Alexander J Honnold[3] (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big wall climbing routes. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park via the 880-metre (2,900ft) route Freerider at grade 5.13a, the first-ever big-wall free-solo ascent at that grade,[4] a climb described in The New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever".[5][6]
Honnold was born on August 17, 1985, in Sacramento, California. His mother, Dierdre Wolownick (b. 1951), is a community college professor.[8]. His father was 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 E150 van, 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 crack 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, like 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 6, 2018, Honnold teamed up with Tommy Caldwell to break the Nose on El Capitan speed record in Yosemite. They completed the approximately 914m (3,000 ft) route in 1:58:07, becoming the first climbers to complete it in under two hours.[31]
Docuseries and podcast
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]
Honnold was scheduled to climb Taipei 101 on January 24, 2026, but the climb was delayed a day due to inclement weather. On January 25, 2026, after 1 hour and 36 minutes, he reached the top of the spire, becoming the second person to do so after Frenchman Alain Robert and the first person to do it without the use of a rope.[40] Honnold graded the route in the 5.11(6c+) range.[41]
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?"[42]
"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."[43] 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 (320,000km) on a new 2016 Ram ProMaster, which he still lives and travels in for most of the year.[42]
Honnold met Sanni McCandless at a book signing in November 2015; they became a couple soon after.[44] 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.[45] Honnold's and McCandless's daughter, June, was born on February 17, 2022.[46] Their second daughter, Alice Summer, was born on February 6, 2024.[47]
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).[48][49]
Philanthropy
In 2012, Honnold began giving away one-third of his income to solar energy projects[50], to increased energy access worldwide. Soon, this idea expanded to form the Honnold Foundation, which prioritizes a "trust-based philanthropic approach". Per Honnold, "in climbing, you trust your partner with your life. Why should philanthropy be any different?"[51]
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.[52][53][54]
↑Chai Vasarhelyi, Elizabeth; Chin, Jimmy (2018). "Free Solo". films.nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic. Archived from the original on April 16, 2024. Retrieved April 15, 2024. "The thing is, anybody can be happy and cozy... Nobody achieves anything great because they are happy and cozy"
↑Glionna, John M. (January 4, 2019). "Rock Star Rock Climber". Las Vegas Review Journal. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
↑Roberts, David (April 11, 2011). "No Strings Attached". Outside Online. Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
123Duane, Daniel (March 12, 2015). "The Heart-Stopping Climbs of Alex Honnold". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. 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.
↑"Peliculas Premiadas". Bilbao Mendi Film FestivalBilbao Mendi Film Festival. Bilbao Mendi Film Festival. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
↑"Festivals Awards". International Alliance for Mountain Film. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
↑Hobley, Nicholas (January 27, 2009). "Alex Honnold climbing interview". Planetmountain.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
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