Each summer we go into a frenzy for Shark Week, but this weekend the Discovery Channel is rising above sea level, 3,000 feet in the air to explore the history and future of rock climbing.

Elevation Weekend will kick off with the award-winning documentary, Valley Uprising, premiering Saturday, April 25 at 8 PM ET/PT. The film chronicles more than 50 years of counter-culture, climbing, and the birth of a new sport in the Yosemite Valley. From the rebels who first scaled the granite cliffs including climbing legends like Lynn Hill and Jim Bridwell, to modern climbers who know every crag and crack of El Capitan by name, the documentary profiles the people who pioneered the sport and turned it into the sensation it is today. Here’s a sneak peak of Valley Uprising:

The grimy culture of die-hard dirt-bag climbers is still alive and well in Yosemite's Camp 4, just with a little less hair and fewer tie-dye shirts. Alex Honnold, 29, is known for his ambitious free-solos, meaning he climbs alone and without a rope thousands of feet in the air. Infamous for his 18-hour, nearly-free solo ascent of El Capitan, Half Dome and Mount Watkins, Honnold camps out in his van and has a surprisingly unassuming demeanor. Valley Uprising gives us a view of his quiet ambition and plain bad-ass skill:

In anticipation of Elevation Weekend, Sierra asked Honnold a few questions about the beautiful places he climbs and what it feels like to be immersed in the world of climbing:

Yosemite is in your backyard, but what is it about the valley that you love?

The biggest thing about Yosemite is how awe-inspiring it is, the massive scale. It’s just outrageous. Anywhere you look it feels like you are against a picture backdrop. It’s just a different scale.

If I’m doing a hard free solo, on the way up I’m not paying any attention to the scenery, but on any thousand foot route, there's a lot climbing that isn’t very hard. I can move around, enjoy the view and enjoy the birds. I was climbing a thousand foot route yesterday with some friends and we saw a peregrine take out another bird. I had never seen that before. It was just an explosion of feathers and the other bird disappeared. It was pretty crazy.

Is there one climb when you felt particularly connected with your surroundings?

In Zion National Park I climbed a route called Monkeyfinger, which is a 1,000-foot route. Normally you would rappel back down, but because I was soloing, I didn’t have a rope. I had to hike up to the actual rim and then hike down. To get to the rim is another 2,000 feet of scrambling up steep sandstone. It was all covered in snow because it was wintertime. I wasn’t totally clear where to go. I found a set of bighorn tracks and followed a single set of tracks all the way to the top of the rim. It was pretty crazy, being in what feels like the middle of nowhere. It’s an exposed position—just following the prints in fresh snow. I think it guided me to exactly where I needed to go. I was like, this is how Native Americans tell the traditions of spirit animals. For me it was just a curiosity, but had I been in a storm or actually fighting for my survival, it would have been divine intervention to find a set of prints.

You spend most of your time with your nose inches away from stone. What’s your favorite thing about rock?

It’s a lot more varied than people think. To someone who doesn’t climb, it’s just rock. Even within Yosemite, each of the formations has a very different character. The feel of the rock is very different the features of the rock are very different. My favorite type of rock aesthetically is granite. Yosemite is so beautiful because of its big clean sweeping surfaces, but limestone is the most fun to climb on because it’s much more featured. Think of limestone caves with big stalactites and interesting chandelier formations.

Many people are blown away by your fearlessness. Do you have a mantra to get you through tough climbs?

Yeah—I just do Gregorian chants for, like, two hours! No, I don’t need to psych myself up before I start because, if I’m not psyched for something, I don’t start at all. It’s not like there’s any pressure on me to do anything. It’s not as if I have to overcome massive fear to do this. If I feel afraid then I just don’t do it and I wait until I feel ready or otherwise able.

What are we missing from the top?

A lot of times you top out around sunset so it’s just beautiful and you are looking around like wow, what an amazing place to be. But anyone can hike to the top of these things—you should just hike up there and find out. Nobody cares about protecting the environment if they don’t actually go out and enjoy the environment.

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Elevation Weekend will also include other climbing programming, including Everest Avalanche Tragedy, an emotional, real-time account of the rescue efforts after the Khumbu Icefall of 2014. Catch the Elevation Weekend April 25-26, or tune in next year for the new annual event. Read Sierra's interview with Valley Uprising director, Nick Rosen, here.

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