Magnus Midtbø on Viral Free Solo with Alex Honnold

you did this fantastic video with with Alex honold where you went out and you and you free soloed with him it's one of the most gripping videos that I've ever seen But the plan going in was not to free solo is that right yeah we drove from LA to um Vegas and on the way there that's when he told me like day before that's when he was like no we should we should do something else we should not go to the gym we should do some easy scrambling instead and then he sent me some pictures and I was initially I was like no I'm not really up for it like uh I've just been out in the sun wrestling Marines I was so sunburnt and everything I was like I'm not going free sing tomorrow but then he called me and he was like yeah you should really think about this will feel very easy for you he sent me pictures and he was like we you should just go out there look at the route and then you'll decide I'm sure it's going to be fine for you I was like oh Jesus uh and and the thing is like if someone else said said that to me I would be okay I would be like okay yeah he's probably right it's probably going to be really easy and chill for me but knowing that it's Alex like I was like no it's probably not so chill cuz I was thinking we were going like sport climbing or bouldering or something totally and then all of a sudden you sent me like a text message of this like 100 met blank looking wall you know I was like man you always go to gyms with people and you can always go sport CL with people but this is something that that is I don't want to say unique to me but very few people will take you on an adventure like this I was like this is this will be cool and I just feel very confident that of all the things you could do here you'll feel good on this not to say that you'll feel great but if you feel bad on this you'd feel worse on everything else so it's like you know we're taking you to the best possible thing to solo and if if this isn't the one for you then you know what you just probably shouldn't be Sol be Sol yeah exactly did he have to convince you to do it like did he have to talk you into it yeah yeah I did uh I I initially said no and uh yeah and I wasn't really sure that I was going to do it but the thing is also I was a little bit afraid of going there because I feel like then I was already so committed from a distance the route looked okay but then when we got underneath the cliff it was like it looked pretty intimidating and we saw people like struggling hanging and they had ropes you know hanging above us and I was like oh oh my god um and it's also if I mean if I climbed it already on the Rope once I would would be much more likely to say yes but I didn't do like I had never even been climbing in that area so I didn't even know the rock or anything and Alex also said that there was going to be a lot of chalk there was seral chalk I think definitely I'm a little bit intimidated by the exposure M when it feels like it's straight down like a 150 M mhm it feels more real even though it's totally irrational you know I think the important thing for soling something like this is not to think about whether it's going to get easier or harder or think about what's to come or what you've already done it's just like one move at a time be like this move is easy this move is easy this move is easy like there aren't any moves where you have to like jump sideways to something you know what I mean like it's all very stable I hope not this is how you coach somebody into free soloing yeah let's just hope we don't kill Magnus yeah all right y'all just a quick break here from the man the myth the legend Magnus to tell you about Magnus or really mag dust I've been trying this chalk out for the past six weeks now and I got to tell you I've been loving it it feels fantastic on my fingers whether I'm struggling on the moon board the set problems at the gym or on my project out at the red this chalk feels great it performs really really well it's at the top of so many lists of the best chalk out there and it's really affordable you can score yourself a bundle cover your entire season it's not going to break the bank tons of Pros are using it it performs well you can afford it and check this out hit that link below right there enter to win a year supply of Mag dust chalk they're also making liquid chalk now and chalk balls the mag dust Empire is expanding and I think you should check it out I really love this stuff now let's get back to Magnus himself it's a 59 climb right it's like a a easy yeah you're a 515 climber so like it's it's certainly well within your physical ability but obviously climbing hundreds of feet without a rope totally changes the game and you know we I I did a video on this after I talked with Alex honold your video is obviously incredibly popular a lot of the a lot of the comments at least that I got were people saying you know Alex was Reckless it was super unfair for him to you know to bring um Magnus out there when you look back on that um what is your take on that you know these a lot of people came to your defense you know in the comments section here people love you Magnus um they felt that you know Alex maybe had had gone a little bit too far in inviting you out there are they fair in that comment or what's your take on it no I don't think so at all I I mean that was my decision I mean obviously I'm a grown man I know and I also I've climbed for 25 years and I free solo with Alex before so I know I mean yeah it's I it's not something that he forced me into uh I definitely I was surprised by how much he was pushing me um also on the phone and stuff but in the end I was never going to let him uh take that decision for me uh so and he I think he saw that otherwise he wouldn't have done it but um and also as he says like if you're either a 515 or v15 climber uh then that's when he will take you out for soloing um I don't know if I agree with that completely because I feel like when it's that easy it doesn't really matter anymore it's more about keeping your nerves under control feeling good up in here but the next part looks pretty steep let it in relax also watching you with the camera does that make it more scary or less scary so far less scary actually yeah okay cool uh just seeing how casual you are there was never yeah there was never any chance I would fall off or there was there was one point where I was actually a little bit I couldn't find any holes or anything but um I think it was mainly just because because I was stressing that yeah well I know that he had utmost confidence in you as he as he related to me in our conversation that he said that you know you may have been stressed but there's a big difference between being stressed and you know being about to fall off but it also did look like there were a couple sections in there that um gave you pause or at least you know were were a challenge um or you were kind of stressing out about a little bit more than others and and what what comes to you just mentioned one of them there like what was that point where where things got the first the the first part was the crack I think yeah just because I wasn't really expecting anything like that you know the holes were small and also crack I thought he knew that I was bad at crack climbing like he should have warned me and if he didn't warn me about that what else is there you know this is the first pitch already sure uh is there something else like this like 200 M further off this is kind of scary though yeah yeah it's okay just build your feet like take your time find the good Pockets yeah nice see like just yeah see like that edge is still a good Edge like it's great you can I don't trust it that's yeah but you can that's like bomber so already then I was like not really doubting whether or not I could do it but I was starting to doubt him I would say right um so that is probably the first part and then there was a second time when we had to turn off the camera because I was getting kind of stressed I was a little bit off the route and there was no chalk or anything and I felt like I had like four pretty bad holes like bad feet bad bad hands but they were all okay but none of them were like really good and then I was starting to stress but um yeah no the whole way it was more just keeping the nerves under control and thinking about something else and almost pretending like you had a rope because I know that there's no chance I would fall on this if I had a rope so the only the only the only way I can fall off this is if I kind of freak out yeah well I was freaking out when I was watching it and I've seen it a few times now um I think we can all put ourselves in this position of you know what would it be like to be that high and and it's it's hard to imagine I mean I I think it's you know probably the scariest thing that could that I could ever probably do uh but you did keep it together and it's interesting that you said you you had to turn the the cameras off for a minute there because uh at least in the past having the cameras on you has helped you to perform but was it just such a mental game that um the cameras started to becoming it started to add extra pressure it was more that Alex was holding the camera physically and when he was doing that he couldn't really focus on helping me he was more focused on filming right so I I I had to tell him to put it down so that he could help me [Applause] [Music] better

Channel: The Struggle Climbing Show

Views: 156,140

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Id: 0V2T3uXwHps

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 04 2023