulled by gravity down towards the ocean the more water beneath the glacier the faster it can move it's pretty much like when you take an ice cube and you make it slide over a thin layer of water it will slide so much faster I want to find out if there's enough water underneath the glacier to make it speed up I'm definitely more used to climbing up Rock than down into ice but this is a rare opportunity to help Heidi get the data that she needs very few people have dared to enter into these HS it's really one of the most dangerous environments on Earth Alo Kane is here for safety and Logistics here to help the team make sure that we don't kill ourselves yeah and then bring it back out we're trying to mesh front line hard adventure with frontlight hardcore science you know they go hand in hand honesty is just so striking and handsome I just feel like he must be very capable my wife looked him up on Instagram before the trip and was like wow you know like tell me about what it's like to be with Aldo I was like okay clean this section here and then run the ropes straight over that edge oh it's not bad it's a good toas when you're standing on top of the mill you can hear crap crap it's like gunshots going off and that's the ice moving watch out watch out it just go straight down for like so far Heidi has these little cylinders called pomet if we can drop them down to the bottom of the moonet they'll tell us how much water is down there the more water the faster the glacier is moving and melting I'm going to go down a little bit he so was that the whole oh that is the room thing yeah perfect it's very intimidating down there let's see what we got huh mhm it has measured about 100 kilopascals which actually means that there was about 10 m of water above it 30 ft of water is a big pool at the bottom of a of a hole like that isn't it yeah yeah this much water under the glacia can make it slide down the valley and melt faster at lower altitudes our results mean that this huge River of ice is now one more we need to keep tabs on when you know that around the world on coastlines there are about 700 million people you understand that actually what is happening to greenlands matters to the rest of the [Music] world got to hug that Ridge Hazel like close enough that if you slip you'll go into the yeah Abyss that I'll die yeah yeah oh you probably wouldn't die it'd be terrible though we're still more than 70 M from imort lag our route will take us across the renland ice cap which is a huge expans of ice that's more than 6,000 ft above sea level we want to see if climate change is having an effect on it but to get up there we'll have to make a first Descent of a huge rock face that we're calling the pool wall [Music] [Music] what do we think this is a lot bigger than I [Music] expected it's one thing to be inspired by wall it's another thing to actually climb it that looks very dangerous it's hard to know how far up we can get I mean the pool wall could be one of those Lifetime Achievement routes that's a 1500t Arctic big wall that's unclimbed that's like pretty serious what's going to be even harder is that we have to get the whole team up the wall including Adam and Heidi who have basically never climbed before seeing it with my own eyes is actually pretty scary intimidating looking up and there's like what's that 4 500 M of mountain kind of on top of you but I think I found the best camping spots here oh it's so windy can you see inside the tent it's it's going to be luxurious Pro tip though put stuff in your tent before you set it up seems okay doesn't fly away yeah here oh no no no oh god oh it could be gone what did you see up there Makey about Pro tip oh you found it yeah oh great success it's in a lake but it's already dry po wall is an important rock face from a geological perspective during the last ice age it was buried under the ice sheet then 11 and 1/2 thousand years ago temperatures Rose the ice melted and the rock face we see today emerged if we can discover how fast that ice receded from poor war in the past we can improve our projections of how quickly Greenland's ice is likely to melt in the future but to make these projections we need to get rock samples from all the way up PO wall let me tell you the scientists are so excited to get samples from po War because they simply cannot do [Music] this every wall has its own unique flavor or dangers it's hard to know until you're actually on it and nobody's ever climbed this wall before okay I'm climbing ni out [Music] it he keeps dropping a lot of rocks so my guess is that there a bit chossy Arctic rock can be a real challenge water gets into the cracks and then freezes and expands forcing The Rock apart they're Rock it's just a dangerous place to climb especially with the rest of the team below you because it means things are constantly falling on people big rock Hazel Mikey and I will take turns leading yeah she's doing it finding the safest route up the wall for the team well I'm not fine of this way there a couple good feet that make that thing okay we've got 24 hours of daylight so we're going to push hard whenever the weather's good getting a little tiring huh [Music] yeah Alex Mikey and Hazel are up there and they're pushing the route probably to at least the halfway point and I've just started