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‘Free Solo’ Star Alex Honnold Climbs Unexplored Arctic Mountains to Track Climate Change

His new National Geographic miniseries, Arctic Ascent, follows Honnold and his team tracking ice formation in Greenland’s frigid fjords.

Alex Honnold ascended to fame making one of the most daring no-rope climbs of a rock face in history, as documented in the award-winning film Free Solo. Then he turned to climbing for causes — the latest of which took him to the Arctic Circle, where he traveled with a team to measure the impact of climate change on some of the most remote parts of planet Earth.

Honnold’s expedition to check on Greenland’s ice, performed in 2022, was documented for a National Geographic three-episode miniseries that will arrive on Disney Plus on Feb. 5, titled Arctic Ascent

Much like Honnold’s prior journey to track down undiscovered frogs up the sides of yet-to-be-climbed jungle mesas in South America, his venture in Greenland’s frigid fjords is filled with firsts. He and the team ascended a rock wall that hadn’t previously been climbed to reach an iced-over plateau that nobody had crossed on foot before, made a boat trip across uncharted waters, and finally ascended Ingmikortilaq, a 3,750-foot previously unclimbed mountain that’s nearly a thousand feet taller than Yosemite’s El Capitan cliff face, which Honnold summited in Free Solo. 

«When we were sailing up the fjord in boats to go up to Ingmikortilaq, we did actually literally cross a point where there was no more information on the depth chart,» Honnold said. «We crossed a line and it was just blank after that. Nowadays, it’s relatively rare to go somewhere where you’re kind of off the edge of the map.»

As remote as Honnold’s trek was, what they were investigating has implications for the whole world. Emissions from burning fossil fuels are causing our climate to change, warming up the planet and leading to more extreme weather. As scientists expand their study of climate change’s impact, they’re also looking farther afield to understand how it can upset natural processes — and in Greenland, the melting of vast ice sheets could lead to a rise in global water levels, which could put coastal settlements around the world underwater. 

The expedition took the team nearly 100 miles through subzero temperatures and even colder winds, which is difficult enough to endure in the open ice plain but extra torturous when climbing. As Honnold pointed out, you can’t climb with gloves as your fingers need to be free to grip holes and cracks in the sheer rock wall, so they must be exposed to the elements. And unlike Honnold’s previous trips to Antarctica, which had been cold but largely sunny, Greenland’s rain and snow meant many grim overcast days for his adventuring team. 

Instead of finding frogs, the pro-environmental angle for this trip was to forge a path across ice fields and up mountain faces for Heïdi Sevestre, a glaciologist with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, who came to measure how climate change is affecting the formations of ice layers in arctic Greenland. Over the course of the journey, Sevestre took readings and collected samples in areas humans have never walked or climbed — a rare opportunity to collect data that could better our understanding of our warming world. 

To Honnold, that’s a worthy cause for adventure. His post-Free Solo fame led to work that he funneled into a new foundation that has hooked up disadvantaged communities to solar power around the world. The Arctic Ascent expedition fed the same urge for Honnold to tend to the planet.

«I think a project like this is just a way to help talk about the environment to a mainstream audience, in talking about the importance of climate change, basically,» Honnold said.

Sevestre and Honnold make up a third of the six-person crew that went on the expedition, which also included Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schafer, two other climbers well-known for their skill in so-called «first ascents» up rock faces; as well as safety specialist adventurer Aldo Kane and Greenland guide Adam Kjeldsen. The challenging conditions and pioneering opportunities in adventure and science attracted them all to help crucial research at the edge of the world.

A man, Alex Honnold, rappels down a blue-white glacier hole carved by water.

Forging through the arctic with research tech and iPhones

The three-episode miniseries documents the team’s arduous journey, which is peppered with interludes wherein Sevestre deploys scientific equipment to measure conditions and estimate their normalcy — or how much climate change has made them abnormal. 

But the climbers sometimes need to court danger to get those instruments into the right position. One incident early in the series’ first episode has Honnold and others rappelling down a gaping hole carved by water rushing down to a glacier’s base, and dropping a piezometer into the flood to measure how much is flowing. Another data point to bring back to the scientific community from places it’s never accessed before. 

