Cover American climber Alex Honnold climbs Taipei 101 building by hand (Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images)
American climber Alex Honnold climbs Taipei 101 building by hand (Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images)
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The world watched as climber Alex Honnold free-climbed Taipei 101 on Netflix—not his first time attempting such a thrilling feat. Here’s what one of the world’s most accomplished athletes has to teach us
Alex Honnold courts danger, but refuses to romanticise it. In the news recently for his free solo climb atop Taipei 101 that was broadcast live on Netflix, he has long been famous in the extreme sports community for being the first—and still the only—person to free-solo climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. That feat meant that he climbed the 3,000-foot vertical rock face without ropes or any sort of safety devices, setting a very high bar indeed for other climbers, and showing the world what elite-level preparation, discipline and self-mastery look like.
The ascent, which can also be relived in the Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo, is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletic feats in modern history. Yet what makes Honnold enduringly compelling is not bravado but restraint: his insistence that fear is useful, preparation is ethical and walking away is sometimes the bravest move of all. His words reflect a climber who has spent decades thinking about—and not just facing—risk, consequence and the limits of human attention, and who approaches life with the same clear-eyed logic he brings to a rock cliff.
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Fear is misunderstood
“A lot of people say I don’t feel fear… that’s just not true… I have the same healthy hope of survival as everybody else.”
In a 2016 interview on National Geographic with Simon Worrall, Alex Honnold was told that other climbers say that he has no fear of death—a claim that Honnold immediately pushed back on. “A lot of people say I don’t feel fear, or that I don’t fear death, but that’s just not true!” he said.
“I have the same healthy hope of survival as everybody else. I don’t want to die. At least not yet. I think I just have more of an acceptance that I will die at some point. I understand that, but I don’t want to baby myself along the way. I want to live in a certain way, which requires taking a higher degree of risk, and that’s acceptable to me.”
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Fear is different from risk
“[I]t’s important to differentiate fear and risk. If there is a high level of risk, you should be feeling fear. It’s a warning that there is real danger.
When speaking to writer Tim Ferriss for the Tim Ferriss Show in 2018, Honnold described his mental preparation for hard climbs. While he said he doesn’t “self-talk like that”, Honnold said that he does a lot of visualisation for his climbs: “I’ll think through the sequences and make sure that I remember which foot to move in which order and like how to do everything. And then if I’m climbing ropeless, then I’ll think through what it’ll feel like to be in certain positions. Because some kinds of movements are just scarier. It’s important to think through how that will all feel when I’m up there, so that when I’m doing it, I won’t suddenly be like, Oh my God, this is really scary. I know that it’s supposed to be scary, I know what it’s going to feel like, and I just do it.”
Honnold followed up later by saying that he did indeed climb “in the absence of fear”—but only because fear was a signal that he was not prepared enough. He said, “I generally climb hard routes in the absence of fear. Though it’s important to differentiate fear and risk. If there is a high level of risk, you should be feeling fear. It’s a warning that there is real danger. Typically, if I’m feeling a lot of fear, then I wait and prepare more, do whatever it takes to mitigate that, and then do the climb when I feel comfortable.”
Above Alex Honnold has written a book, titled ‘Alone on the Wall’, and been the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary ‘Free Solo’. In both, the world’s most accomplished free climber talks about fear and the focus that is needed to get to the top (Photo: alexhonnold.com)
Alex Honnold has written a book, titled ‘Alone on the Wall’, and been the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary ‘Free Solo’. In both, the world’s most accomplished free climber talks about fear and the focus that is needed to get to the top (Photo: alexhonnold.com)
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You can ‘get good at not being too scared’
“[W]hen you get scared all the time for years on end, you get really good at not being too scared. It loses some of its power and you get better at differentiating which fears matter and which fears don’t.”
Shortly before his livestreamed Taipei 101 ascent, Alex Honnold sat down with GQ writer Matthew Roberson to talk about the nuts and bolts of his preparation for the climb. But when the interviewer brought up the rumour that Honnold’s brain was wired differently, the climber gave a more nuanced view: “I’ve always been scared climbing, but I think the more obvious thing is that when you get scared all the time for years on end, you get really good at not being too scared,” he said. “It loses some of its power and you get better at differentiating which fears matter and which fears don’t.”
No one is perfect, but you can overcome your weaknesses
“For whatever reason, the mental side has always come relatively easily to me, but the physical side I have to work at…It’s not clear which is better or worse. You know what I mean? Basically, someone’s always struggling with whatever it is that they lack.”
In the GQ interview, Honnold acknowledged—not for the first time—that he isn’t naturally the strongest athlete, but that he has to work at it and focus on building certain types of strength. “I think it’s interesting, though, because you could say climbing is always split into the physical side and the mental side. For whatever reason, the mental side has always come relatively easily to me, but the physical side I have to work at. I have a lot of friends where the physical side maybe comes more naturally, but they’re just so bad mentally. It’s not clear which is better or worse. You know what I mean? Basically, someone’s always struggling with whatever it is that they lack.”
It’s not about the adrenaline rush
“There is no adrenaline rush. If I get an adrenaline rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong.”
Free solo climbing is considered an extreme sport, but contrary to expectation, the world’s foremost free soloist has said in multiple interviews that he’s not in it for the adrenaline rush. In fact, Honnold wrote in his book Alone on the Wall, “There is no adrenaline rush. If I get an adrenaline rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong.”
He’s explained in numerous other interviews that free soloing is actually slow and methodical, and if he had wanted an adrenaline rush, he would choose to be roped in, because “that way you can try your hardest, and fall over and over”.
Make decisions count
“The trajectory of one’s life often boils down to a few identifiable moments—decisions that change everything. I knew all too well that moments like these were not to be squandered.”
Though Honnold is famously a vegetarian and a teetotaler, he mentioned in his book that he’s been witness to addiction—and knows the value of decisions. “From my adventures in the subculture of addiction recovery, I’d learned that the trajectory of one’s life often boils down to a few identifiable moments—decisions that change everything. I knew all too well that moments like these were not to be squandered. Rather, they were to be respected and seized at all costs, for they just didn’t come around that often, if ever. Even if you experienced only one powerful moment like this one, you were lucky.”
Take responsibility
“I think it’s important that you do your own research, take personal responsibility for your decisions, experiment and find what works best for you.”
Part of the appeal of free soloing is that the climber only has himself to rely on. And that mindset permeates all that Honnold does: In Alone on the Wall, he writes, “I think it’s important that you do your own research, take personal responsibility for your decisions, experiment and find what works best for you.”
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Kristine Fonacier is a widely published journalist and author, covering lifestyle, business, politics and travel. She was the editor in chief at the Philippine editions of Esquire and Entrepreneur, and the founding editor of Grid magazine. At Tatler, she was previously the regional editor for T-Labs, Power & Purpose and Asia’s Most Influential.