following the climbers up I'm off L Mikey This Is Not Great Hazel's encountered a section of very poor Rock he's up there trying to find a way to tiptoe around some very loose blocks from here it looks like once you transfer to the right you're kind of in there yeah but I don't think I can transer to the right without standing on any of this I believe in [Music] you I could see The Rock was only attached to the wall by this very small piece if this small piece of rock broke then this huge flake would come out of the Rock I don't actually think I can get around this you have to be really careful it's not just about oh can I get past it it's just there's going to be huge consequences if I knock it off you would fall yourself you would most likely Cut the Rope and you'd probably also kill your be layer oh this is scary it's really not good well what about using face holds past it like little edges for the feet but just kind of tiptoe around yeah that's what I'm going to try and do I've got you good she's fully standing on the scary block yeah I think it's climb is you kind of learn to take life and death decision making and make it normal yeah ni often it's my mind that gets me up Roots rather than my strength that was cool this part particularly bad as opposed to the rest it was only pretty bad Mike's up there dealing with some sort of terrible terrible climbing but uh but at least we're making upward progress just carrying along got some really cold hands right now better Rock to the right and there's another crack over there yeah oh you all right yeah I'm halfway down the pitch anyways right yeah yeah no no I AG so I think you're going to be fine you can't say I didn't go for it yeah no no I'm giving you full credit you're going to give me full like you didn't he wasn't a weenie up there no no you're not a weenie up there you really got after it there's definitely some pressure to figure this section out or else we'll have to give up on the route and our chance to get up onto the ice cap oh sweet Mercy is it hard or loose I'm going to like need a minute to process to try to like see where things go I'm watching [Music] how high do you think they are like 500 600 ft it's a bit scary to think of going up looks like it's so about to fall on my face what's happening there do you see yeah it looks Stu what is he holding on to well yeah scary stuff scary I'm watching Alex follow this crack and he's just hanging there hundreds of feet up this wall and then he does this huge move left into space [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that was a risky move for sure but it's got us to a crack that goes a long ways up happy birthday dear Happy Birthday to [Applause] you yeah we have a gift for you happy 40th hope it smells like a Mt oh I smell it from him it's whisky Water of Life no no no did you get any yeah oh it's so gross was like what good but you have to sing for yourself and [Music] [Music] [Music] greenlandic today's the day today is the day I'm going big wall climbing with a bunch of PRS anxiety is definitely here I must say I didn't sleep very well and I can feel a a sense of nervousness in the team as well we're adding two more people into the mix there's two more people exposed to rockfall there's two more people exposed to make a mistake on the Rope the consequences of a mistake are ultimately fatality my key I'm going to start going up we've been here for a week we haven't seen any white life and just minutes before we start going up we see two Ravens playing in the wind it's really really beautiful I'm hoping this is a good omen but I have to admit I'm pretty nervous so you just going with one foot like that yeah CL M thank you is anyone belue oh yeah yeah no the whole part is below now how you getting on Heidi they make it look so easy when they go out these walls nice Dam that took a while yeah that's okay you made it it was uh pretty hard and I was really exhausted should we uh choose a spot up here for core sampling this could be good one yeah yeah let's do some drilling perfect these work samples will inform us how quickly is Greenland going to lose its ice how quickly is the water going to rise that's a big sample actually that is your great that's really good first time I used a chisel on Rock oh there it is y yay we have a core it is good to see that you know the cores are starting to come out of the Rock and hopefully I'll be a bit faster on the ropes as well by that you got a long ways to go to the top it look super harder there I mean from now on it's just totally vertical wa listen to that do you see these death dagger icicles the sun has come out it means that all of the ice moves that have formed over the last few days have started to fall off lots of death CES coming off the top I your hands dger look at that big this is [Music] treacherous right on the bridge of my nose like is that blood yeah yeah you're bleeding wao coming it's actually sliced you it's like a little knife wound it's definitely way better to get hit by ice than Rock if that had have been a rock that size that hit me it for sure would have broken my nose at least if not put a hole straight through my face did I get most of the blood off yeah does it hurt I'm definitely like a little sore but I think the with the ice Falls that is really scary but