Alex Honnold on what’s next, that Heaven solo, and why people who criticize soloing are right.
On a mid-October night in Yosemite Village, Alex Honnold sat on his bed with his back pressed against the concave wall of the parked van, his sprained right ankle kicked up, toes touching the low ceiling. Across from him, shelves with cam-lobe latches lined the wall, stocked with guidebooks and environmental non-fiction. An outline of El Capitan was etched into the interior of the sliding side door, a wooden hangboard, dusty with chalk, bolted just above it. It was close to midnight, and an interview—the second of two three-hour sessions that day—was nearly finished, but Honnold, 31, thumbed excitedly through a topo book of Yosemite walls, pointing out his favorite routes.
“Oh, rad, Tommy and I [were] climbing the Triple,” he said, tapping a photo of himself and Tommy Caldwell. “I used to flip through guides and get so stoked, and now I get to contribute to that. I like looking at these and seeing photos of my friends, or remembering a route I did and the photographer who took the pics.”
It was a surreal moment, like watching Muhammad Ali narrate his highlight reel. Honnold is the most prolific big-wall free soloist in history, often linking several exposed, committing lines in a single outing. YouTube videos of his solos are the stuff of sympathetic palm sweats, and they usually go viral, even shared among non-climbers. True to his nickname, “No Big Deal” Honnold shrugged that last bit off: “Soloing is just the easiest type of climbing for the general public to understand.”
Denne historien er fra February 2017, #240-utgaven av Rock and Ice.
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Denne historien er fra February 2017, #240-utgaven av Rock and Ice.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Call of Duty
Vikki Weldon: Hard lines and the front line
THE BADGE
WE DEFINE OURSELVES AS CLIMBERS, BUT IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH?
THE ACHIEVER
MARICELA ROSALES HAD EVERYTHING AGAINST HER. SHE BECAME A CLIMBER ANYWAY.
Chris Sharma
FIRST ASCENTIONIST, FORMER WORLD CHAMPION, OWNS GYMS IN SPAIN AND USA. INTERVIEWED IN QUARANTINE IN BARCELONA WITH HIS WIFE, 3-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER AND 1-YEAR-OLD SON.
PROJECT WAIT
A LIFELONG CLIMBER CONSIDERS THROWING IN THE TOWEL
Older, Wiser, Stronger!
YES, THEY CAN GO TOGETHER. HOW TO TRAIN STRENGTH AS YOU COME ALONG DOWN THE ROAD.
CALCULATED RISK
HOW UNDERSTANDING DANGER COULD KEEP YOU OUT OF HARM’S WAY
Accessories To Climb
Field tested
To The Grit
About 10 winters ago I touched down in Manchester in a hard, driving English rain. The city was hidden from view. I was groggy after a red-eye from Dallas, an over-brewed black tea barking on my dry tongue.
The Wild Ones
North Conway is a typical New Hampshire town tucked among rolling hardwood hills and set at the foot of imposing granite slabs, but 30 years ago it was the stage on which a small band of climbers led the way in boldness and vision.