Seven years ago, when I started free soloing long, hard routes in Yosemite - climbing without a rope, gear or a partner - I did it because it seemed like the purest, most elegant way to scale big walls. Climbing, especially soloing, felt like a grand adventure, but I never dreamed it could be a profession.

Alex Honnold

Categorized in : Partner Way Long Adventure

I think there is a way to do things right to tread lightly on the world

Alex Honnold

way world thinking

If you don’t have talent, you gotta have tenacity.

Alex Honnold

It’s really hard to go for it 100 percent after something like that happens, it’s a worst-case scenario, the stuff of nightmares really.

Alex Honnold

latest-headlines

No matter the risks we take, we always consider the end to be too soon, even though in life, more than anything else, quality should be more important than quantity.

Alex Honnold

risks end quality life

I feel that a lot of human spirituality stems from the belief that we are unique and special in the universe, but maybe we are just what happens when there is proper temperature and proper distance from the right type of star.

Alex Honnold

feel distance universe unique

I've done routes where I've climbed 200 feet off the ground and just been, like, 'What am I doing?' I then just climbed back down and went home. Discretion is the better part of valor. Some days are just not your day. That's the big thing with free soloing: when to call it.

Alex Honnold

better day feet home

To be clear, I normally climb with a rope and partner. Free-soloing makes up only a small percentage of my total climbing. But when I do solo, I manage the risk through careful preparation. I don't solo anything unless I'm sure I can do it.

Alex Honnold

climb partner i-can preparation

My comfort zone is like a little bubble around me, and I've pushed it in different directions and made it bigger and bigger until these objectives that seemed totally crazy eventually fall within the realm of the possible.

Alex Honnold

me comfort-zone crazy fall

People think I just walk up to a sheer cliff and climb it with no knowledge of anything, when in reality, there's tons and tons of information out there, and I'm already well tapped into it.

Alex Honnold

walk reality people knowledge

I like the simplicity of soloing. You've got no gear, no partner. You never climb better than when you free-solo.

Alex Honnold

climb partner you simplicity

I often joke that I've just become a professional schmoozer. Like, nobody cares how well I can rock climb anymore. It just has to do with how well I can schmooze.

Alex Honnold

climb nobody nobody-cares i-can

So many people condemn me for risk taking, but I find it sort of hypocritical because everybody takes risks. Even the absence of activity could be viewed as a risk. If you sit on the sofa for your entire life, you're running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer.

Alex Honnold

me you heart life

I suppose being a bit of an antisocial weirdo definitely honed my skills as a soloist. It gave me a lot more opportunities to solo lots of easy routes, which in turn broadened my comfort zone quite a bit and has allowed me to climb the harder things without a rope that I've done now.

Alex Honnold

climb me comfort-zone easy

You might get run over; you might get hit by lightning. I mean, who knows? Each day, there is a chance you might die. And there's nothing wrong with that. Every living being on Earth is facing that same existential rift.

Alex Honnold

die day you chance

We are apes - we should be climbing.

Alex Honnold

climbing should

There's a constant tension in climbing, and really all exploration, between pushing yourself into the unknown but trying not to push too far. The best any of us can do is to tread that line carefully.

Alex Honnold

push yourself best trying

I'm not thinking about anything when I'm climbing, which is part of the appeal. I'm focused on executing what's in front of me.

Alex Honnold

anything me focused thinking

Anytime you finish a climb, there's always the next thing you can try.

Alex Honnold

climb try you always

Yosemite has the most impressive and accessible granite big walls in the world. The rock is amazing. And because of that, it's been the mecca for climbing in the U.S. - and the world to a large degree - for all of climbing history. It's the place to test yourself against the historic routes of the past.

Alex Honnold

yourself history past world

I was 19 when my father died from a heart attack. He was a 55-year-old college professor and had led what was by all appearances a risk-free life. But he was overweight, and heart disease runs in our family.

Alex Honnold

family heart life father