Yosemite Experience
2026 · 48 min · Big Wall, Trad · Xpedition Films
The origin story. After three weeks of learning how to trad climb, Nicolas Favresse and Sean Villanueva free climbed Freerider, 5.12d and 1000 meters of El Capitan, in a five-day single push. It was the first big wall either of them had ever done.
Knowing what these two went on to do in Greenland, Baffin, Patagonia and China makes the film worth more than its footage alone. This is the pair before the reputation, learning the craft at absurd speed and clearly having the time of their lives on the biggest cliff in America. Short on polish, long on the specific energy of two young climbers discovering exactly what they are going to do with their lives.
Review
The origin story, and it earns the label. After three weeks of learning to trad climb, Nicolas Favresse and Sean Villanueva free Freerider, 5.13a and roughly 1,000 meters of El Capitan, in a five-day single push. It is the first big wall either of them had done.
This is for people who already know what these two went on to do in Greenland, Baffin, Patagonia and China. Watched with that knowledge, every scene reads as foreshadowing. It is also a good film for a strong climber wondering whether El Cap is possible without years of apprenticeship. Skip it if polish matters to you. The footage is rough, the edit is loose, and nobody was thinking about a film while they climbed.
What works is the energy. Two young climbers discovering exactly what they are going to do with their lives, on the biggest cliff in America, is a specific thing to have on camera and this has it. What it gets wrong is the climbing detail. Freerider is around 30 pitches and the film never gives a clear sense of which ones hurt.
Compare it with Jorg Verhoeven Free Climbs The Nose, a Louder Than Eleven film about thirty days of work on the neighboring line. That is a chronicle. This is a memory. Both are El Cap free ascents, and they could not feel more different.
