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Alex Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. 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 2,900-foot route Freerider at 5.13a, the first-ever big wall free solo ascent at that grade), a climb described in The New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." In 2015, he won a Piolet d'Or in alpine climbing with Tommy Caldwell for their completion of the enchainment (known as the Fitz Traverse) of the Fitz Roy (or Fitzroy Group) in Patagonia over 5 days.
Honnold is the author (with David Roberts) of the memoir Alone on the Wall (2015) and the subject of the 2018 biographical documentary Free Solo, which won a BAFTA and an Academy Awards.
"I was never, like, a bad climber as, but I had never been a great climber, either," he says. "There were a lot of other climbers who were much, much stronger than me, who started as kids and were, like, instantly freakishly strong like they just have a natural gift. And that was never me. I just loved climbing, and I've been climbing all the time ever since, so I've naturally gotten better at it, but I've never been gifted."
After graduating from Mira Loma High School as part of the International Baccalaureate Programme in 2003, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley to study civil engineering. His maternal grandfather died, his parents divorced during his first year of college, and Honnold skipped many of his classes to Bouldering by himself at Indian Rock.
In 2007, he bought a 2002 Ford E-Series Vandwelling, which allowed him to focus on climbing and following the weather.
According to a 2011 Alpinist profile:
He gained mainstream recognition after his 2008 free solo of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome was featured in the film Alone on the Wall and a subsequent 60 Minutes interview.
In November 2011, Honnold and Hans Florine missed setting the speed climbing record on the famous Nose big-wall crack climbing route on Yosemite's El Capitan by 45 seconds. At the time the record stood at 2:36:45, as set by Dean Potter & Sean Leary in November 2010. On June 17, 2012, Honnold and Florine set a new record of 2:23:46 (or 2:23:51) on that same route.
In November 2014, Clif Bar announced that they would no longer sponsor Honnold, along with Dean Potter, Steph Davis, Timmy O'Neill and Cedar Wright. "We concluded that these forms of the sport are pushing boundaries and taking the element of risk to a place where we as a company are no longer willing to go," the company wrote in an open letter.
In 2016, he was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging scans that revealed that, unlike other high sensation seekers, his amygdala barely activates when watching disturbing images. He however confesses feeling fear occasionally. Through imagination and practice, he has desensitized himself to most fearful situations.
On June 3, 2017, he made the first-ever free solo ascent of El Capitan by completing Alex Huber's 2,900-foot (884m) big-wall crack climbing route, Freerider (5.13a VI), in 3 hours and 56 minutes. The climb, described as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever," was documented by climber and photographer Jimmy Chin and documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi, as the subject of the documentary Free Solo. Among other awards, the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (2018).
On June 6, 2018, Honnold teamed up with Tommy Caldwell to break the Nose on El Capitan speed record in Yosemite. They completed the approximately 3,000-foot (914m) route in 1:58:07, becoming the first climbers to complete it in under two hours.
In 2021, National Geographic signed Honnold for an original docuseries about his quest to climb across the peaks of Greenland. Also in 2021, Honnold started a podcast about climbing called Climbing Gold. In its first season, Climbing Gold focused on telling stories of extraordinary climbers across history and featured notable climbers and ascents including Lynn Hill, John Gill, Beth Rodden, Hans Florine, and coverage of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which featured competition climbing for the first time.
On October 12, 2022, Honnold completed the "Honnold Ultimate Red Rock Traverse", or HURT, in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. In total, the endeavor took 32 hours and 6 minutes, with Honnold covering 35 miles of running, scrambling, and climbing, logging 24,000' of elevation gain, and summitting 18 out of the 23 peaks in Red Rock Canyon. Targeting the area's classic climbing routes, including Epinephrine, Dark Shadows, and Olive Oil, Honnold completed 126 pitches with about 13,000' of technical climbing.
In 2017, Honnold bought a home in the Las Vegas area. "I didn't have any furniture at first, so I lived in the van in the driveway for the first couple weeks. It felt more like home than an empty house did." Around the same time, he replaced the Ford Econoline van he had lived in since 2007 and put 200,000 miles on with a new 2016 Ram ProMaster, which he still lives and travels in for most of the year.
Honnold met Sanni McCandless at a book signing in November 2015; they became a couple soon after. Sanni and her relationship with Honnold feature prominently in Free Solo. On December 25, 2019, Honnold announced, via social media, that he and McCandless were engaged. On September 13, 2020, Honnold announced via Instagram that he and McCandless had married. Honnold's and McCandless's daughter, June, was born on February 17, 2022. Their second daughter, Alice Summer, was born on February 6, 2024.
Dierdre Wolownick, Alex Honnold's mother, started climbing at age 60 and is the oldest woman to climb El Capitan (first at the age of 66 and then, breaking her record, again at age 70).
