TE Exclusive: Alex Honnold Talks About Why He Does What He Does
Unless you’ve been camping out in urban gutters lately and are therefore out of the climbing loop, you know who Alex Honnold is. He’s the surprisingly sane and infinitely humble madman who began his free soloing exploits on routes like Yosemite’s Astroman (5/11c, 10 pitches) and the Rostrum (5.11c, 8 pitches), then moved on to other ropeless ascents including Moonlight Buttress (5.12+, 9 pitches) in Zion, the Rainbow Wall (5.12b, 14 pitches) in Vegas, Crucifix (5.12b), Cosmic (5.13b), Heaven (5.12d) in Yosemite and Northern Lights (5.12a, 12 pitches) up in Squamish, to name a few.
He’s been called the best climber in the world, but he’s not so sure he believes it. Pundits say that the way he climbs is high-risk, overtly dangerous, and that perhaps he shouldn’t be allowed to risk his life like he does, but he thinks that if anything, risk is diminished on free solos.
The other day Trail’s Edge caught up with Alex. We discussed his climbs, his mental state, the difference between risk and consequence, the absence of God in the making of climbing decisions, and lastly, obviously, why the Nabisco food company receives a big fat ‘F’ for environmental and social concerns (but that sometimes, you just can’t say no to that sweet vanilla-stuffed chocolate cracker duet).
Trail’s Edge: You do these climbs that everyone finds impressive and insane. Has a touch of lunacy seeped into your brain?
Alex Honnold: No, I don’t think so. If anything they’ve gotten less and less crazy. I’ve also improved as a climber over the last couple years, so the same grades are feeling easier. I mean, doing the Northern Lights this summer was probably the best I’ve ever felt on a solo. It just felt easy. It was super mellow, super fun – I just cruised up it. It wasn’t extreme at all, just good times.
TE: What possessed you into thinking free soloing was a good idea?
AH: I’ve kind of always been into it. It wasn’t like I saw something and thought, ‘I want to do that!’ Growing up in California and having the Stone Masters and the whole Yosemite culture, the California history of climbing, there’s always been soloing and I’ve always thought it was cool. I’ve always thought Peter Croft and John Bachar were cool dudes and then for whatever reason I just started doing it, and I just got into it.
TE: You’ve said during your 60 minutes interview that there shouldn’t be an adrenaline rush when you do a solo because if there is it means something went wrong. How do you mentally prepare for these climbs?
AH: It depends on the scale that you’re talking about. On big solos where it’s a pretty hard route and kind of a big deal to me personally, then you kind of have to mentally prepare for it beforehand and get psyched up for the route. I don’t know exactly what it takes. It’s more that I think about the route enough to the point where I want to do it, I feel comfortable with it and I’m excited about it. With easier routes, there is no big process or anything, I just go out there and do it.
TE: So it’s more about knowing the route and feeling confident with the actual climbing rather than any kind of mental psych up?
AH: I think it’s a little bit of both. Part of it is knowing the route, but there are also plenty of routes that I know I could physically do but I still couldn’t get my ahead around to actually solo on. There’s certainly some routes in the Valley that physically I could do on command, but the idea of soloing it I’m like, ‘Oh I don’t know…’ You know? I’m just not excited about it. So, for whatever reason it has to plant a little seed in your brain – you have to want to do it.
TE: Have you ever had an, ‘Oh shit,’ moment while free soloing?
AH: Not really. The super well-publicized stuff, like Half Dome, there was kind of an ‘oh shit’ moment up there, but that one’s kind of complicated. The thing is that when I was soloing it and when I was filming it were two different things. People see the film version, but don’t know that they had cut my interview footage where I’m talking about going up there and kind of getting scared on something. They put it over this footage that they have of me kind of getting scared on this ledge, but I wasn’t talking about what they were showing. They ask about what they’ve seen on that film without realizing that the film was a reenactment of the facts, whereas I’d climbed it the year before.
So when I climbed it then I did have a moment where I was like on the slab and was like “Oh fuck this, I just don’t want to be here anymore.” Though honestly I’ve probably had more of those moments on rope than un-roped. I’ve had tons of moments on a rope where you’re so run out and you can’t find any gear and you don’t know where you’re going and for whatever reason it’s all going bad. So it’s happened a hand full of times soloing but definitely on rope too. But I try my best to totally avoid that.
TE: That’s probably a wise move.
AH: Yeah. Totally. When I was younger I had those kinds of moments more often because I was on-sight soloing more and I wasn’t as good at reading topos, little things like that. I would find myself off-route more and getting lost. Now I’ve gotten way better at that kind of stuff and I think I keep it under control a little better.
TE: Many people are finding inspiration through what you’re doing. What would say to someone with ambitions of following in your footsteps?
AH: You know… I don’t know. Basically I would say that people should just pursue what they love. If you’re really into it then you might as well do it. I wouldn’t feel very comfortable encouraging somebody to go soloing, but I have encouraged a lot of people to climb full time if that’s really what they’re into. There are a lot of people out there that love climbing and would like to do it all the time but don’t think they’ll ever be able to support themselves, but you never know what might happen. I never thought that this would all work out for me. I just loved climbing and it was the one thing I wanted to do all the time so I just did and it has just happened to work out very well for me.