there's nothing you can do about it you either give up on the climb entirely or you play through it combat medic Aldo freaking taking care of me classic we're like oh better conditions today like nope different set of bad conditions it's always something in Greenland I'm now about 1,000 ft up I made a decision not to look down and if I do I'm worried I'll be paralyzed by fear yeah [Music] yeah oh get hideing horizontal ground nice time yeah this is crazy and the view is pretty nice huh it's beautiful I I got a bit scared actually it's hard to imagine but you're going to spend the night attached to a thin tent made of fabric that is only secured by one bolt stuck into the [Music] Rock [Music] by little for Ledges oh it's so much Cozier than being outside it's nice to ging yeah it's so much warmer are we taking helmet off well I am when I look at the window I'm like what where is the floor I'm glad that tomorrow is the second and last day bun when I woke up I didn't even think I'd be able to get my climbing shoes on I was so cold remember to watch out for that one play kle yeah I was so impressed that she just put on her things and went I was like that is it's like it's a hard one [Music] we're about 900 ft up to Summit we have to get through the Steep top section of the wall we only have thin cracks to follow plus the rock is constantly crumbling it's really difficult to get good gear some people might think that climbers are just cut from a different clock and that they're just comfortable in these places but it really comes through practice and I think that the biggest growth for me has actually been learning how to manage that fear you all right it's actually just making hand finger locks big enough okay this just [Music] so [Music] look [Music] well that's kind of the last time pitch for sure ELO yeah the S just keep coming up enjoying it not really wow that was direct no for you not really the top yeah Adam we're thinking we're going to name the roote two Ravens good name huh perfect huh good name saw the Ravens yes seriously for you and Heidi yeah two Ravens fly up the wall yeah pretty exciting huh oh yeah that's a good name huh at that moment where they said they wanted to name it two Ravens I felt honored because I couldn't have done it at all without them final pitch like it's this limit okay hey success have five nice one not bad for a practice ball practice friend this is like my retirement run hey feeling [Music] what yeah you ra [Music] [Music] I'm starting to think the inord laac which is three times higher than the pool wall might be a bit of an undertaking so next up we'll have to try to findun somewhere flat to camp we still have a long ways to go before we sleep tonight finally we've made it on to the renland ice cap a 42m wide reservoir of ice it will be the highest and coldest part of the Expedition this will be the first time anyone's tried to cross this ice cap on foot our plan is to ski Northwest 40 Mi taking measurements for Heidi's research as we get then we'll descend the glacier to the Fjord below this is my first expedition as a father and I do miss my daughter it's a pretty long trip to be away from family and it's certainly going to be hard and my wife to have to be a single parent for 6 weeks having daughter has really made me think more about the future and of course the future of the planet I think about it a lot the first year that I started earning more income than than I needed I started donating third of my income to help fund solar projects around the world we're in the midst of a crisis and we need to actually help change the world as quickly as [Music] possible morning you guys sleep up good thing we got ski huh so we have here two different Radars this will help us to measure ice thickness it works almost like a sonar it enables us to see what's underneath our feet okay we ready ready yeah okay [Music] walking [Music] measuring the thickness of the ice will help us calculate how much water the rainland ice cap holds we want to understand how sea levels might rise if temperatures keep going up and all of this [Music] smells it's not as if I've ever wanted to be a polar Explorer you know I'm a rock climber for a reason but in this this case to spend you know between 4 days and a week going somewhere that no one's ever been to help Heidi for signs I mean it's rare to have that kind of opportunity in life sa on your right if you can how was this feat yeah that's good yeah [Music] okay you want to stop Alex yeah stop for a sec [Music] sure we are walking or skiing on Ice that is 120,000 years old this ice has seen the last ice age and even the period before that the deepest ice here is over 2,000 ft down this ice cap holds more than 350 billion tons of fresh water enough to submerge the entire island of Manhattan under almost 4 miles of [Music] water so difficult to get any bearings in this light so we're just skiing in on on the bearing now cuz it's kind of white out but you can see the relief of that crass there casses are the biggest Hazard on the ice cap they're deep cracks in the ice some going hundreds of feet in this flat light they're tough to spot until you're actually on top of them if you fall in one whilst you're pulling a sled then you're in deep trouble so crass is that way so we basically head y