Honnold is the author (with David Roberts) of the memoir Alone on the Wall (2015) and the subject of the 2018 biographical documentary Free Solo,[7] which won a BAFTA and an Academy Award.
Early life and education
Honnold was born in Sacramento, California, the son of community college professor Dierdre Wolownick (b. 1951)[8] and Charles Honnold (1949–2004).[9][10] His paternal roots are German, and his maternal roots are Polish.[11] He started climbing in a climbing gym at the age of 5 and was climbing "many times a week" by age 10.[12] He participated in many national and international youth climbing championships as a teenager.
"I was never, like, a bad climber [as a kid], but I had never been a great climber, either," he says. "There were a lot of other climbers who were much, much stronger than me, who started as kids and were, like, instantly freakishly strong– like they just have a natural gift. And that was never me. I just loved climbing, and I've been climbing all the time ever since, so I've naturally gotten better at it, but I've never been gifted."[13]
Honnold dropped out of Berkeley and spent time living at home and driving around California to go climbing. "I'd wound up with my mom's old minivan, and that was my base," he said. "I'd use it to drive to Joshua Tree to climb or I'd drive to LA to see my girlfriend. I destroyed that van fairly quickly; it died on me one day, and for the next year, I lived just on my bicycle and in a tent."[14]
In 2007, he bought a 2002 Ford Econoline E150van, which allowed him to focus on climbing and following the weather.[15][16]
In the mind of the climbing world, Honnold emerged from the goo fully formed. In 2006 nobody had heard of him. In 2007 he free soloed Yosemite's Astroman and the Rostrum in a day, matching Peter Croft's legendary 1987 feat, and suddenly Honnold was pretty well-known. A year later, he free soloed the 1,200-foot (366m), 5.12d finger crack that splits Zion's Moonlight Buttress. The ascent was reported on April 1. For days, people thought the news was a joke. Five months afterward, Honnold took the unprecedented step of free soloing the 2,000-foot (610m), glacially bulldozed Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. Croft called this climb the most impressive ropeless ascent ever done.
In November 2011, Honnold and Hans Florine missed setting the speed climbing record on the famous Nose big wall climbing route on Yosemite's El Capitan by 45 seconds.[19] At the time the record stood at 2:36:45, as set by Dean Potter & Sean Leary in November 2010.[20] On June 17, 2012, Honnold and Florine set a new record of 2:23:46 (or 2:23:51[21]) on that same route.[22][23]
Honnold at the Trento Film Festival in 2014
In November 2014, Clif Bar announced that they would no longer sponsor Honnold, along with Dean Potter, Steph Davis, Timmy O'Neill and Cedar Wright. "We concluded that these forms of the sport are pushing boundaries and taking the element of risk to a place where we as a company are no longer willing to go," the company wrote in an open letter.[12][24]
In 2016, he was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging scans that revealed that, unlike other high sensation seekers,[25] his amygdala barely activates when watching disturbing images. He however confesses feeling fear occasionally. Through imagination and practice, he has desensitized himself to most fearful situations.[26]
On June 3, 2017, he made the first-ever free solo ascent of El Capitan by completing Alex Huber's 2,900-foot (884m) big wall route, Freerider (5.13a VI), in 3 hours and 56 minutes.[27] The climb, described as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever,"[5] was documented by climber and photographer Jimmy Chin and documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi, as the subject of the documentary Free Solo.[28] Among other awards, the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (2018).[29][30]
On June 6, 2018, Honnold teamed up with Tommy Caldwell to break the Nose on El Capitan speed record in Yosemite. They completed the approximately 3,000-foot (914m) route in 1:58:07, becoming the first climbers to complete it in under two hours.[31]
In 2021, National Geographic signed Honnold for an original docuseries about his quest to climb across the peaks of Greenland.[32] Also in 2021, Honnold started a podcast about climbing called Climbing Gold.[33] In its first season, Climbing Gold focused on telling stories of extraordinary climbers across history and featured notable climbers and ascents including Lynn Hill, John Gill, Beth Rodden, Hans Florine, and coverage of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which featured competition climbing for the first time.
