Alex Honnold Rappels Into a Ravine | Running Wild With Bear Grylls

[music playing] This is, like, pretty legit. That's, like, a long ways. I'm pretty pleased you're saying that. I'm definitely feeling it. I mean, this is 300 feet at least. Ultimately we want to get down into the gorge.

Let's rappel off the bridge? Yeah, that's a great idea. [music playing] This is, like, pretty legit. Ultimately we want to get down into the gorge. Free solo climber Alex Honnold and I are high up in the Swiss Alps, trying to get to the bottom of this ravine. Let's rappel off the bridge. That's a great idea.

All right, can we try and do from here? Are you sure? Do we have this much rope? Yeah. We're going to need this. We're going to need the extra length and also the emergency length as well. [music playing]

So what we're going to do, counterbalanced repel. You go one side, I go the other. As long as we go at the same time it's going to work. Right, and as long as we have twice as much rope. This is a technique that the special forces use a lot because it's fast and it doesn't actually require anything to anchor to. But we're going to need all of our rope and the spare rope to reach the bottom of this one.

This will be about a 300 foot counterbalanced repel. And by using the same rope, Alex and I will attempt to descend simultaneously. But if one of us puts weight on the rope without the counterweight of the other person, Alex or I could plummet to the bottom of this ravine. So we've got to make sure we go at the same time and maintain the same speed during our descent.

The thing is, what I do know is there's going to be a lot of friction still on these bits. And that is the sort of stuff that can cut rope. So I do want to do something that protects us. Any spare socks? I mean, I guess you could use my socks. Grab them, there's some in the bag. You got any spare ones? Yeah, for tonight.

There's a lot of abrasion on these wires, little bits of metal sticking up. They're just the sort of thing that would cut through rope really easily, especially if we start bouncing on this thing as we're descending. So I reckon if we put over the top of that. That is a very improvised rope protector. I think it's good. It's going to run through that.

OK, this is the most bomb repel of my entire life. This is totally amazing. OK, here we go. This feels suspiciously like jumping out of the plane. Like, here we go. OK, so we've got to go at the same time. Yep. All right so, maybe not too much at the same time so don't wreck each other's [bleep].. You ready? 3, 2, 1, see you.

[music playing] Should we stay a little bit apart? Yeah, like this is good. [music playing] So bouncy. Yeah, that's why I put the rope protection in here. [music playing] OK, we'll get a bit middle speed now. OK. Whoo, see, most of the time I have to go super slow with guests. This is great.

[music playing] That was a fricking amazing repel. Yeah. That's awesome. It's a long ways. That's a pleasure. That's a lovely repel, it's super fun. I think the socks add some nice padding. That's how you do it.