that direction yeah looks like it yeah that's what I was like I think we really want to get out of here huh yeah all right you're bang on course there Mikey you know navigating in white out is never fun The Landmark would be great so difficult when you absolutely nothing to focus on what's the plan I mean my goal for the day is to get all the way across the ice C okay I think we should stop are you kidding basically we need to make a decision about whether we push on or not the fact from my point of view is that Mikey now looked at the map and we're heading straight into the center of that carass field I know that it's probably pretty dangerous is it safe to push on or is it better to stop and put up camping maybe we get better visz later on we do have 24hour day light when the V is good we crack on again no we could also rope up and just keep keep going through I don't think roping up doesn't make it much safer because we can't see it it's already the haard is already there I'm I'm in on on camping here absolutely yeah same for me I think it's totally unsafe to continue yeah with Alex it's you know it's a little different because he has so much self-confidence and so much ability it's a little harder for me to blindly sort of trust what he says to do what's the the group vote I don't think we should move right now yeah we'll go in proben area for Camp then we'll whack up some tents and then we'll just ride it out for a bit the story of this trip is basically don't fight the weather get the tents up get in the wrong and wait it out this is like this is insane I brought you dinner oh you have oh that's so nice though now it's probably a little bit cold but are you proud of your hole Yeah but I really want to dig another one here uh I could start but so then yeah if you want if you're key here actually let me start while you eat are you sure yeah yeah just so you can relax for a minute I can't even get out now yeah do you need a hand is that why you didn't come out for dinner cuz you didn't know how to get out of the hole I was just stuck yeah I don't think it's going take me that long actually you see I'm making pretty good progress this far north this high up I'm expecting the snow to be more or less [Music] pristine this is like the ultimate snow pit and in between the two halls is a very fine wall of snow that will kind of reveal itself when the light is shining through it okay cover me in that can be your bed tonight this could be my bed oh it's pretty cool actually you can just really see the layers nice it's like very clear lines than them okay all right let's do that oh oh this is great I mean what I'm seeing here is very clear picture of the snow pack the depth of the snow pit spans a period of about 12 months and every time we have one of these layers it means that the Raina ice capap was melting I was hoping just to find beautiful snow without any melt but actually melt is happening all the time throughout the year here this is really [Music] concerning I think there's a good chance that the Ren and ice cap is melting faster and making more of a contribution to sea level rise and that contribution is only going to increase in the [Music] future morning it's been 2 days but the weather's finally clear now we can get a good look at where we are I'm actually just going straight up from Camp kind of scary that there's one right there yeah I'm glad we stopped eventually Big H big a little bit of death we are literally surrounded by Tresses I mean these are insane yeah I think based on that Mikey you and I should be red up at least yeah it seems reasonable we're slowly dropping altitude yeah yeah I think it's all downhill now yeah we've got weather on our side the wind has died down we're heading in the right direction and we can see the f danger that looks sketchy if you go in there you're you're a bad way keep moving that's the main thing I'm going around someone's going to get dragged into crass cuz he got heavy POA no I know I think this is kind of crazy he said go fast I know but I didn't mean quite out my oh God yeah finally Alex is like oh that was a little too much well it just started to look a little little quick at the bottom there it's such a relief to see our support team we're going to get a ride to our final objective we made it yeah either way this this is cool so nice be moving not under power this this is pure joy in mcac is still almost 30 mi from here and the only way to get there is up a long deep [Music] Fjord this landscape is one of the more beautiful things I've ever seen it's it's pretty incredible wow this F is like just absolutely magical yeah honestly I can't believe the amount of ice there is here makes me sick when I see this we're all looking at this landscape and thinking it's amazing amazing but where we see beauty Heidi see something completely different this is all ice that is of course being lost by the glaciers and it's not a good sign when you see so many icebergs floating around yeah know it's it's quite scary actually yeah I mean when I see what's around me today my heart shrinks the Gren and ice sheet contains enough ice ice to increase sea levels globally by about 24 ft this is our future and it's also our demise if we save the Arctic we will save [Music] ourselves it's taken more than 3 weeks but we