Alex Honnold and Others Talk About Fear

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In Fine Lines, from director Dina Khreino, climbers Alex Honnold, Lynn Hill, Tommy Caldwell, and Emily Harrington explore their relationship with fear. The full film is available on iTunes, Vimeo, YouTube, and other on-demand platforms.

Jan 29, 2020

Video Transcript

SUBJECT 1: There's a fine line between bad ass and dumb ass and it's not easy to recognize where that line is, but you know when you cross it.

SUBJECT 2: All of these elements are there at once-- the rock, the water, the air, and the fire inside.

SUBJECT 3: The rock doesn't discriminate. It's up to you to adapt yourself to the rock.

SUBJECT 4: It's not normal to be 80 feet above your station and on a rope that's as thick as your finger.

SUBJECT 5: I don't climb to pursue the typical adrenaline rush. Generally, that's not a part of rock climbing. If that happens, it's a bad thing.

SUBJECT 6: I think it's a really, really fine line between life and death. We're so close to it all the time, we don't talk about it.

SUBJECT 7: You know, I don't really want to fall to my death off the wall. I'm sort of hoping to die at 94, you know, with like a couple of grandkids.

SUBJECT 8: That's a risk that I don't want to take.

SUBJECT 9: Fear keeps me alive.

SUBJECT 10: And the fear is telling me you are going above your ability.

SUBJECT 11: We weren't even hoping to do the climb anymore. We were just hoping not to die.

SUBJECT 3: It's a game that puts pressure on people to think about what are they going to post today, instead of what am I going to climb today.

SUBJECT 12: In a split second, it can go from an amazing day to the worst day of your life.

SUBJECT 13: There is a very serious consequence. You can get really injured or you can die.