Ask a Badass: Alex Honnold

Asking for my nine year old son Effrom.  "How old were you when you became sponsored?" and "how do you not eat sugar?""No candy or ice cream? I can't live like that".

What's your favorite moderate route in RR? (5.10 or below)

What first ascents of yours are you particularly proud of?

Alex I would make a joke for you but I know you're more serious so I won't do that....jk

Alex,

If those rotten swindlers in the government have their way, and decide to sell off public lands, and money was no object, which ones would you buy for your own personal climbing Eden? And would you let other climbers climb there too?

AaronP wrote:

What's your 2nd favorite hobby?

LOL

Do you use Mountain Project?  If so, do you use (a) the route guide (b) partner finder (this would be funny) or (c) forums.

Specifically, I've always wondered if well-known climbers participate under fake names in the forums, and whether you read up on the musings MP's have around you.  Or do you consider MP forums a waste of time,  and encourage us to get out and climb instead as we'd all be climbing harder if we weren't wasting clicking keys in forums.

What do you think the future of climbing will look like?  Do you feel that we're living in a "golden age" of climbing, is it to come or has it already past us? In the sense of how much access we have to climbing, the amount of (or lack of) regulations and permitting required to climb, and the number of people at the crags.

Whoa, you're an atheist too?! I feel like atheist climbers prepare knowing there is NOTHING that will intervene during a fall, so we prep A LOT...riiiiiight Alex???

How come your not dating Hazel F?

AaronP wrote:

What's your 2nd favorite hobby?

Maybe mountain biking or skiing? But nothing comes remotely close to climbing. 

Eric Tomaselli wrote:

How come your not dating Hazel F?

Haha, she's taken. But I'm dating someone better anyway. 

Hazel is a really good friend; we've just never been into each other like that.

sherb wrote:

Do you use Mountain Project?  If so, do you use (a) the route guide (b) partner finder (this would be funny) or (c) forums.

Specifically, I've always wondered if well-known climbers participate under fake names in the forums, and whether you read up on the musings MP's have around you.  Or do you consider MP forums a waste of time,  and encourage us to get out and climb instead as we'd all be climbing harder if we weren't wasting clicking keys in forums.

I use the MP app on my phone a fair amount when I'm going to new crags. But I've never contributed to it at all [I know, bad form]. And I occasionally read through some things on the forums, but only if I'm really diving deep into the internet late at night. 

I general, I think online communities are pretty cool. I just don't participate much. 

Tristan Mayfield wrote:

Hey Alex, what are your thoughts on style relative to soloing? I bring this up thinking about stories from Peter Croft of adventures completely by himself, undocumented, and almost John Muir-like in their sincere adoration of the outdoors... those vs. something like your most recent solo of El Cap where you had camera teams, safety lines, and it almost seemed like it was the opposite side of the coin from stories like Peter's, Bachar's, and others. 

Just to be clear, I'm a huge fan and think you're doing super rad stuff. I guess I just wonder about the evolution of climbing style in general and also wonder how the style in which you've been doing these cutting edge solos could potentially affect the greater world of climbing style. 

Cheers!

That's a legit question, and I often think about things like that. My golden rule is to try not to be douchey. Which means posing too much or making too much of a production about climbing. Or over hyping things. 

In a general sense, I don't think that "good style" has changed over time. Peter and John Bachar and people like Patrick Edlinger certainly soloed routes for TV or film, and occasionalyl for commercials. And that was back before cameras were ubiquitous. They had tons of "pure" adventures, but they also had to make a living in various ways. 

A while back I counted all the solos that I was proud of and what percentage were filmed or reshot later. I'd filmed or taken photos on between 1/3 and 1/2 of the things I was proud of, which is a ratio that I can live with. For example, for a long time my to do list of hard soloing was Romantic Warrior, the University Wall, Sendero Luminoso, and Freerider. Of those 4 I shot on two of them. The other two were personal experiences that almost no one knows about. I'm happy with that. Style does matter, and I do care. But I'm happy with how I've done things.

KurtL wrote:

Alex,

If those rotten swindlers in the government have their way, and decide to sell off public lands, and money was no object, which ones would you buy for your own personal climbing Eden? And would you let other climbers climb there too?

Hahah, that's awesome. 

I'd buy Yosemite for sure, and probably Zion. And maybe Red Rock. I'd definitely leave them fully open for climbing. I'd never limit access - I'm a huge supporter of public lands. And actually, while I was at it, I'd maybe buy Cave Rock, in NV. 

Badass Al: is there a favorite Colorado crag? 

Alex Costakis wrote:

Alex, filmmakers like to portray you by presenting your climbing partners as your foils, contrasting diet (James Lucas in the Vice video), preparedness (Tommy Caldwell in A Line Across The Sky), efficiency (I remember some line about Hans Florine wanting to bring a certain cam on a speed ascent of the Nose, and your response was basically 'nah, that's the same size as my hand'), singular focus (Renan Ozturk in the Life Coach), etc.

Which of your climbing partners is actually the most different from you, and how? Is it Jared Leto? I bet it's Jared Leto.

That's interesting, I've never really thought about all those films that way. But that does sum things up well.

I'm not sure if Jared is actually that different tho - he's a pretty intensely driven man in his own way. Going up on stage and rocking an auditorium is not all that different than soloing. You just have to go up and perform. Renan is the most different than me in some ways - he's an actual artist, motivated by his aesthetic vision and all that. He sees the world in a very different way than me. Though I suppose Jared is very much an artist as well. Whatevs. 

Tyler Dirda wrote:

Are you still planning to climb Taipei 101?

I would love to! I'm hoping it comes back together somehow but there are no plans yet. But I'm optimistic that I'll get to at some point. 

the kosak wrote:

Did you and the journalist from 60 minutes bang?

Ha! Hell no. She was married to an ex military sniper or something at the time. Honestly, I think the fact that she seems to interested is just a useful tool for her in interviews and things. It puts you at ease and opens things up. I think she's just really good at her job. 

michalm wrote:

Every time I have seen you climb you are really quiet and not breathing very hard. You seem to move fairly smoothly and statically to the point that it is a little boring to watch. You walked up a potential project of mine onsight and couldn't even identify the crux. Even when you try a difficult move and fall, it isn't very dramatic. 

What are examples of some routes that you have actually had to try really hard on? e.g. routes that got you so pumped you couldn't close your hands or got so worked on you felt like you wanted to throw up?

Have you climbed any routes like this since you've been trying to send a 9a?

That's an interesting question, and something I've thought about a bit. I agree that to send harder routes, like 9a, I'd need to TRY harder. Breathe heavily and fight to the death and all that. But real effort doesn't come easy to me - I tend to keep things at a 5 or 6/10 effort rather than fighting all the way to a 9 or 10. When I freed the Shaft in a day on El Cap [35 pitch 13c or so] I went to the absolute death, so much so that my partner burst out laughing because he'd never heard me wailing so much. But that kind of effort is really rare for me. Which is probably a good thing for alpinism or soloing, but certainly doesn't help for performance sport climbing. 

I'm curious what your project was that I climbed? 

Ehi Alex ... are you gonna be at the Olympic game in 2020?