Sevestre took a range of measurements over the course of the trip, including rock samples from the initial rock wall that could provide historical data to compare to modern climate progression. She took sonar measurements of the plateau to estimate how much water might flow into the world’s oceans if the ice sheets melt. And when they got past the ice field to the lake, she dropped a knee-high cylinder into the water — an actual aquatic probe for NASA (one of many in its Oceans Melting Greenland, or OMG, network of probes). 

Honnold brought his iPhone. 

While most of the miniseries is shot by National Geographic videographers with conventional cameras and drones for jaw-dropping ultrawide shots of gorgeous landscapes and sheer rock walls, it can be tough to get filmmakers into position in more extreme moments. So Honnold recorded a small portion of the footage himself in the fleeting triumph when he and his fellow climbers reached the top of an arctic wall that had never been climbed before. And he did it with an off-the-shelf iPhone.

«You’re almost required to do little video diaries [with phones] all the time because you just can’t capture it otherwise, those kinds of interactions where it’s just you and your partner at the anchor being like, ‘Here we are, we’re doing a thing, isn’t this exciting?'» said Honnold. He used either an iPhone 12 Mini or iPhone 13 Mini, he recalled.

Viewers won’t notice when the show seamlessly switches to his iPhone point-of-view, which is stunning proof that the smartphones in our pockets can produce documentary-quality footage, even at the edge of the world. Honnold kept the phone in an inner jacket pocket close to his warm chest for the most part so it wouldn’t die when exposed to Greenland’s subzero temperatures, but it still let him take part in contributing his own moments, from jokey chitchats with his team to euphoric cheers atop mountains, to the documentary.

Honnold has carried smartphones on climbs before, which he used to listen to music and take photos to send to family and friends. But phones have come a long way, and production companies now outfit him with the latest phones. His next trip, another National Geographic-recorded expedition to Alaska, has him using an iPhone 14 Pro Max so he can use its ProRes high-quality video format.

«The quality of phones now is good enough that you can put on a big screen,» Honnold said.

A woman smiles while wearing a black safety helmet and orange winter coat in front of a background of ice and glaciers.

An expedition of science and adventure, the National Geographic way

The actual Arctic Ascent expedition happened in 2022, and Sevestre bundled her research into the trip to execute experiments for multiple universities. These myriad readings and measurements are, as Honnold described them, pieces of data that institutions around the world will use for different projects. 

«Nothing we did is groundbreaking in and of itself, but that’s kind of the nature of science is that no individual piece of data determines any outcome. It’s always just part of this broader web of human knowledge,» Honnold said. «We’re hoping to fill in a gap in the map, for sure.»

That said, expeditions can be productive long after they’ve finished. The science expert from Honnold’s previous trip up the South American jungle mesas is still publishing research on the frogs discovered during the expedition, which occurred years ago. We won’t know the full impact of the Arctic Ascent expedition for some time, but there are other benefits to documenting such a tough adventure in some of the most wildly beautiful and unexplored parts of the world.

«I think showing the landscape is important, just showing people the wild beauty of Eastern Greenland. And I think that people can be inspired by nature in that way,» Honnold said. «But I think it’s nice to have an educational component, to have [Sevestre] along, to help people understand what’s at stake in Eastern Greenland.»

Technologies

OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic Pony Up $23M to Teach Teachers About AI

Educators will learn about AI in a program created by the American Federation of Teachers.

The American Federation of Teachers is using $23 million in funds from three tech companies to launch a program to train educators on artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union announced $12.5 million from Microsoft, $10 million in funding and technical resources from OpenAI and $500,000 from Anthropic will be used for a New York-based hub to teach AI. The AFT is working in partnership with the United Federation of Teachers, a union representing New York school workers.

The hub will be called the National Academy for AI Instruction, and according to OpenAI, will serve 400,000 educators to develop AI fluency by 2030 through workshops, online courses and hands-on training sessions. The plan, according to the company, is to start in New York and scale nationwide, including additional hubs elsewhere in the country. The effort will begin with a focus on K-12 educators.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)  

In a post on X, AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote, «This will be an innovative new training space where educators will learn not just about how A.I. works, but how to use it wisely, safely and ethically.It will be a place where tech developers and educators can talk with each other, not past each other.»

The announcement was not met with unanimous praise. On a post on the UFT’s Facebook page, commenters were not happy. «AI use has been proven to reduce brain activity but sure, why not,» one commenter wrote.

Another wrote, «This is absolutely a horrible decision by the Union. It is undermining our work and also doesn’t take in consideration the ramifications of AI in education.»