finally made it to our main objective this is like the craziest wall I know it looks it looks evil ortac is growing in front of us but it's also I think growing in our minds they are the best climbers in the world and I feel that they're totally Unstoppable but actually when they were on the boat looking at the face for the first time they felt human that's so big oh my God guys sweet what do we sign up for in mcac a giant 4,000 ft Sea Cliff and one of the biggest unclimbed rock faces on the planet what's the obvious line can you see one nothing yet sure no so far I'd say nightmare on all sides it's like everything just looks terrifying from this yeah it definitely looks bigger than nail cap yeah it's bigger than NAC cap T yeah yeah it's huge it's huge it's nearly three times the height of the Empire State Building and nearly 1,000 fet taller than alapan oh man this thing is absolutely huge there's just not a lot of cliffs this big in the world I don't know how we're going to do [Music] this well should we try and scram up a bit wow it's so smooth okay I'm going to start don't let me die wait wait wait wait wait I could only speed out so quick so just don't run I'm going to move back over and go across this other [Music] right about 30 m oh wow yeah we can't just start up one line and be like oh this isn't the route if we chose the wrong one and it turns into like you know a bunch of loose Rock and awful climbing like then we're just done I think that top section could be so hard way up high yeah yeah it looks so steep from here doesn't it yeah none of the options look easy the middle section is blank and featureless and the right hand section looks like a death route so we're going with the left side which seems to be the safest way up all the roots wind up on the head wall 1,000 ft of vertical Rock which will definitely be the hardest part of the climb cam off his up okay I'm climbing on Green uh there's Hazel climbing below me and Mikey everybody's cruising the views starting to improve more icebergs crazy glaciers epic big wall we're doing it very exciting how does it look above Alex yeah it's really hard to decide where to go the classic style this crack is all rotten like all soften is it pretty trusty yeah it's like really sandy it's like the first uh like bad Rock we've experienced really rock holy shizzel that is heinous so the loose Rock poses a couple problems the initial danger is just as the lead climber he could pull a block off off and hurt himself and then as we progressed up the wall it's sort of just a train like you can always hit the person below you because like you could just knock a block off now and it could kill me yeah totally totally if there are multiple members on the team whoever's furthest back is at the most danger of rockfall cuz there's more things bouncing and they've been going further they're traveling faster okay I'm off Aldo just shout if you kick anything off okay you know if a medium size rock hits you from 50 ft away it just kind of hurts if it hits you from 500 ft away then you'll be dead I'm like standing on just teetering CH Rock oh Rock allo h to use climbing terminology it's a massive choss pile choss is basically lots of rock and gravel and things it's just continually shedding or exfoliating down the fall line don't particularly want to be hanging around under do you I'm below M so most of the rocks are coming down my way and that's actually what I think is worrying Mikey and Hazel more than than anything else is that they kick something off which comes down and kills me this thing is a yeah no oh yeah no we're fully like this is we're mountaineering we're doing something but it's not super safe that's for sure do you want to lead this one I don't have shoes more than a week ago we had to leave a lot of our climbing gear at the top of the pool wall the weather has been so bad up there that our support team hasn't been able to recover it yet so that's why our whole jumaring ascending rope setup is a little uh improvised Alex is the only person on the team with climbing shoes right now I mean he's the strongest member of the team so it's lucky that it's his shoes that we have and not anyone else's but at the same time it would be really good if we could share the weight of the leading what's scary with a place like this is that if one iburg starts to roll on to calve it can really trigger a domino effect and and everything starts moving very [Music] quickly in motac is just a few miles away from one of the largest and fastest moving glaes in the Arctic the do guardiancon it's a huge for M long Glacier flowing from Greenland's vast Inland ice sheets down into the sea that's so much ice crazy it's like navigating through a Minefield like making sure you don't trigger anything that's going to collapse on you past data has shown us that the dog adanson glacia loses about 10 billion tons of ice per year this is a natural process all glaces move but when ocean temperatures warm the can start to melt From Below which makes them speed up have more icebergs and contribute more to sea level rise the future of New York London and Shanghai is directly linked to Glaciers like this one glaciers for the South and slightly further north are now losing much more ice than they were 40 years ago I want to find out if the dog