Alex Honnold

Climbing!!

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Josh and I decided to take a “rest” day after the Marmolada - something shorter with less of an approach. We settled on C’est Plus Facile, a surprisingly cool 8 pitch 8a (5.13b) up this nice face right by the road. A bolted route with bolted anchors felt like proper vacation climbing.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

An assortment of photos from climbing Tempi Moderni (28 pitch 5.11+ -ish) on the Marmolada the other day - we did the hike in at sunrise and then climbed the route. Saw tons of wildlife, an amazing Rifugio playground (!!), and all kinds of interesting sights. I had a really hard time following the route since you can pretty much climb anywhere on the big face - we wound up climbing the upper third of a route to the left just because we got lost. But at least we topped out in time for the gondola ride down… so amazing to save the 6k ft of descent… my knees said thanks. Nice day out with Josh!

[Jimmy Chin @jimkchin]

Rules to Live By is available to pre-order now: https://t.co/BSJCFME9AH

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

I’m in the Dolomites for a week with my old friend Josh - our first day of climbing we intended to climb on Cime Grande but we didn’t know about the parking (or lack thereof…) and it was too crowded so we pivoted to a random 16 pitch 5.12c that we found in the guidebook. Such an amazing climbing destination when you can randomly choose some other route and it’s still a world class experience. And the scenery!!

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

The Honnold Foundation (@honnoldfound) will be funding our largest slate of grantees ever this year – more than 70 community partners, and more than $11M in funding awarded.

HF’s impact has grown pretty dramatically in the last few years thanks to growing support from our community. Ultimately, we’re not trying to build an endowment. The whole point isn’t to save for some future day – it’s to support communities, right now. A lot of traditional philanthropists might view this as financially “risky.” But the people who face the biggest risk are communities that philanthropy is meant to serve. Supporting communities to quickly implement their own solutions is the least we can do.

Thanks to all of our supporters, the HF team, and to the communities doing great work. Partners announced this fall!

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

I was recently in Jackson Hole for a work event and took advantage of a free day between travel to attempt the Grand Traverse in the Tetons. It was only my second ever day climbing in the Tetons - I did the Grand Traverse once before almost 20 years ago.

I had the pleasure of staying at @jimkchin’s house and he graciously equipped me with everything I needed for an adventure in the mountains (I didn’t want to try flying with an ice axe in my carry on…).

Ultimately, I came down after the Cathedral Traverse (the first part through the Grand) - it seemed like enough of an outing to scratch the itch. 9k of vert or so and an incredible amount of scrambling. I was moving pretty slowly and felt incredibly tired on the uphills. I think the Grand is the highest elevation I’ve been to all year and I definitely felt it. But it was a great day in the mountains. And certainly a real bonus during a work travel trip…

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Our last morning in Tuolumne I snuck out of camp super early (didn’t wake the babies! Great success!) and did the Tuolumne Triple - Tenaya, Matthes Crest and Cathedral Peak. I hadn’t done any of them in 10 years or so I don’t think and they were even better than I remembered. So fun!! I tried to hustle and managed to finish in just under 5 hours, which meant that I made it back in time to join the family bouldering session.

I took a bunch of landscape pictures. I sort of forgotten just how beautiful Tuolumne is…

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

One of the highlights of our family Tuolumne camping trip was taking my sister, mother in law, and friend up the Great White Book (5.6) on Stately Pleasure dome. It’s one of my favorite routes and it was a total pleasure to share it with some of my favorite people. And it’s so scenic above Tenaya Lake.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

We got to take the kids to Tuolumne for the first time for a family camping trip - so wholesome! Our 2.5 year old got to putter up her first dome (Pothole - very easy) and our 4.5 year old got to scramble up Lembert Dome (decidedly harder). We had a bunch of family there so each adventure made for a great group outing. Some of the pics are from my brother in law James.

The trip got me really psyched for the next few years as the kids get older. They’re getting so much more capable.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

I got to go hike Pyramid Peak with Sanni - lovely little date morning in Desolation Wilderness.

Very cute marmot on the summit - he was posing for us (or maybe trying to steal our snacks…) And a really nice view of Lover’s Leap and Hogsback across the river.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Two random photos from a fun little outing to Lover’s Leap - I climbed this interesting chimney called Eeyore’s Enema (5 pitch 5.10- squeeze chimney!) that I’d never done before. I was so struck by the unusual view that I stopped to take a picture. Cool to see the East Wall from inside of the Main Wall…

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

I was recently in Salt Lake City for an event and reached out to old friends to see who could take me out for a little mountain outing - Christian Adam from @BlackDiamond was willing to pick me up and guide me up the South Ridge of Superior, a classic alpine ridge that I hadn’t scrambled in years. It was mercifully above some wild fire smoke down in the valley and a bit cooler. And it’s such a fun adventure up a nice rock ridge. Always fun to sneak something in!!

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Family hike! The Sierra has such perfect scrambling for little kids.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

I was just in Phoenix for a speaking event and had the time to sneak up Camelback Mountain afterward. It really exceeded expectations!! I love little bits of nature inside a city. And it had some pretty nice looking rock all over, though it was getting dark so it was slightly hard for me to tell where the actual climbing routes were.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Honored to be included in @TIME’s list of athletes. Pretty cool!

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Hard to believe but yesterday marked 9 years since I free soloed El Cap. I celebrated the occasion by looking through some of the old photos and I was struck by how much I appreciated all the photos of friends - all the camera folks, riggers, climbing partners, and community that came together to help make the film Free Solo happen.

This is a random carousel of behind the scenes images, all taken by @jimkchin. Mikey Schaefer appears in a lot of them since he was on the wall shooting so much. David Allfrey did a lot of rigging, @tommycaldwell1 was such a key partner for so much of the climbing.
Basically, 9 years later I remember it all as a great time with friends. What an adventure!

Ps - the climbing photo is from the Good Book, a super classic 5.10d I soloed for practice along the way.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

Peak parenting moment: I got to take my 4 year old climbing with the help of a 10 year old assistant guide! Such a nice outing. Hopefully the start of many more adventures.

For those who care - we climbed Knapsack Crack (3 pitch 5.5, though I’m pretty sure it was considered 5.3 when I was young) on Hogsback. It was the perfect introduction.

And thanks to the lovely party that let us play through. Sorry for junk showing you guys…

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

I’ve recently discovered this podcast “excellence, actually” and I’m really into it. I particularly enjoyed this episode and think it’s worth sharing…. My favorite line was “AI in the classroom is like taking a forklift to the gym”

https://t.co/3VsWCMOWYl

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

A few really bad pics of a fun day of climbing at Lover’s Leap with the one and only @tommycaldwell1. We took a portaledge and climbed Out the Big Top, this crazy steep panel of rock part way up the wall.

I’ve always thought of the Leap as incredible moderate climbing - turns out there’s one steep, hard pitch as well! Good effort by Nik Berry to first free this impressive pitch.

[Alex Honnold @AlexHonnold]

This is an article that I wrote following the death of Dean Potter in 2015 that I think does a good job of highlighting how inspirational he was to me personally and showing how much I admired his approach to his arts. The recent @HBO show The Dark Wizard used some of my interview clips to really make our relationship seem hyper competitive and dysfunctional, but the reality was a little more prosaic - we didn’t know each other super well and rarely saw each other. I was always kind of afraid of him because he was so intense. But I’d always been super inspired by his climbing and his vision.

We overlapped in Yosemite to some extent from 2006 until his death in 2015, so that’s nearly a decade in which I was normally spending about 3 months a year in Yosemite. We each did a handful of climbs over that time that were considered “competitive” (the Nose speed record being an obvious example). When you see it all in a 4 episode documentary it seems super fast and extreme - when you actually live it over a decade it all feels a lot slower and more normal…

The Dark Wizard does an amazing job of remembering Dean as the visionary climber that he was and it’s certainly worth a watch. Just remember that it’s edited for maximum effect.

https://t.co/ZujUomWKcV