On October 12, 2022, Honnold completed the "Honnold Ultimate Red Rock Traverse", or HURT, in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. In total, the endeavor took 32 hours and 6 minutes, with Honnold covering 35 miles of running, scrambling, and climbing, logging 24,000' of elevation gain, and summitting 18 out of the 23 peaks in Red Rock Canyon. Targeting the area's classic climbing routes, including Epinephrine, Dark Shadows, and Olive Oil, Honnold completed 126 pitches with about 13,000' of technical climbing.[34][35]
Personal life
Honnold in 2022
Honnold lived in a van for over a decade. "I don't think 'van life' is particularly appealing," he says. "It's not like I love living in a car, but I love living in all these places. I love being in Yosemite; I love being basically wherever the weather is good; I love being able to follow good conditions all over. And be relatively comfortable as I do it. And so that pretty much necessitates living in a car ... If I could, like, miraculously teleport a house from place to place, I'd prefer to live in a nice comfortable house. Though, honestly, the van is kind of nice. I like having everything within arm's reach. When I stay in a hotel room – like, sometimes you get put up in a really classy hotel room, and it's really big, and you have to walk quite a ways to the bathroom, and you're like, 'Man, I wish I had my [pee] bottle.' Who wants to walk all the ways to the bathroom in the middle of the night when you could just lean over and grab your bottle and go?"[36] "It is kind of a pet peeve when you get put in really nice hotel rooms and it's really far between… When you're used to living in a van, you want everything within a six foot radius. It doesn't make any sense to go bumbling in the dark, trying to find the bathroom."[37] The van he lived in was custom-outfitted with a kitchenette and cabinets.[12]
In 2017, Honnold bought a home in the Las Vegas area. "I didn't have any furniture at first, so I lived in the van in the driveway for the first couple weeks. It felt more like home than an empty house did."[14] Around the same time, he replaced the Ford Econoline van he had lived in since 2007 and put 200,000 miles on with a new 2016 Ram ProMaster, which he still lives and travels in for most of the year.[36]
Honnold met Sanni McCandless at a book signing in November 2015; they became a couple soon after.[38] Sanni and her relationship with Honnold feature prominently in Free Solo. On December 25, 2019, Honnold announced, via social media, that he and McCandless were engaged. On September 13, 2020, Honnold announced via Instagram that he and McCandless had married.[39] Honnold's and McCandless daughter, June, was born on February 17, 2022.[40] Their second daughter, Alice, was born on February 6, 2024.[41]
Dierdre Wolownick, Alex Honnold's mother, started climbing at age 60 and is the oldest woman to climb El Capitan (first at the age of 66 and then, breaking her record, again at age 70).[42][43]
Philanthropy
In 2012, Honnold began giving away one-third of his income to solar projects that increased energy access worldwide. Soon, this idea expanded to form the Honnold Foundation. The Honnold Foundation's mission is "promoting solar energy for a more equitable world".[44]
Books
Alone on the Wall: Alex Honnold and the Ultimate Limits of Adventure. London: Pan, 2015. Co-authored with David Roberts. ISBN978-1447282730.
Filmography
While Honnold is best known for his starring role in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, he has also appeared in several other films and television episodes.[45][46][47]
2022, Ingmikortilaq, a 3,750-foot sea cliff in eastern Greenland – First free ascent with Hazel Findlay[80]
2023, The Heart Route (VI 5.13b, V10), Yosemite, El Capitan – Third free ascent
2024, Triple Rainbow (5.13d), Rainbow Wall, – First free ascent of a link up of Dreefee (11 pitch 5.13d), Desert Solitare (11 pitch 5.13b) and Rainbow Country (13 pitch 5.12d).
Hans Florine is an American rock climber, who holds the record for the number of ascents of Yosemite Valley's El Capitan and is known for holding the speed record on The Nose of Yosemite’s El Capitan 8 different times. Hans' last speed record on The Nose was accomplished with Alex Honnold for climbing The Nose in 2:23:46, on June 17, 2012. In addition to climbing El Capitan over 175 times, Hans also holds the record for the number of ascents of The Nose, climbing it more than 111 times.
El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is about 3,000 feet (914 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is a world-famous location for big wall climbing, including the disciplines of aid climbing, free climbing, and more recently for free solo climbing.
Alexander Huber is a German rock climber who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of rock climbing. Huber came to prominence in the early 1990s as the world's strongest sport climber after the passing of Wolfgang Güllich. He is the second-ever person to redpoint a 9a (5.14d) graded route by ascending Om in 1992, and has come to be known as the first-ever person to redpoint a 9a+ (5.15a) graded route from his 1996 ascent of Open Air.
Tommy Caldwell is an American rock climber who has set records in sport climbing, traditional climbing, and in big-wall climbing. Caldwell made the first free ascents of several major routes on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Free solo climbing, or free soloing, is a form of rock climbing where the climber climbs solo without ropes or other protective equipment, using only their climbing shoes and their climbing chalk. Free soloing is the most dangerous form of climbing, and, unlike bouldering, free soloists climb above safe heights, where a fall can be fatal. Though many climbers have free soloed climbing grades they are very comfortable on, only a tiny group free solo regularly, and at grades closer to the limit of their abilities.
