Documentary short film Next Go For Sure features Alex Honnold taking climbers Carlo Traversi and Nik Berry into the mountains behind his Lake Tahoe home. On an obscure crag which Honnold casually calls “the east face of the whatever,” he tests them against painful new lines.
They have to bushwhack their way out to the intended target. Then the film wastes little time in getting Honnold onto the rock. The young men heckle him admiringly as he makes his arachnid-like way up the crag.
“You just have to do like 10 moves of extreme pain to get this one hold,” Honnold explains casually. Photo: Screenshot
East face of the whatever
He explores the line, shredding his hands on painful finger holds, and then it’s time for the tables to turn.
“it’s pretty hard,” Honnold says happily, surveying the anonymous route on a feature he admits to never having heard of. “It’s pretty painful. And…we’re all going to do it.”
An onscreen title informs us that the anonymous line is a 5.13b named East Face of the Plectrum. I suspect this is an off-color pun but am unable to prove it in court.
Nik Berry is the first one to take up the challenge. While Honnold made it look “like a dream,” he soon finds some meaty and difficult segments with, as promised, painful finger holds.
Nik Berry attempts Honnold’s new route. Photo: Screenshot
Traversi, who also films and directs the film, makes his way up next, and finally Honnold himself. Though he’s probably the most famous climber in the world, there’s no paternalistic teacher-student dynamic. His companions shout encouragement and guidance as he makes his way up, and he doesn’t hesitate to admit that he’s having trouble getting the holds with all the gear weighing him down.
When they’ve finally all sent the line, Honnold surveys long hike back. He’s hiked all the way out here, so he might as well free solo a nearby 5.9 line called the All-American Finger Crack. The climbing community has to implement some sort of quality control system for route names, because frankly, some of them are unpleasant.
The film itself, however, is not unpleasant. It’s a direct, casually intimate view of a trad-climbing trip that shows Honnold is still very much himself.