The Foundation prioritizes a "trust based philanthropic approach". Per Honnold, "in climbing, you trust your partner with your life. Why should philanthropy be any different"?
| 2007 | Freerider | Yosemite | Free ascent | 3,000 ft / 37 pitches | One day | VI 5.13a | One day free ascent with Brian Kimball |
| 2007 | Astroman and The Rostrum | Yosemite | Free solo | 10 + 8 pitches | One Day | 5.11c, 10 pitches | First-ever repeat of Peter Croft's 1987 'free solo in one day' |
| 2007 | Salathé Wall | Yosemite | Free ascent | 3,000 ft / ~35 pitches | VI 5.13b/c | Eleventh free ascent | |
| 2008 | Bushido and Hong Kong Phooey | Utah | Traditional | 5.13+, 5.13b–5.14 | Climbed two challenging crack routes in Utah. | ||
| 2008 | Moonlight Buttress | Zion, Utah | Free solo | 1,200 ft / 9 pitches | 83 minutes | V 5.12d, 1200 ft | First free solo |
| 2008 | Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome | Yosemite | Free solo | 2,000 ft / 23 pitches | 2 hours 50 minutes | 5.12a | First free solo |
| 2012 | The Nose | Yosemite, El Capitan | Speed climb | 2,900 ft / ~31 pitches | 2:23:46 | VI 5.8 A2 | Former speed record of 2:23:46 with Hans Florine |
| 2012 | The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome | Yosemite | Speed solo | 2,000 ft / 23 pitches | 1:22 | 5.12a | |
| 2012 | Yosemite Triple Crown | Yosemite | Link-up | 18:50 | Various | Solo link-up of three iconic Yosemite routes. (Mt. Watkins, El Capitan, and Half Dome) | |
| 2014 | Pre Muir | Yosemite, El Capitan | Free climb | V 5.13c/d | Climbed with Josh McCoy. | ||
| 2014 | Muir Wall – Shaft Variation | Yosemite, El Capitan | Speed climb | 12 Hours | V 5.13b/c | Speed record ascent. | |
| 2014 | El Corazon | Yosemite, El Capitan | Speed climb | 15:30 | V 5.13b | Speed record ascent. | |
| 2014 | El Sendero Luminoso | El Potrero Chico, Mexico | Free solo | 1,750 ft, 15 pitch | Just over 3 hours | V 5.12d | First free solo ascent |
| 2014 | University Wall | Squamish, British Columbia, Canada | Free solo | 8 pitches | 2 hours (car-to-car) | 5.12a C2 | First free solo |
| 2016 | Complete Scream | Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | Free Solo | 200 ft | E8 6b | Notable climb in Northern Ireland. | |
| 2017 | Freerider | Yosemite, El Capitan | Free solo | 3,000 ft / 37 pitches | 3 hours 56 minutes | 5.13a VI | First-ever big wall free solo at the grade of 5.13a (7c+). |
| 2018 | The Nose | Yosemite, El Capitan | Speed Climb | 2,900 ft / ~31 pitches | 1:58:07 | VI 5.8 A2 | Speed record with Tommy Caldwell |
| 2019 | El Niño | Yosemite, El Capitan | Free climb | 3,000 ft | VI 5.13c | Second entirely free ascent via the Pineapple Express variation with Brad Gobright. | |
| 2019 | Passage to Freedom | Yosemite, El Capitan | Free climb | 3,000 ft | VI 5.13d | First free ascent with Tommy Caldwell | |
| 2022 | Ingmikortilaq | sea cliff in eastern Greenland | Free ascent | 3,750-foot | First ascent of a sea cliff, climbed with Hazel Findlay. | ||
| 2023 | The Heart Route | Yosemite, El Capitan | Free climb | 3,000ft | VI 5.13b, V10 | Third free ascent | |
| 2024 | Triple Rainbow | Rainbow Wall, USA | Free climb | Dreefee (11 pitch 5.13d), Desert Solitare (11 pitch 5.13b) and Rainbow Country (13 pitch 5.12d). | 5.13d | First free ascent of a link up of Dreefee, Desert Solitare and Rainbow Country |
| 2010 | Ambrosia | Bishop, California | Bouldering | V11 8A | second ascent | ||
| 2011 | The Mandala | Bishop, California | Bouldering | V12 8A+ | |||
| 2012 | Too Big to Flail | Bishop, California | Bouldering | V10 7C+ or 8b (5.13d) | first ascent |
| 2008 | Parthian Shot, New Statesman, Meshuga (solo) | London Wall, on-sight solo; in England. | Free solo | Varies | Multiple solos and flashes | ||
| 2010 | The Green Mile | Jailhouse crag, San Francisco | Sport climb | 5.14c(8c+) | |||
| 2010 | Rainbow Arch | Ennedi Plateau, Chad | Top-rope | 5.12+ | First ascent | ||
| 2011 | Heaven and Cosmic Debris | Yosemite National Park | Free solo | 5.12d, 5.13b | |||
| 2011 | The Phoenix | Yosemite National Park | Free solo | 5.13a | The Phoenix was the first-ever consensus 5.13a in history. | ||
| 2011 | Cobra Crack | Squamish, British Columbia | Free climb | 5.14b | ascent is etched in a board between that of Will Stanhope and Pete Whittaker | ||
| 2019 | Arrested Development | Mount Charleston, Nevada | Sport climb | 9a 5.14d | second ascent of sport climbing route after Jonathan Siegrist. | ||
| 2024 | Manphibian | Mount Charleston, Nevada | Sport climb | 9a 5.14d |
| 2009 | Unnamed | Low's Gully, Borneo | Attempted free ascent | VI 5.12 A2 | Attempted first free ascent | ||
| 2014 | The Fitz Roy Traverse | Fitz Roy massif, Patagonia | Alpine | 5,000 m | 5 Days | 5.11d C1 65 degrees, 5000m | Completed over five days with Tommy Caldwell |
| 2016 | Torre Traverse | Patagonia | Alpine | Under 21 Hours | Second traverse (north-to-south) of the Torre Egger. Completed with Colin Haley. | ||
| 2023 | Diablo Traverse | Devils Thumb, Alaska | Alpine | Under 24 Hours | 5.10 A2 | Second traverse of the range. Completed with Tommy Caldwell. |
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