Cole Boeck | Freelancer<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This review contains spoilers.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rock climbing has gained notoriety throughout the past decade, particularly free soloing, which is climbing without the safety of a rope to anchor the climber to the route. The 2021 documentary \u201cThe Alpinist,\u201d currently available to stream on Netflix, focuses on a solo alpine climber who didn\u2019t reach out for the limelight: Marc-Andr\u00e9 Leclerc.<\/span><\/p>\n This film demands to be seen. I assumed that the film, which is rated PG-13, would be stressful to watch as free soloing is such an intense sport. But there was something different about watching Leclerc climb. Seeing his ascent of The Grand Wall in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, was breathtaking. There was a sense of serenity. Leclerc was so sure in his placement and his body. There was trust in every second.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I found myself asking how he could be so at peace in such a dangerous situation. How could anyone risk it?<\/span><\/p>\n Alex Honnold, a famed name in the climbing scene, responded to those ideas by laughing it off, \u201cThose are just dumb questions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I guess they are. There is no gray area there. There is either understanding \u2014 an acceptance of those risks \u2014 or there isn\u2019t. It\u2019s unfathomable to attempt to explain such a lived experience without a similar frame of reference.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps there will always be a gap between our own and another\u2019s experiences \u2014 a divide that can never fully be crossed. Is that the essence of humanity, to strive for empathy in spite of that knowledge? That noble goal of reaching out speaks to the importance of the journeys in our lives, as the destinations may never come. Leclerc said, \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the mountains \u2026 it\u2019s like all of the superficialities of life just sort of evaporate. \u2026 You appreciate everything so much. \u2026 It\u2019s kinda funny, the actual achievement doesn\u2019t really change your life like you think it might, when you\u2019re buildin\u2019 up to it, but what you\u2019re left with is the journey that got you to that point, \u2026 you\u2019re left with so much more of a story. \u2026\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I find is the most important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I have a love for language, but I find myself unable to find words suited to describe Marc-Andr\u00e9 Leclerc\u2019s life. He didn\u2019t need them. He simply lived it, and he lived it fully.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I find it poignant that it wasn\u2019t the climbing that killed him, but the descent. Cheers to a life that burned bright \u2014 d–n the consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n 9.5\/10<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at cboeck19@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Alpinist\u201d shares the achievements of an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1361,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2020\/12\/lighter-gray-line.png\")
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