AG Outdoor | 55“OnceIstartedclimbingoutside,Istartedtopickup
sponsors,”hesays.“Iwasunashamedlyseekingout
freeshoes...orlikefreeanything,becauseIjustwanted
toclimballthetime...”
“Once I was travelling and started climbing outside, I started to pick
up sponsors,” he says. “I was unashamedly seeking out free shoes, free
gear, free ropes, or like free anything, because I just wanted to climb
all the time... ”
Living in a van soon became the norm for the nomadic Honnold, and
he upgraded his mum’s Chevy to a white Ford Ecoline minivan, the
same one he still lives in today. “The van is sweet. It’s not that nice a
van but it’s pretty awesome to live in Yosemite or Zion National Park
or any of the most beautiful places in the US... I mean I can’t stand up
in my car, but other than that I am very comfortable,” he laughs.
In 2007 Honnold took the climbing world by storm with free solo
ascents of both Astroman and Rostrum routes in Yosemite Valley, in a
single day – an accomplishment only once previously achieved by Ca-
nadian legend Peter Croft.
In 2008 Honnold upped the ante with a free solo ascent of Moonlight
buttress in Zion National Park and then took the mainstream world by
storm with a free solo ascent of the 2000ft Regular Northwest Face of
Yosemite’s Half Dome. Despite only telling two friends what he was
doing at the time, his face was soon plastered all around the world, 60
Minutes profi led him and he was on the cover of National Geographic.
“I never aimed to be famous... But it’s funny; 10 years ago when that
seemed completely out of the question I was, like, I’d love to be on the
cover of a magazine because then I’d get all the chicks,” he jokes.
It’s a pretty surreal transition,” he continues. “Basically for my en-
tire life all I’ve tried to do is climb slightly harder, slightly better. Try
to push my own climbing and try to do harder things. Eventually you
start getting attention and pretty soon you’re in the media and your
getting free stuff and you’re like, oh, that’s pretty cool. Now I get to
climb all the time.”
But with free soloing comes risk, fear and consequences. Many of
those same peers who respect him also worry about him. Even Tommy
Caldwell, his partner in the Fitz Traverse admits, “Free soloing is not
for me. I see it’s appeal... but I’ve had holds break when free climbing.
If I had been soloing, I’d be dead.”
But Honnold is quite blasé about the whole ‘no ropes’ thing. “I think
that whatever I might have as a psychological gift, I have a lot less of a
gift than people think I have, and I have just put a lot more time into
it and a lot more practice than people expect,” he reveals.
“For sure I get scared. Of course, everybody gets scared. Fear is an
appropriate response to danger, fear keeps you alive and it is totally
useful and benefi cial. It’s just the irrational fear that cripples you, that’s
the problem. Being able to differentiate between appropriate fear and
the inappropriate fear is key.
“In some ways fear should be like hunger. It should be something
you can just register, like, ‘Okay, I am hungry’, but that is not going to
stop me from doing what I need to do.BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM & BOOK FESTIVAL | 40TH ANNIVERSARY
mbingoutsideIstartedtopick “ItAward-winning adventure cameraman
Keith Patridge (of Touching the Void fame)
fl ew in specially to run the adventure
fi lmmakers’ workshop at the festival.To p l e f t Two of the world’s best climbers, Alex Honnold and Tommy
Caldwell, obviously taking my interview seriously while choppering
over the Canadian Rockies.Below Ben Sturgulewski (right) is a multi-award winning director/
cinematographer, while photographer/climber, Ben Moon’s Denali
has received over 13 million views on Vimeo. They don’t always take
themselves seriously.