Day 179 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and nothing new is happening.
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I mostly went to see Free Solo yesterday because Rotten Tomatoes bestowed outstanding ratings of 98% (reviewers) and 95% (audiences). There were only a few in the theater and the movie placed 15th in Box Office Mojo this weekend.
In short, Alex Honnold free-soloed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park on 3June2017, a 2,900-foot climb in 3 hours and 56 minutes, which was made into this National Geographic film by climber/photographer Jimmy Chin. I well remember his 2015 Meru, documenting his team's climb of the Garwhal Himalayas in India. Rotten Tomatoes gave them 89%/91% ratings.
Note that the meaningfulness of the film was personal. However, reviewers exuded superlatives like truly dazzling and outrageously harrowing. 
For me it all began in 1958 when I began my freshman year at Stanford, 150 or so miles away from Yosemite National Park, home of El Capitan. That year three climbers using ropes and all that climbing gear took 47 days to ascend from base to top.
In 1959 I joined El Capitan, an eating club, and daily saw the face of that most famous free-climbing mountain in the world in a painting. (I might interject here that half a century later, in 2009, Stanford abolished all the eating clubs.) El Capitan, the eating club, is no more.
In 1968 Royal Robbins (right) was the first to make a solo ascent of this majestic granite cliff, and it took him 10 days with the usual assorment of accoutrements. In 1979 Ray Jardine and Bill Price succeeded in a free climb, meaning no ropes and stuff, in six days. Thirty climbers have lost their lives attempting to reach the top, including two this year.
Climbers have been speculating for years about a possible free solo of El Capitan, but there have only been two other people who have publicly said they seriously considered it. One was Michael Reardon (left), a free soloist who drowned in 2007 after being swept from a ledge below a sea cliff in Ireland. The other was Dean Potter (right). who died in a base jumping accident in Yosemite in 2015.
Then last year came Alex Honnold. Why would anyone dare to climb straight up a cliff using only your fingers and shoes? One slip and you're dead. He accomplished this feat in three hours and 56 minutes. 
I'll long remember this film because Honnold is everything I'm not. He takes chances with his life. I don't. I feel uneasy just walking down stairs these days. His choice of a good meal is an assortment of vegetables, over which he pours in something from a can, and eats with a spatula straight from the pot. No alcohol or caffeine. Lived in a van for a decade.
Says he is Mormon, except for the God thing. Six years ago he started the Honnold Foundation seeking simple, sustainable ways to improve lives worldwide. He is promoting solar energy in the developing world. Hmm...well, maybe we have a little in common after all.
Movies are an escape for me. I relish the two hours of fantasy each weekend, for that is the only adventure I get. I've eliminated from my watch list comic book, vampire, zombie, anything made for children and more because they are unrealistic. Free Solo in its own way was even worse, actually, because the premise is in the realm of the impossible. But he made it happen. And he is alive.
Of course, the insanity continues. Later last year Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds made essentially the same climb, together, in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Here is their time-lapse video.
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Typhoon Yutu (Rosita) will make landfall over the northern Philippines on Wednesday as a Category 2, then make a right turn in the South China Sea:
Hurricane Oscar will become a Category 2, then weaken on its way to Scotland...yes, Scotland:
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Incidentally, if you are into Suntory Yamazaki whiskey, there is an ongoing auction of a 34-year old cask, with a November 1 deadline. The price is up to $75,000, for one bottle. How do you make a bid? Click on dekanta.
Earlier this year a 50-year old Yamazaki bottle went for just about $300,000. Divided by 25 ounces, that would be $12,000 per ounce, or a jigger (1.5 oz) brings the cost up to $18,000. But bars tend to multiply their cost by at least a factor of 3, so make that $54,000 for a shot.
I'll someday report on the 2018 World Whiskey Awards, but the best blended this year is Johnny Walker Gold. The top single malt? Suntory Hakusho. I have both bottles ten feet from me. I should continue my Blood Alcohol Concentration measurements...soon.
The best bourbons come from Kentucky (1792--that's the maker--theirs is finished in Port barrels), although Balcones from Texas did well this year. The best single cask single malt came, again, from Australia: Sullivans Cove. Of course, Hobart, Tasmania is almost not Australia.
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