Photo: Niccolò Caranti / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
I find Alex Honnold endlessly fascinating because his free solo of El Capitan was the opposite of recklessness. Behind that 2017 climb were years of rehearsal, memorized sequences, and a mind that treats fear as an engineering problem. That discipline impresses me more than the athletic feat itself. He is also that rare athlete who can articulate what he does, through books, podcasts, and an almost unsettling honesty about risk and mortality. Watching him made me reconsider what preparation really means. Most of us hedge everything; Honnold removed the hedge entirely and survived on pure competence. I cannot look away from that.
Overview
Alexander J Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big wall climbing routes. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park via the 880-metre (2,900 ft) route Freerider at grade 5.13a, the first-ever big-wall free-solo ascent at that grade, a climb described in The…
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Alex Honnold
- Name (Japanese)
- アレックス・オノルド
- Reading
- あれっくす・おのるど
- Born
- August 17, 1985 (age 40)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Ox
- Origin
- Sacramento, California, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- rock climber / author / mountaineer / podcaster
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Mira Loma High School
- University
- University of California, Berkeley
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Author — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.