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In this week's Friday Night Video, Magnus Midtbø returns to spend another day with Alex Honnold, hoping to gain an insight into the famous solo climber.

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Honnold fit. Magnus not quite.

Neither know how much water to carry.

Honnold good static climber. Magnus good dynamic climber. 

Honnold brave! solo 6b! Magnus not quite as brave and finally & sensibly backs off.

Nice little video to see a bit of the back country near Las Vegas and to also see the difference in how two people that onsight 8b approach a 6b solo.

"Alex is on the phone, wants to know if you want to go hiking tomorrow?"

"Tell him I'm washing my hair."

E

Regardless of grade, the fact you've got to downclimb it again would make attempting it a lot less appealing for most climbers compared to if you can just walk off. 

Completely agree, downclimbing is a skill that Honnold has spent a lifetime building and not many 'normal' climbers do in anything but small sections. 

They could have descended the easier flake just to the side of it, which they'd already come down.

I get nervous for Magnus and I feel a little bit like he's taking risks for the wrong reason sometimes but I guess it's his life and as long as he keeps making the right decision...

I think he's hamming it up a bit for the camera. Which is fair enough, he's making entertainment, and I suspect he's just slightly exaggerating his genuine feelings rather than making stuff up entirely. In the first video with Honnold, he gave the impression he'd never soloed anything before, but there's older video of him soloing in a really wild position in Verdon.

youtube.com/watch?v=JRl1LRlvVHA&

"Hamming it up for the camera" is Magnus' full-time job - though that's not to soloing 6b is trivial for anybody.

It was a nice little film though.