One of the most impactful movie theater experiences I ever had was in Lander, Wyoming, when I went with some of my friends who were into rock climbing and mountain climbing to go see a documentary.

It's not even a real movie with the script.

It's reality.

The movie was called Free Solo.

Do you remember this thing?

It boggled my mind. It's about the most

stressed I've ever been watching a movie. It was like I was driving a four-wheeler over a really

bumpy road. I was just puckered the whole time because this kid decides that he's going to go

and climb whatever that mountain is in Yosemite National Park,

Half Dome, El Capitan. I don't know. I sound like an idiot right now. I don't know my California

geography very well. Ask me about mountains in Yellowstone or Colorado. I'll do a little bit better.

Whatever, that great big lava dome is there that people climb. He decides to climb it,

but with no gear. This thing is sheer.

It's straight up. There's no way, no way on my fittest day that I could climb that with gear

and assistance. And I mean, I'm not a horrible athlete in my prime. I was a function. I don't know. Most things, even at this point in life, I see people do it. And I go, yeah, you know, on my best day, I might be able to do that or compete. Not this movie. I watched this movie and thought that is out of my league. That is impossible. I can't do that. I don't know how any human would do it with ropes. This guy's going to do it without ropes. And it's one of the most

stressful things that I've ever seen in my life. But I got to thinking about that example and thinking

about the places where my friends would go rock climbing and mountain climbing in places I'm more

familiar with. And there were a few of these places where it's an incredibly sheer cliff,

maybe not quite as dramatic as Yosemite, but you could get to the

top of some of those popular climbing routes with like, you know, a van just for free. You didn't even

have to pay for gas because people were just driving up there. You could just stick your thumb out

and they would take you with. Sometimes you didn't even have to stick your thumb out in some of those places you could just stand there and they'd be like well where else

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