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The HBO Max Name Change Is Here. Here’s What to Know

The streaming service is getting a rebrand. Again.

Summer is usually a time for blockbusters, but Warner Bros. Discovery is giving us more than Superman this year. Max brought back its former name, HBO Max, on Wednesday, according to a press release.

The company first announced the change to the streaming service during its Upfront presentation in May, and judging by this meme it shared, the media giant has a sense of humor about it.

The streaming service was originally rebranded as Max in May of 2023 when it merged content from HBO Max and Discovery brands. During the past two years, we’ve seen the logo change from purple to blue and then black, along with the name flip. What’s the reasoning behind the revamp this time around? 

«The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,» said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, according to a May press release. «Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.»

Your home screen will change to reflect the streamer’s updated name and logo, but it’s unclear whether HBO Max’s library will change. The platform is home to content for HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros., the DC universe, HGTV, B/R Sports, Adult Swim and more. 

During the event, J.B. Perrette, CEO of streaming, explained how the move aligns with the platform’s programming. «We will continue to focus on what makes us unique — not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families,» he said. «It’s really notsubjective, not even controversial — our programming just hits different.»

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Prime Day Deal: The AirFly Pro Is 25% Off Right Now. Here’s Why I Never Fly Without It

Today’s Prime Day deal drops the AirFly Pro Bluetooth dongle to just $41, making it even easier to ditch those awful airline earbuds.

Amazon Prime Day deal: Right now you can grab the Twelve South AirFly Pro for $41 at Amazon, one of the lowest prices I’ve seen all year. That’s 25% off its usual $55 and an easy yes if you’ve ever been annoyed by those crackly in-flight headphones. The Prime Day sale ends on July 11, but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay in stock, so don’t wait.


If you fly often, you already know the routine. You settle into your seat, start messing with the in-flight entertainment screen, then remember that your AirPods won’t connect. That means reaching for the airline’s wired headphones that feel flimsy, let in every engine roar and make everything sound muffled. Just the worst.

This is one of the most frustrating parts of flying, especially on long trips when decent audio can make all the difference. Between the engine noise, crying babies and that one guy snoring in 14C, you need a better option. The good news is there’s a simple device that fixes the problem completely and makes flying feel a lot more like streaming at home.

The AirFly Pro has become a must-pack item in my travel bag. It’s a simple Bluetooth dongle that lets you connect your wireless earbuds (like my AirPods Pro) directly to the airplane’s entertainment system, no adapters or wired workarounds required. Since I started using it, I’ve stopped dreading in-flight audio and finally get to enjoy movies the way they were meant to be heard. If you fly often, this little gadget could completely change how you travel.

The AirFly Pro lets me enjoy in-flight entertainment

The AirFly Pro from Twelve South is a minimally designed dongle that lets me connect to the 3.5mm headphone jack in my airplane seat to listen to in-flight entertainment on my noise-canceling earbuds. All I have to do is pair the AirFly Pro with whichever Bluetooth headphones I’m using, like my AirPods Pro, plug the AirFly Pro into the display in front of me, and I’m all set. I don’t even need to use my phone to connect the two devices.

There are four versions of the AirFly: the AirFly SE, which sells for $35 on Amazon and connects to just one set of headphones, the AirFly Pro at $41, the Pro V2 at $60, which is the newest version of the AirFly Pro, and the Pro Deluxe at $70, which comes with an international headphone adapter and a suede travel case.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

I use the AirFly Pro, which has been a game-changer for me on flights. I’ve never had to worry about battery life since the AirFly Pro lasts for more than 25 hours and can fully charge in 3 hours. I can also pair two separate pairs of headphones to a single AirFly Pro, in case I’m with someone else on a flight and want to watch the same movie or show. And if that’s not enough, the AirFly Pro also doubles as an audio transmitter, so I can turn any speaker with a headphone jack, like my old car stereo, into a Bluetooth speaker.

The AirFly Pro makes a great gift for any traveler

The AirFly Pro is the perfect present to give to someone who’s planning to travel this year. Besides my Anker MagSafe battery pack, the AirFly Pro really has become my most treasured travel accessory when I fly, which is why I consider it to be one of those can’t-go-wrong gifts. For more travel gear, here are our favorite tech essentials to travel with and our favorite travel pillows.

Impulse Buys Under $25 on Amazon That Make Surprisingly Great Gifts

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