INCREDIBLE new photographs have emerged of the free climber at the summit of El Capitan after he became the first person ever to scale it without ropes last year.

Alex Honnold was 31 when he reached the climax of the vertical rock formation in California’s Yosemite National Park in June 2017.

His journey became the subject of a National Geographic documentary “Free Solo,” which generated the highest per-venue average of 2018 and the best theater average ever for a documentary when it was released in September.

“So delighted,” Honnold said once he reached the top at the climax of the movie, which narrates the climb and his preparations for it.

Free solo climbing is an extreme technique practiced only by the most experienced climbers. They scale mountains with their bare hands and many die trying.

One climber quoted in the film put it this way: imagine if the penalty for Olympic athletes who failed to win gold every time they compete were death. That is the reality for free climbers.

Honnold was accompanied by a filming team, who did use ropes, arrayed along the climbing path. A drone and two fixed cameras were also used for the parts that are too difficult and dangerous for camera operators.

In some places the rock looks practically smooth, leaving Honnold with nothing more than seemingly invisible bumps and other irregularities in the mountain’s surface to get a toehold and hoist himself upward.

At times he squeezes his fingers into a crack or works his thumb into a small hole. One particularly tricky spot is known as a “Boulder Problem.” Here, Honnold has to perform a complicated set of arm and leg movements to keep moving ahead.

In months of training, working with a rope, he learned to execute those moves to perfection.

Still, on the day of the big climb, one cameraman looked away, unable to watch, as Honnold struggled to cling to the granite wall.

The movie’s production team spent much of the time holding their breath against the nightmarish prospect of a fall.

But Honnold himself seemed so calm that researchers wondered if there was something different about his brain.

Honnold himself said he knows what it is to be afraid.

“I’m afraid of death, I’m afraid of danger, I’m afraid of pain. I used to be very afraid of public speaking,” he said.

His explanation of how he conquered fear is simpler. “To me it just shows what 10 years of preparation and practice and de-sensitization does,” he said. Hard work has taught him to tame his feelings. (SD-Agencies)