TE: You’re a person who knowingly, in a way, flirts with death. What is your life philosophy, and have you thought at all about what may lie in a ‘next dimension’ – an afterlife – if such a thing exists?
AH: Yeah, that’s a big question…and it’s kind of funny… So, I’m a militant atheist. I don’t believe in an afterlife or any of that kind of stuff, but then I also don’t really live in the moment that much either. I’m not very Zen. I’m always thinking about the future or the next project and what I’m doing next to the point where I’ve had partners kind of chastise me for not enjoying where I am more. But maybe that’s part of the appeal of soloing because it forces you to exist inside that moment, in that little bubble that you’re living in while you’re doing it.
TE: There’s a lot of risk going on in that little bubble.
AH: I think a lot about the risk taking and risk itself in general. The thing for me is that I honestly don’t find soloing that risky. There isn’t that much chance involved. You either can do it or you can’t. It’s not like you’re rolling the dice. If I know that I can do something, then I do it. It’s all about staying within your abilities and executing things well. Like right now I’m driving in the rain, on the phone and in a lot of ways this is kind of risky too, but nobody considers that a crazy risk.
To me, any kind of spiritual stuff doesn’t come into my mind at all. It doesn’t even go through the decision-making process. It’s all risk analysis: Can I do it? Is there a chance of me falling off? And if I think that there is risk at all then I don’t do it.
I think a lot of people confuse the risk with the consequences. They say that soloing is a high-risk activity, but really soloing has very very high consequences – if you mess it up you’ll likely die – but it doesn’t make it any more risky. The odds of me falling off aren’t any higher because I’m soloing. If anything, the odds are a lot lower because when you’re soloing you stare down like it’s no joke. You pull really hard. A lot of the time I climb a lot better when I’m soloing because it is important, because you fucking pull super hard. You’re really focused. You’re aware of every hand and foot placement. You’re climbing well. So if anything that is lowering your risk of following off, it’s just that the consequences of failure are super high.
TE: So I guess risk is really not knowing what the hell you’re doing and then going and doing it anyways.
AH: Yeah. Totally. If I was just going for it on everything, you know, willy-nilly, then there would be more risk involved, but I try and minimize that kind of thing.
TE: So what’s the next big solo project? Do you have anything you’re working towards right now?
I’m always juggling a handful of normal projects – sport climbing and stuff. I don’t really make soloing projects. I definitely have routes in the back of my mind that I’d love to do some day, but I don’t apply the same goal setting that I would to other aspects of my climbing because I don’t like having the pressure or feeling like I should do it. So there’s plenty of other routes that I’d like to solo someday, but if I ever do them…I don’t know. But so far I’ve never set soloing goals because then I’d feel an obligation to try it. I never want to be in that position where I feel like I have to do it. Which is one of the reasons that I’ve never filmed on actual solos except for that thing for 60 Minutes, which was a super easy route. I mean, they don’t really say that so much in the film but the only reason I went up there and filmed with them is because the route is trivial. So I try to keep real soloing projects to myself just so that if I don’t want to do them I don’t feel like I’m letting anyone down.
TE: Anything else going on in the world of Alex Honnold?
AH: I don’t know. So all this is kinda new to me – you know, the fact that people even care about my opinions or any of that shit. I mean it’s only the past couple years that anyone knows or cares, but just in the past couple months I’ve been getting more psyched on environmental and social stuff, and I’ve been wanting to put more of an effort into the things I support in life.
My sister gave me this book called the Better World Shopping Guide. It’s basically a pamphlet that rates companies based on their social and environmental issues and breaks all things into a grade – you know, A through F –so you can look up any product category, like cookies, and then Nabisco gets a big fat F for a bunch of different reasons.
So I’ve gotten into that book and am glad to start making more informed choices. And that’s not to say I would never buy Nabisco again because sometimes you’re like, ‘oh an Oreo, that’s nice.’ But when I have two choices that are basically the same, at least now I can choose the better choice for the surrounding environmental and social concerns. It’s nice to know that there’s a difference between all of these companies. Obviously it’s a work in progress, but I’ve been trying to live my life more according to my values.
You know, nobody cares about climbing that much. I don’t really have much to say about climbing, there’s other more important things to discuss.
TE: Well, you’re inspiring a sea of people out there that get motivated by what you’re doing. Athletes play a tremendous role in the betterment of society, especially ones who can relate to the populace…
AH: Yeah, part of me has trouble taking that stuff seriously though, you know? All I do is live my normal life and do my normal thing. I go out everyday and go climbing. People see a very cherry-picked thing, they don’t see the tons of days I go out there and totally suck. I hardly ever do anything badass. It’s just that when I do, it all happens on film. That’s the thing about climbing: at any level you’re always pushing yourself. So everybody, no matter how good they are, always feels like they suck because they’re always on some harder and harder project.