yansen is following the same wearing Trend oh they look good huh yeah let me see uh I can't wait to see what there is on this two time-lapse cameras have taken pictures of the glacier every hour over the entire duration of the experiment by tracking features like crevasses and rocks we can use the time-lapse images to determine how much the glacia has moved and from that we can work out if it's moving faster than when it was last studied two decades ago Mikey no it is actually some of the better climbing well yeah but like I mean the gray rock is like full of death blocks what all we got here something uh I'm on this lead line what do you think is safer let's go with the blade ofice for now why so that you don't drop me to my death dud if you really think that that has anything to do with the overall safety of what we're doing yeah yeah it helps you have horror risk assessment at the moment like somebody grumpy I'm just saying get no dude I'm not being grumpy I'm being real like this is definitely like the chiesto of just missed my head yeah ideally when you're climbing with people you need them to be able to empathize and relate with how you're feeling got it oh rock rock rock Ro Rock it's so sketchy this is terrifying dude Alex I know it's like literally getting shot at by your buddy Alex is not doing a great job at understanding the experience that the rest of us are having how many so many times man you can dodge rocks and stay psyched that's fair I mean everybody's bummed because it's really hard work oh man it's so hard in approach they don't have any of their gear so they're just improvising random bits and Bobs to slide their their way up the Rope I mean they're basically just following me like pack animals I mean in general I felt like I was being pretty careful but I mean I'm sure I knocked some rocks well yeah I mean rocks have been coming down the whole time I'm on play Mikey okay you're off we're poised to do the first scent of one of the biggest unclimbed walls in the world it's a great opportunity as a climber but if anybody doesn't want to do that then I mean that's you know it's like we're all here by choice you can come up on the white when you're ready yeah one sec so yeah what any honest take right now of this whole thing oh God here if you hand that to me I can I think I got I mean those last two pitches were really bad I mean there's just no way to like I'm just struggling to figure out how to make it remotely safe like there's more loose stuff than there is solid stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah not going to lie I'm pretty borderline at this point yeah like it just this is not like what I signed up for you know Mikey has a lot of experience under his belt and if he's saying that his intuition is that he shouldn't be on the wall then I'm like well you know maybe I shouldn't be on the wall either you know it's making me think that it's riskier than I thought I feel like morale is really low today yeah no morale is tanking at the moment just so you know it's just the danger well what do you think we should do to uh make it better that's the problem some climbs are just really dangerous doesn't matter how good you are and over the years I've lost quite a few friends to climbing you know more than I can count on my hands and my feet and at this point it's hard to be optimistic that the climbing's going to improve at all it is more the same if not harder up there cuz the head wall looks steep it's like I don't want to die oh man yeah how you survived another day I did yeah anyway should we uh go down and join our friends on the boat um Alex you know he does have the confirmation by us right like nothing's essentially bad happened to him piece of sort of a joke cool I'll see you at the bottom okay and it is how some things get done so weat about our future yeah love chatting about our future Mikey do you want to start and let the team know where you're at what are you thinking there isn't enough value in it for me to like continue on and like I just think that to me there's like risks that are going to be like to our to mitigate continuing on it's like you don't want to climb a giant sea cliff no I mean I mean it's pretty cool but what if you go first the whole way I was definitely hoping that like conditions were going to improve and they have definitely not improved you know think so I thought The Rock was slowly getting a little better I mean that last P you know pitchy Leed you like changed course cuz you're like oh these are like janga blocks and I'm like yeah those are proper Jango block yeah even they fall off yeah but like they do fall off you know like it's just too bad cuz you've already taken so much risk up there it's a shame to not that all that is always a poor reason to take more that's that's and I would be more disappointed in myself if something happened while I was up there then the disappointment I'm going to have by not going I think Mikey is an old friend of mine and we've been climbing partners for a long time [Music] I just worry that he won't be as satisfied if he's not actually climbing the wall but like are you sure you're happy with that cuz yeah yeah yeah no I I you know and I've never been one to like like dwell on my decisions Alex's biggest concern is that I would be disappointed