Alex Honnold Free Climbing 'Solar Flare' with Emily Harrington

Six minutes, one roped ascent, and the film knows its limits. Alex Honnold and Emily Harrington climb Solar Flare, the nine-pitch 5.12d on the Incredible Hulk in California's High Sierra that Conrad Anker and Peter Croft put up in 2007. The ascent shown is from 2016.

This is for anyone who wants to see two strong climbers move on sustained 5.12 terrain in an alpine setting: clipping, belay technique, sequence and partner management on a long day above the trailhead. Skip it if you want expedition logistics or a story. The film is a vignette and does not try to be a documentary.

What works is the observational tone. Louder Than Eleven stays out of the way and the Fizzix Productions score is quiet, so the granite and the movement carry it. Nine pitches of continuously engaging climbing is the route's reputation and the film supports it. What it gets wrong is that six minutes on a nine-pitch route is under a minute a pitch, and the approach and descent, which are half of any Hulk day, are absent.

Black Diamond Presents: Next Go For Sure is Honnold in the same range, sixteen minutes on an unnamed splitter with Carlo Traversi's handheld camera. That film has time to talk. This one does not, and of the two Sierra films it is the one I remember less.