Alex Honnold: New series offers immersive experience watching 'Free Solo' star climb without ropes

By Ben Church, CNN Video produced by Amy Li, CNN

Updated 0924 GMT (1724 HKT) April 20, 2022

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(CNN)Alex Honnold stunned the world when he climbed El Capitan without any safety ropes — and now the climbing sensation is giving fans a front row seat to his free soloing skills.

Honnold is the star of a new two-part virtual reality (VR) series which follows him as he demonstrates his skills on unforgiving mountains in the Dolomites, Italy, and in his familiar stomping ground of the US. Audiences, who require a Meta headset to watch the series, get to see Honnold shimmy up rock faces using just his hands and feet. Look down, and viewers get a very real sense of just how far he is off the ground. «I'd never done anything in VR, so it seemed like an opportunity to do something new and interesting,» Honnold told CNN Sport, speaking about the making of the