Saw that, nuts as fuck. Said he passed a group around the two hour mark that were just waking up in their hanging tents. Normally takes a couple days with safety gear. That guy needs to sit back and chill out for awhile.
Alex is about as chill as it gets, which is a big part of why he is able to do these climbs. He's free solo'd so many big walls in the valley (Yosemite) and around the world, and this solo has been on his plate for a few years. It's all calculated risk for him, he's done his homework. He Solo'd the Nose, mostly without a rope, then did 3 Valley big walls in under 24 hours (The Nose, Half Dome, Mt. Watkins) Free solo'd Half Dome, Free solo'd in Mexico, Portero Chico, Climbed 290 pitches in under 24 hours, Climbed 4 Zion big walls in a day. He is as laid back as it gets. He doesn't have fear or freak out under about any circumstance. If he wanted to die, it would be as easy as letting go. This is what he was put on earth to do, and if one day, after 40 years of climbing, he peels off and pancakes, he will have lived 40 or 50 of the most fun years he could have. He puts his rock shoes on and goes to work, doing what he loves most, every minute of every day.
These big climbs take 3 to 5 days, even weeks, because most other climbers have to pack a gallon of water each per day, food, clothing, gear, portaledge, sleeping bags, first aid gear, etc. He ropes up and climbs them in a casual 2.5 to 10 hours since he doesn't have the logistics of hauling 250 pounds of gear. There are elite climbers, and then there is Alex.
Valley Uprising.... it's on Netflix, a very fun documentary on Yosemite climbing, and totally worth watching. I got to watch it in Yosemite, with many of the climbers featured in it, damn that was fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQXWnoipdFE Scott