# Alex Honnold can climb a half-mile of sheer vertical rock. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 21, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974 "2019-02-21T18:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/21 "2019-02-22T02:45:02Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If I watched that on a big screen I would die. I’m pretty sure I’m not exaggerating. I saw it in IMAX on the biggest screen in the country! (Lincoln Square NYC) That was quite the experience! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/22 "2019-02-22T02:59:22Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If I watched that on a big screen I would die. I’m pretty sure I’m not exaggerating. Watching Honnold (whether in this movie or on other videos) literally makes my palms sweat. I’ve never had that kind of physical reaction to anything else I’ve seen in recorded form. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/23 "2019-02-22T03:04:26Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > …IMHO, this activity will end up getting people killed… > **[Free solo climbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_solo_climbing#Notable_accidents)** > > Free solo climbing, or free soloing, is a form of rock climbing where the climbers (or free soloists) climb solo (or alone) without ropes or other protective equipment, using only their climbing shoes and their climbing chalk. Free soloing is the most dangerous form of climbing, and, unlike bouldering, free soloists climb above safe heights, where a fall can be fatal. Though many climbers have free soloed climbing grades they are very comfortable on, only a tiny group free solo regularly, and ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/24 "2019-02-22T03:10:47Z")
If you like Honnold, here’s Ueli Steck speed climing the Eiger. Steck was probably an equally great talent, but more a high mountains guy. He was killed on Everest last year. I find this more disturbing than watching Honnold. Honnold is in some scary exposed positions, but to my eye everything always look perfect, never in doubt. Even in this short video, you see Steck make some little slips as he's feeling out his holds when dry tooling. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/25 "2019-02-22T03:12:13Z")
He’s either really stupid or really brave, actually I don’t think he’s either, he’s got an amazing sense of instinct and proprioception and executive planning when it comes to climbing, and he is also as emotionally controlled and calm as anyone could possibly be where literally a fraction of a microsecond of hesitation would mean death. I’m impressed, I give the guy props, but he’s proved himself many times over I hope he retires, lives a long time and conquers the world of miniature golf or something. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/26 "2019-02-22T03:13:28Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > IMHO, this activity will end up getting people killed (maybe not the elite climbers, but those emulating them). Pretty much all the expert free solo and speed climbers have died climbing. Very few leave the sport alive. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/27 "2019-02-22T03:33:42Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Pretty much all the expert free solo and speed climbers have died climbing. Very few leave the sport alive. Makes me think Freud wasn’t too far off when he talked about a “death drive”. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/28 "2019-02-22T04:05:39Z")
Is it a coincidence that we’ve all been watching the same video this lately? Watching it gives me the willies but I can’t stop. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/29 "2019-02-22T04:05:46Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > … it’s hard to imagine how his El Cap climb could really be surpassed May not be all that hard to imagine. All he’d have to do is free solo the _Nose_ route on El Cap. The route he did is known as _Freerider_, and of those that run from the base to the top it’s basically the easiest (which is to say, hideously difficult). (If you haven’t done serious technical rock climbing, I think I can promise that what you’re imagining to be the actual difficulty is far, far below the reality.) The route on which he and Tommy Caldwell set the speed record is known as the _Nose_ (because of the way the rock flares out a bit at the base). They did it in 1:58:07, which has the same sort of feel as a 3-minute mile. It has been climbed free (though definitely with ropes and protection) just a few times - first by a woman (Lynn Hill) in 1993, and by (I think) just 4 or 5 others since. The crux moves on this route are much tougher than on _Freerider_. Alex has climbed this route many times, but so far as I know never free, and he has certainly never attempted the free solo. But it surely must have crossed his mind. To the general public, this wouldn’t look like much of a step; to climbers, it would be a inconceivable leap. I certainly hope he doesn’t try this, and I don’t think he will. His “repeat all the hard moves until you have them wired” approach probably wouldn’t work here, and I don’t think he’s interested in rolling the dice. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/30 "2019-02-22T04:14:22Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > May not be all that hard to imagine. All he’d have to do is free solo the _Nose_ route on El Cap… Sure, but doesn’t that fit exactly what I described in the part of my post that you didn’t quote: the only way to surpass what he has done would be an attempt of such extreme difficulty that it would involve a risk of death perhaps more on the order of 30% to attempt it free solo. That comes closer most people’s definition of a suicide attempt than a climb. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/31 "2019-02-22T07:01:49Z")
