Academy Award and BAFTA winning Free Solo to premiere on National Geographic

From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin, the directors of Meru, comes Free Solo, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock... the 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park... without a rope. Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Succeeding in this challenge places his story in the annals of human achievement. Free Solo will premiere on National Geographic on Monday, 4 March, at 21h00 CAT.

Free Solo is an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who challenges both his body and his beliefs on a quest to triumph over the impossible, revealing the personal toll of excellence. As the climber begins his training, the armour of invincibility he has built up over decades unexpectedly breaks apart when Honnold begins to fall in love, threatening his focus and giving way to injury and setbacks. Vasarhelyi and Chin succeed in beautifully capturing deeply human moments with Honnold as well as the death-defying climb with exquisite artistry and masterful, vertigo-inducing camerawork. The result is a triumph of the human spirit that represents what The New York Times calls "a miraculous opportunity for the rest of us to experience the human sublime".

“Alex Honnold’s Free Solo climb is an awe-inspiring testimony to the power of perseverance and tenacity, as he completes this incredible athletic feat. Watching him pursue his lifelong dream, climbing the 3,200-foot Al Capitan without ropes is both petrifying and exhilarating,” said Evert van der Veer, Vice President and General Manager, Fox Networks Group: Africa.

Free Solo broadcasts on National Geographic channel (on DStv, StarSat and Black):

Premiere – 4 March at 21:00
Repeat 1 – 8 March at 20:00
Repeat 2 – 9 March at 21:00
Repeat 3 – 13 March at 19:00