Alex Honnold Responds to Being the ‘Bad Guy’ in HBO’s New Documentary About Yosemite’s Dean Potter
Alex Honnold has a lot to say about being turned into the bad guy in HBO’s new Yosemite climbing documentary.
“The Dark Wizard” is a four-part docuseries about Dean Potter, the legendary climber and BASE jumper who defined extreme sports in Yosemite Valley before dying in a BASE jumping accident in the park in 2015. The third episode digs into Potter’s rivalry with Honnold, who systematically completed many of the climbing projects Potter had spent years dreaming about, including the first free solo of Half Dome in 2008 and a free solo ascent of El Capitan’s West Face by 2012.
On his podcast Climbing Gold, Honnold said he sat for 12 hours of interviews with the filmmakers and was caught off guard by how the footage was used.
“They basically took all the most extreme stuff and turned it into, like, ‘Extremely competitive! Hates Dean!'” Honnold said. “You’re kind of like, oh. It’s slightly annoying.”
He acknowledged the 2012 season directly. “2012 is a big f—ing year, because I basically did everything that Dean had ever done or wanted to do, and generally in better style and, you know, faster and whatever,” Honnold said in the series. “Yeah, poor Dean.”
But on his podcast, he pushed back on the framing. He called Potter his childhood hero and said the projects were less about one-upping a rival and more about completing as much as he could while he was in the valley.
Despite the portrayal, Honnold said the series was worth making. “Dean was such a hero of mine, and really the whole generation of climbers,” he said. “It makes me slightly sad that people that get into climbing now will have never heard of him. It’s nice to sort of remember his legacy in some way.”
The final episode airs Tuesday on HBO.