I wonder whether any of them have done [Mount Thor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Thor)? > [@](#): > > Mount Thor… is a mountain with an elevation of 1,675 metres (5,495 ft) located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The mountain is located 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Pangnirtung and features Earth’s greatest vertical drop of 1,250 m (4,101 ft), with the cliff overhanging at an average angle of 15 degrees from vertical… ---
**Author:** ![Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reindeer_flotilla/32/3024_2.png) [@Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reindeer_Flotilla)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/32 "2019-02-22T21:40:35Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > The other thing these climbers are doing to top each other is speed records. I think Honnold and Caldwell speed-climbed El Cap in 2 hours. IMHO, this activity will end up getting people killed (maybe not the elite climbers, but those emulating them). Honnold and Caldwell did the nose of El Cap in 1:58:07. No one else has done it in under 2 hours. To put this in perspective, there are only ~20 climbers in history that have joined the “Nose-in-a-Day” club for an under 24 hours climb to the top. And speaking of getting people killed, keep in mind that Honnold and Caldwell set that record _ **after** _ two climbers, Jason Wells and Tim Klein, were killed attempting the feat only four days earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/33 "2019-02-22T23:08:57Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Yeah, the most compelling thing is probably not his technical climbing ability - obviously he’s among the elite, but there are probably several dozen climbers with similar technical skill - it’s his mental ability, carrying out those moves when a single mistake means death. One of the notable things in the movie is that they did an fMRI scan, and (unsurprisingly) his amygdala basically doesn’t work. The test involves showing a bunch of images that trigger an emotional response in most people, but in him they weren’t enough to get any neurons in his amygdala to fire. > > Of course, the amygdala is involved not just in the kind of emotional reactions you experience when under stress, but also personal relationships etc., so it’s no surprise to discover that this part of his life is not straightforward either. Although I did find the extent to which they lingered on his relationship with his girlfriend felt a bit creepy in the movie. I"ve known about Honnold for years and wondered if he is a sociopath. Just someone whose limbic system and frontal cortex do not communicate well. His fearlessness would be a major symptom of it. There are lots of sociopaths who follow the law and even pro-social sociopaths. So being a sociopath doesn’t automatically mean you’re a serial killer or career criminal. Looking into it, I did find this. > **[‘Free Solo’ Is the Best Climbing Movie Ever Made](https://www.outsideonline.com/2347246/free-solo-documentary-el-capitan-yosemite-alex-honnold-review?scope=anon)** > > In their new film, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin capture Alex Honnold’s historic ropeless El Cap climb and the emotional toll it took on everyone around him > [@](#): > > McCandless’s emotions, in particular, are a wild card: she is as transparent as Honnold is reserved, and seemingly spends half the film in tears or on the verge of them. She can’t ask him to stop soloing, but she doesn’t want him to die. “Everyone I’ve ever dated has told me that I’m a sociopath, basically,” Honnold says. Occasionally it’s hard to disagree He also once mentioned not being affected by his father’s death. Anyway, it would explain a lot about his fearlessness. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/34 "2019-02-23T03:59:00Z")
I wonder whether the people who made _Free Solo_ have arranged for Alex Honnold to be in the audience at the Oscars so they can point him out if the film wins Best Documentary Feature. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/35 "2019-02-23T04:50:13Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I wonder whether the people who made _Free Solo_ have arranged for Alex Honnold to be in the audience at the Oscars so they can point him out if the film wins Best Documentary Feature. Apparently Sylvester Stallone is going to climb it for the sequel. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/36 "2019-02-23T13:14:06Z")
Explanation of why he removed his shoes when he got to the top: Serious climbers get climbing shoes which involve a degree of pain appropriate to the difficulty of climbing for which they will be used. One needs the sensitivity and control afforded by tight shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/37 "2019-02-24T12:10:02Z")
In his Ted talks version I didn’t like his use of the headline “managing fear”. He already did it numpteen times with ropes so managing fear isn’t the managing fear that I am aware of. He is a good climber but has nothing to teach you about managing fear. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/38 "2019-02-24T12:15:01Z")
Climb it with ropes as many times as you want, but that one time without ropes is going to need a fuckton of fear management. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/39 "2019-02-24T12:24:46Z")
What did you learn? ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-honnold-can-climb-a-half-mile-of-sheer-vertical-rock/829974/40 "2019-02-24T12:56:01Z")
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