in retrospect so that was was very nice of him what uh what do you think Asel I think for me is I need to know that like you're thinking clearly about it you know cuz it's really cool how positive and psyched you are and that's one of the reasons I really like climbing with you but then sometimes it's like are you being so optimistic you're not actually seeing feel like it's been been too too optimistic so far yeah yeah and like I'm definitely more risk adverse than you and so I think it would just be cool to like hear from you that you're l listening to that you know and that you know I just I just want to make sure we're on the same page basically I I hear you I hear you I mean we definitely want to be on the same same page I mean I guess to me the thing is are we all don't to sound hogy but like when we all go home I want to make sure we're all still friends everyone's happy no one's like bummed to decisions nobody you know no I mean think we're making decisions and we've talked it through a lot but you still need you need I think you need to tell me that like this is going to be good of that you know you're not the soul partner so I would say that now suddenly your opinion carries a lot of weight because if you don't feel comfortable then the part's over overall I still want to climb that wall I have that pull to have the adventure I want to know what that head walls like so it was really important to kind of sit down with Alex and be like look I'm your only teammate now and so I think he got it in his own way Mikey is right that it's a dangerous place but for me and Hazel to climb one of the biggest unclimbed walls in the world something that hasn't been done that's big that's meaningful it's worth it oh the boat is here what do you got there Aldo one bag of ring kit we got some stuff at least hello shoes yes my shoes is this your helmet yeah my helmet we'll see you guys in a few days then nice nice the trip huh bye see you soon okay all right see you guys in bit all right this is it it's just me and Hazel and in mlac climbing the Steep final head wall is definitely going to be a challenge especially if it's just the two of us did you go first or no you you should go so exciting putting my shoes on the first time and really long [Music] time oh my God we're climbing [Music] [Music] [Music] we make good progress through the afternoon getting closer and closer to the head [Music] wall yeah it's sad to not have Mikey up here huh yeah it's sad we missing Mikey oh this actually is a great place to camp this is amazing we should definitely stay right here yeah it's pretty flat this yeah this is really flat and really beautiful look at the [Music] wall oh you've got your life raft is that because we're on a sea cliff if I fall off I'll float down and then I'll float back to Camp oh that'd be nice that looks pretty comfy how do you feel pretty good yeah now I just need my sleeping bags I absolutely love sleeping on walls it's one of my favorite things about big Walling can I take a picture it's this moment to actually enjoy the wall and be present and calm with the wall without wanting to just be climbing up it that looks sick how's your bed Alex this is actually really G I've gotten pretty I just used the Rope to prop up my head more and it's very comfortable what a nice spot oh it's so nice to wake up with some sunshine okay you're ready take us away Hazel all righty we've still got a good 1400 ft between us and the summit we're traveling light with limited [Music] supplies there's no plan B we're going to the [Music] top yeah who knows what this head wall will hold the blank face that you want to go towards is looking blanker and blanker as we get closer to it two pitches later and we're finally starting into the hardest part of the clim the head wall [Music] just looks so scary though all the features are Big Blocks waiting to fall off if you touch it with your rope if you touch it with your foot it just showers loose rocks down the whole mountain is like a stack of cards because it's just stacked blocks teetering on top of each other and it feels like if any one of them goes then they're all going to crumble like normally you climb a little bit you might be a little scared but then when you finish you're safe but on this there just are hardly any points where you fueled safe halfway Alex okay we just fueled kind of on edge the entire time how' it look it's just hard to know exactly where I want to go yeah I'm thinking about going left into that corner and then up through some cracks and kind of like aiming for the left side of the big roof hey as we get higher up to wall we realize that the whole Summit is guarded by these big overhanging roofs and so the roof finding starts to become a lot more important where we have to nail the right way to navigate through this maze there's the little Tower right above us like you see that little like block yeah basically I think it's like not a terrible place to try to tackle this roof but for literally hours as we're slowly moving up towards this you know that it might not work just not really knowing whether not it will dead end I mean should I just go easiest possible line like as if I was sing what would that be left yeah just take the corners do we think right is better yeah I think right leaves