The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome was the first Grade VI big wall climbing route in the United States. It was first climbed in 1957 by a team consisting of Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas. Its current aid climbing rating is VI 5.9 A1 or 5.12 for the free climbing variation. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.
In mountaineering and climbing, enchainment is climbing two or more mountains or climbing routes on a mountain in one outing. Rock climbing two or more routes in this manner are also called a "link up" in the United States. Climbers may do an enchainment of easy routes as a way of training for a more difficult objective, but some enchainments of hard routes are a prize in their own right, a notable example being the great north faces of the Alps.
In the history of rock climbing, the three main sub-disciplines – bouldering, single-pitch climbing, and big wall climbing – can trace their origins to late 19th-century Europe. Bouldering started in Fontainebleau, and was advanced by Pierre Allain in the 1930s, and John Gill in the 1950s. Big wall climbing started in the Dolomites, and was spread across the Alps in the 1930s by climbers such as Emilio Comici and Riccardo Cassin, and in the 1950s by Walter Bonatti, before reaching Yosemite where it was led in the 1950s to 1970s by climbers such as Royal Robbins. Single-pitch climbing started pre-1900 in both the Lake District and in Saxony, and by the late-1970s had spread widely with climbers such as Ron Fawcett (Britain), Bernd Arnold (Germany), Patrick Berhault (France), Ron Kauk and John Bachar (USA).
Beth Rodden is an American rock climber known for her ascents of hard single-pitch traditional climbing routes. She was the youngest woman to climb 5.14a (8b+) and is one of the only women in the world to have redpointed a 5.14c (8c+) traditional climbing graded climb. Rodden and fellow climber Tommy Caldwell were partners from 2000 to 2010, during which time they completed the second free ascent of The Nose. In 2008, Rodden made the first ascent of Meltdown, one of the hardest traditional climbs in the world and the first time in history that a female climber matched the peak of the highest climbing grades.
Dean Spaulding Potter was an American free climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, and highliner. He completed many hard first ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. He won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year in 2003. In 2015, he died in a wingsuit flying accident in Yosemite National Park.
Big wall climbing is a form of rock climbing that takes place on long and sheer multi-pitch routes that require a full day, if not several days, to ascend. Big wall routes are sustained and exposed and the climbers remain suspended from the continuously sheer and vertical rock face, even sleeping hanging from the face, with limited options to sit down or escape unless they abseil down the route—a complex and risky action. It is therefore a physically and mentally demanding form of climbing.
Simul-climbing is a climbing technique where a pair of climbers who are attached by a rope simultaneously ascend a multi-pitch climbing route. It contrasts with lead climbing where the leader ascends a given pitch on the route while the second climber remains in a fixed position to belay the leader in case they fall. Simul-climbing is not free solo climbing, as the lead simul-climber will clip the rope into points of climbing protection as they ascend. Simul-climbing is different from a rope team and short-roping, which are used for flatter terrain that doesn't typically need protection points.
Speed climbing is a climbing discipline in which speed is the ultimate goal. Speed climbing is done on rocks, walls and poles and is only recommended for highly skilled and experienced climbers.
The Nose is a big wall climbing route up El Capitan. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.
Peter Croft is a Canadian rock climber and mountaineer. He has concentrated much of his rock climbing career on big routes in Yosemite National Park, Squamish, British Columbia as well as the High Sierra. He received The American Alpine Club’s Robert & Miriam Underhill Award in 1991.
Sender Films is an American film production company based in Boulder, Colorado. Productions include outdoor adventure films, television shows, and commercials.
Hazel Findlay is a British traditional climber, sport climber and big wall climber. She was the first female British climber to climb a route graded E9, and a route graded 8c (5.14b). She did the third ascent of the Yosemite traditional route Magic Line 5.14c (8c+). She has free climbed El Capitán four times on four different routes and made many first female ascents on other routes. Climbing magazine gave her their Golden Piton Award (Alpine) for traditional climbing in 2013.
Free Solo is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin that profiles rock climber Alex Honnold on his quest to perform the first-ever free solo climb of a route on El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park in California, in June 2017.
Brad Gobright was an American rock climber known for free solo climbing.
↑ Chai Vasarhelyi, Elizabeth; Chin, Jimmy (2018). "Free Solo". films.nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic. "The thing is, anybody can be happy and cozy... Nobody achieves anything great because they are happy and cozy"
1 2 3 Duane, Daniel (March 12, 2015). "The Heart-Stopping Climbs of Alex Honnold". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved October 14, 2018. Honnold could afford to buy a decent home, if that interested him. But living in a custom-outfitted van, in his case, with a kitchenette and cabinets full of energy bars and climbing equipment – represents freedom.
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