All told, there are 33 pitches to be climbed on Freerider. That is, if you were climbing that route using ropes and the usual climbing gear. MJ breaks those pitches down into four sections and looks at the individual parts of the climb that Alex had to work his way through on his way up. The article also enlists other well-known climbers – like Tommy Caldwell and Pete Whittaker – to help explain what each section and pitch involves. As you can imagine, some are far easier than others, with the most difficult obviously requiring a high degree of skill, strength, and mental toughness to overcome, even if you are using ropes to prevent a catastrophic fall.
The story helps to put further context to the story of Honnolds awesome, amazing, terrifying, and mind-blowing climb. We all know that it took supreme concentration and athletic effort for him to scale El Cap in this fashion, but this article provides a lot more detail on the more subtle moves he had to make along the way. It is an eye opening read that breaks down which parts of the route were insanely difficult, and which were merely incredibly tough.
Check out the full story here.