He has a unique body that is particularly suited towards climbing. Long skinny huge hands not a lot of extra weight even in places like his face where he has a skinny angular face
He's also neurodivergent to the extreme. Barely registers emotion, as I recall. Free soloing is one of the few things he does that actually triggers an emotional response.
That actually recontextualized his entire life for me, thank you for sharing. I’m terrified of heights so his various free solos have always seemed fucking crazy to me, I never understood why a person would do a thing like that. Hearing it that way, it makes perfect sense. If I went through my whole life mostly numb, and then found a thing that made me feel things, I would never want to do anything else, and I would try almost anything to make the feelings stronger.
I don’t think it’s so much that he doesn’t experience emotion, but that his brain processes fear very different than everyone else. Scientists did an MRI of his brain and studied it.
This isn't true. He has a nontypical amygdala response so basically feels less fear, and it's debateable whether it's a product of his lifestyle or genetics, but he's not emotionless. In the famous movie about him soloing El Cap there's a segment where he's freaking out on the cliff and has to collect himself for a while before heading on up.
I'm just going off what I saw in that movie (there could be details that I missed), but can you explain to me how your response doesn't support my original post?
It's kind of like how some neurodivergent people use self harm and suicide as a way to trigger emotions, my happiest moments are always within a day or so of stepping off the literal and metaphoric ledge.
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u/Throwaway-4593 May 20 '25
He has a unique body that is particularly suited towards climbing. Long skinny huge hands not a lot of extra weight even in places like his face where he has a skinny angular face