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Among the 10 Best Books of March, Paste Publication

A deeply reported insider perspective of Alex Honnold’s historic achievement and the culture and history of climbing.

“Perhaps one of the most compelling accounts of the climb and the climbing ethos that I’ve ever read.”-Sebastian Junger

In Tag Synnott’s exclusive window within the ethos of climbing, his friend Alex Honnold’s amazing free single ascent of Un Capitan’s 3,000 feet of sheer about The Difficult Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life granite is the central act. When Honnold topped out at 9:28 A.M. on June 3, 2017, having spent fewer than four hours on his historical ascent, the world gave a collective gasp. The New York Times explained it as “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever.” Synnott’s personal history of his own obsession with climbing since he was a teenager-through professional climbing triumphs and defeats, as well as the dilemmas they render-makes this a deeply reported, charming revelation about living lifestyle towards the fullest. What are we doing if no impossible climb?

Synnott delves into a raggedy culture that emerged decades previously during Yosemite’s Golden Age group, when pioneering climbers like Royal Robbins and Warren Harding invented the sport that Honnold would start its hearing. Painting a geniune, wry portrait of climbing history and profiling Yosemite heroes and the harlequin tribes of climbers known as the Stonemasters as well as the Rock Monkeys, Synnott weaves in his own experiences with poignant understanding and wit: tensions burst on the mile-high northwest encounter of Pakistan’s Great Trango Tower; fellow climber Jimmy Chin miraculously persuades an official in the Borneo jungle to permit Honnold’s first foreign expedition, led by Synnott, to continue; equipped bandits accost the same trio at the foot of a tower in the Chad desert .

The Impossible Climb is an emotional drama driven by people exploring the limits of human potential and seeking a perfect, choreographed dance with nature. Honnold dared significantly beyond the normal, beyond any climber ever sold. But this tale of sublime heights is really about most of us. Who doesn’t need to encounter down fear and take full advantage of the time we have?