Alex Honnold Climbs a 4,000 Foot Sea Wall (Full Episode) | Arctic Ascent | National Geographic

The final episode on its own, and if you only want the wall this is the one. National Geographic follows Alex Honnold and a small team to Ingmikortilaq, a roughly 4,000-foot sea cliff rising from Nordvestfjord in eastern Greenland with no climbing history before this expedition. Honnold and Hazel Findlay made the first ascent on August 16, 2022.

This is for anyone who wants to see an Arctic big wall climbed for the first time, with the approach across the Renland Ice Cap, the hauling, the route finding and the anchor building all in frame. Heidi Sevestre's glaciology work runs alongside, and the film argues that technical climbing can be a platform for science. Skip it if you have watched the Mega Episode. This is the same footage, and forty-nine minutes on its own loses the ice cap traverse that sets it up.

What works is the lower third of the wall. It is loose, scree-covered rock, the climbing reaches 5.11 with long runouts, and the film makes clear that the danger there was not about difficulty. What it gets wrong is Findlay. She shares the first ascent and the title and framing hand the wall to Honnold alone.

Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold: Mega Episode is the full ninety-four-minute run, and the version I recommend. Watch this one if you already know the story and want to return to the climb.