A Really Good Day Out
What we can learn from Alpinist Marc-André Leclerc
“If you fall and die everybody thinks you're an idiot, risk taker, daredevil. But if you succeed everybody celebrates you as a big hero. But the reality is, you’re the same either way.” - Alex Honnold
I love the outdoors. In my adult life, I’ve gotten more and more into camping, backpacking adventures, and challenging myself in ways that push my mental limits in a big way. I’ve climbed Half Dome, summited my first 14er, Mt. Shasta, and spent four days in the backcountry of Garibaldi Wildness outside of Whistler. While for me all of these things were great feats and challenged me in ways I greatly appreciate, sometimes much more after the fact, they are mild adventures compared to what mountaineers and alpinists such as Alex Honnold, Marc-André Leclerc, Brette Harrington, and Emily Harrington do on a regular basis.
Because I appreciate extreme sports so much and am fascinated by those who participate, it’s probably not surprising that I Iove sport documentaries. One of the most recent docs that came out, called “The Alpinist”, featured Marc-André Leclerc and his mixed discipline soloing talents. I didn’t know much about this film or Marc’s style of climbing, but I knew it was right up my alley.
In similar ways to Alex Honnold, who free soloed El Capitan in Yosemite in 2017 (see the trailer for film Free Solo here), Marc-André free solo’s across disciplines including rock, ice, and snow. Known as “avant garde”, this type of alpinism means you are doing challenging snow/ice/mixed routes, on big faces, onsight, solo, in alpine style, and in Marc-André’s case, he was doing first attempts on many of his routes. Basically to a non-climber, that means he’s by himself, without ropes, climbing insane routes for the first time ever, during the winter. His feats are edge of your seat, edge of life kind of crazy.
As I watched the film, several things stood out to me about Marc-André. His undeniably contagious character, appreciation for the mountains and for adventure, and minimalist approach, deeply drew me to his story. He had an approach and perspective unmatched. He had figured out what he loved and what made him happiest in life, and he pursued it wholeheartedly. He didn’t care what others thought, didn’t care what his feats meant to the rest of the world. He simply climbed because he loved it. His views on life were refreshing.
As a mental performance expert, two key things caught my attention. First, he was incredibly methodical and precise in his planning and execution. In an article I came across after I watched the film, his girlfriend was quoted offering an explanation to his style. “Marc as a child felt really clumsy. He would drop things. He spent years focusing on doing things carefully and precisely and perfectly.”
This is evident as you watched Marc-André climb up frozen waterfalls, dangling his body weight on the tiny tip of an ice axe, knowing the ice can shift or break at any moment. In this type of situation, being precise and methodical is the difference between life and death. He didn’t rush, always seemed calm and in control.
Second, he was deeply focused during all of his climbs.
In the film, the idea of singular in the moment focus is mentioned. As an expert in mental performance, this is a concept I work with clients on regularly. But I’ve found that extremists like Alex Honnold and Marc-André Leclerc exemplify it best. When soloing in the mountains, your best chance for surviving such extreme life and death experiences is to be deeply focused on the present moment. They’ve trained themselves to be so methodical, so prepared, so precise, and practiced their skills and mentality so often, it allowed them to be so deeply in the moment that nothing else matters and their confidence could thrive.
Before my summit of Mt. Shasta, I had a ton of fear thoughts. What if I fall? What if I can’t do it? What if I’m scared? While these thoughts were a necessary part of my process, I had to shift my focus from the emotion of fear to the important mental and physical prep fear can also initiate. I prepared a mantra, googled images of the mountain so I could visualize myself there, and practiced my breathing techniques that I knew would be crucial to my success on the mountain. I was lucky to have mountain guides that would take care of the planning of our route and educate us on the safety precautions and gear training we’d need, but my mental prep proved most crucial. During the climb, I had to be focused only on my next foot placement - and I found that when I broke that focus, looked around, or let my mind wander, I stumbled and my fear would kick in again. As long as I stayed focused on each moment and each step, I felt comfortable and confident.
Marc-André Leclerc had to take this focus to deeper levels. When you’re solo on the sheer face of an ice and snow covered mountain, you have to be focused on the moment. Quoted in the film, “Soloing puts you in the present, you can’t be thinking about anything else.” What athletes like Marc-André, Alex Honnold, and other climbers highlight, is that deep, methodical preparation leads to deep, singular focus when you need it most. Train your brain so when you need your brain to shift into auto mode, you’re ready.
I highly recommend The Alpinist. See for yourself Marc-André's incredible accomplishments and develop your own take-a-ways from his story. And if you want to know more about the mindset Marc-André lived by, send me a message and let’s chat!
I’ll leave you with this final quote by Michelle Kuiper, Marc-André’s mom:
“What is it that you could do if you could overcome the things you see as limitations?
Or the things that you’re afraid of?
What would you do?”
A few other documentary recommendations:
