Alex Honnold is one of the best and most inspiring free climbers of the current climbing generation. In June 2017, he climbed El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley on the Freerider route without rope or protection. Climbing this 1,000-meter wall free solo also gained him overnight fame outside the climbing scene.
Charity Work:
The Honnold Foundation, founded in 2012 by the climber, is a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing solar energy to impoverished communities. Honnold not only uses his fame and connections to establish this goal but also donates a whopping one-third of his income to the foundation every year, which can go up to.
Mindfulness:
Being rational or being smart about your time. For me it stems from, "What do I want to do?" In this case, "Free solo El Cap." And then basically, "What do I need to do to be able to do that?" and then sort of make a plan and execute the plan. He looks at it more from a rational perspective , like, "What are the steps that you need to lay out in order to do the thing that you want to do?" For him, people can sort of frame it in whatever way it's most helpful to them, if it's like mindfulness or the Zen power focus sort of thing.
Preparation:
"Preparing for something like that kind of free soloing, for something that's never been done before, the only real way to practice is to do it in your head. It's something that you can't actually do it over and over, and so you just imagine the sensations and visualize it. And so each time you imagine the whole thing it's basically the same as practicing. "
Honnold also adjusted his diet in preparation for the free solo on El Capitan. His weakness is desserts, which he banned himself from having. In general, Honnold is vegetarian. In preparation for the “Freerider”, he went almost completely vegan. He just didn’t give up eggs.
Why climbing:
One of the reasons he started free solo climbing was his shyness. As a teenager, his parents, who also drove him to climbing, were mostly the ones belaying him. When he was out and about alone, he didn’t have the confidence to ask other climbers if they would climb with him.
Honnold estimates that he climbs no more than just five percent of his routes free solo. That’s why he also received one of the most prestigious awards in mountain sports, the Piolet d’Or (Golden Ice Axe), not for a free solo route but for the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia.
Fears:
He was scared of dying when he was 19 years old and he slipped on his first snow shoe tour.
Preferences:
Alex Honnold is a purist. He needs very little for climbing. But what the 31-year-old does always have is music. Mainly, rock and punk rock – in shuffle mode.