our options open for [Music] longer uh little rocks rocks we switch and Hazel takes the lead all right that's a really good pitch you did so far halfway yeah you'll catch me though if I fall right well these Ledges will probably catch you I think you could just go left and follow that big corner I was just going to place a piece but I'll sack it off yeah it's terrifying oh that's terrible I mean I can't put any gear behind that oh I don't even want to hold that it's hard to describe how hard it is to do something like this nice s you really don't know if the next pitch is going to be possible it's like not many footh holds that aren't going to break just tread lightly you really don't know if like your next handle is going to break I just does look trending up and right it's just like pretty blank protection L for ways we only have enough food and water until the end of the day so we really need to get to the top of that wall you should probably try to build an anchor in the next you know 20 yeah I'll try and aim for those ledge systems the only viable route is sideways across a blank section but this wall it's crumbling with every move we make it's really sketchy but it's the only option we have now I just have a terrifying [Music] Traverse oh God you're doing great oh my God so [Music] [Music] scary nice jobz yay finally he switch was awesome it might be the Crux of the route so [Music] far rock that almost hit me brother that scared to come out with my ner here be he The Rocker just came right past my head you can to hopefully this is the last pitch and it will all be over [Music] soon the most important part of climbing the wall for me is just staying in the moment [Music] you know focusing on each task at hand and not thinking about the scale of the wall in front of us not thinking about what might [Music] happen really just have to focus on can I do this move and just take it one move at a time all the way to the top [Music] I think I'm uh I think I'm getting [Music] somewhere [Music] sweet [Music] Mercy never been happier to get to the top of we're so over it it's it's a horrible I'm so like yeah Alex is at the top yeah oh so exited we made it to the summit I was like please save this fives yeah this is amazing Alex is a bit of a difficult character to be friends with sometimes but there was nothing but good vibes between us the whole climb that is so cool this is like special this is the coolest summon I've ever seen can we stand right on the top yeah it was a really nice experience for us to share and I think we're going to be better friends because we shared this experience yay Summit please don't bre you unle doing this now climbing with Haze on the wall was a total pleasure Summit of all people she was well equipped to handle the challenges of that wall definitely pretty satisfying to get at the top we came up with terrifying you know for literally 2 days we were climbing on terrible Rock neither of us has ever climbed anything that's so consistently scary but it did feel like we sort of got away with or something you know it's like you can only roll the dice like that so many times it's a kind of climb that you do only if it matters enough to you oh wow and look at the dogar Jensen oh that's a crazy looking glacia it was pretty incredible to get to the true Summit of the peak and then suddenly see one of the biggest and most active glaciers in Greenland shedding these enormous icebergs into the Fjord it's like one of those things that you kind of have to see to believe I've analyzed the information from the time-lapse cameras and to my surprise I've discovered that the do aranson is still quite stable moving at the same speed it was 10 20 years ago more or less 25 to 30 ft per day I don't know exactly why but somehow the dog adanson glacia is still quite stable while the rest of the Arctic is collapsing around it and to me this tells me that all is not lost that some glaces are trying to hold it together and trying to stay strong but for how much longer the do guardan is the exception if we don't act now we'll lose the Arctic as we know it and we'll be forced to live in a much more challenging World congratulations welcome back oh thank you hearing that the doar Jensen is relatively stable so far is interesting and encouraging it's nice to know that some glaciers haven't begun a terminal decline [Music] yet yay I could be Happ but I think that I just have a natural sort of an innate optimism around it you know like a lot of the environmental issues that we face if we resolve them it also fastly improves the human quality of life we have this amazing opportunity to make the world better we just haven't quite chosen to [Music] yet

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 163,881

Keywords: national geographic, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, Alex Honnold, Arctic Ascent, Full Episode, Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold, Greenland, sea cliff, climate change, region, Alex Honnold leads, expedition in Greenland, arctic ascent nat geo, arctic ascent Alex Honnold, alex honnold greenland climb, alex honnold greenland national geographic, greenland national geographic, Arctic Ascent greenland

Id: UqwSahByqfQ

Length: 93min 57sec (5637 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024