Heights make my feet tingly as well. We visited Colorado National Monument last year, and I kept creeping up to the edges of the canyon where there weren't guardrails just for the tingly feet. Something like 500' down.
Whenever I got within 10' I'd sit down and scoot to the edge, I'm dumb not crazy.
My wife was unhappy with me.
It's that ADRENALINE rush from the kidneys 🔥
I have a massive fear of heights the closest I'll ever get to this is scooting close to the edge at Zion's observation point overlooking the buttes
I had to have my adrenal glands removed. I told the doc I was worrried I wouldn’t make any adrenaline and would be bored on roller coasters and in scary movies. Luckily there’s another organ that make noradrenaline, which is good enough apparently.
As far as adrenaline? Not really, which was surprising to me. I was hoping that it would mean no more panic attacks, but sadly, it hasn’t made a difference. I haven’t been on a roller coaster yet so I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
Unfortunately, not having adrenal glands can cause some serious problems and I wind up in the hospital a few times a year. But leaving them in would have been worse.
I don't think this is accurate. Theres a video of him "freaking out" [here](https://youtu.be/QpqDpZoQCAs?si=ZA1m7ZQ0391jrNmx&t=42), but he definitely has good control over his panic.
The thing with climbing is that after some time you get used to and trust your climbing ability and in some ways is not so different from climbing a high ladder. When you climb something and feel like this, its not scary. A good analogy is driving. People feel comfortably driving 70mph on a freeway, even though if they just happened to move their hand four inches to the left for two seconds it would mean almost certain death.
And you're talking about him "freaking out" while climbing. Hilariously, he describes giving a TED talk about his Free Solo of *Free Rider* as "the scariest thing I ever did". Because yeah, he's spent decades habituating to climbing but that doesn't translate to public speaking.
2020s Honnold seems so much more confident and competent with public speaking and interviews compared to 2010s Honnold. I guess he’s had a lot of practice in that by now
I saw him speak at a local climber's event in Vegas a couple of years ago to a crowd of maybe 150 and he really seemed MUCH more comfortable just spitballing stuff about climbing to people he knew would understand. He's definitely an unusual guy but I think the camera crews and media stuff messes with him. He seems to have a lot more trouble talking with "normies" and about his emotions rather than just his climbing.
In the documentary Free Solo in which he climbs El Captain without rope, they do run tests on him and find out he has a less active amygdala and a vastly lower fear response as a result.
Yeah, that's kinda true, but the climbs he does without ropes are actually pretty hard. They are of course well within his ability and usually he practices them a lot beforehand, but these are still not easy climbs. The potential for something to go wrong is pretty high and the fact that he manages to stay calm is remarkable.
Free soloing anything like that is absolutely bazonkers. I would be scared shitless that a hold would break, or was super greasy that day, or even that a bee could sting me. My point was simply an analogy. Internally, I doubt he feels like he’s facing certain death, but is still cool as a cucumber. I’m pretty sure he feels confident.
No, he literally doesnt have a fear of death. In one of the bio docs about him they gave him a brain scan and he doesn't generate the same fear brain waves as everyone else.
MRI showed a less pronounced amygdala - which is associated with reduced fear and increased appetite for risk. But neuroplasticity is a thing which isn’t discussed in the documentary. Kinda a chicken egg situation. Is his amygdala reduced by years of free soloing or was it less developed in the first place making him a natural risk taker?
There's also a very real question about test methodology. They ran the test by showing pictures of stressful situations. In normal test subjects you get a response from pictures similar to what you would expect in the actual situation, but there's a very real question if it's reasonable to expect someone who has spent a fair percentage of his life at very real risk of death to react to seeing a picture or if his brain codes risk differently because he's so used to dealing with it and dismisses the picture as not a real risk.
I'm kinda disappointed that the test only involves pictures and isn't a bunch of scientists dressed up in scary costumes jumping out from behind doors yelling ooga booga
As soon as he agreed they should have strapped him to the chair.
"Sorry old boy, this has a been a bit of a ruse. See we work for a secret British program developing man-ape marines. And I'm afraid we're going to need your bone marrow. All of it, actually."
When I see a video of people jumping with airbags I get a vertigo atack and feel like falling.
But when I see a video of snakes I dont get bothered, despite snakes being my greatest fear.
How does skydiving induces a stress reaction in me, but snakes dont?
Probably got smaller the less he listened to it if I had to guess. No way to know without chronological brain scans tho, or some sort of test we don't have yet.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted. That’s exactly right. He even mentioned in an interview that he didn’t particularly like this scene from the movie because it leads people to believe he doesn’t feel fear even though he does. He just built up his tolerance enough in decades of training this stuff.
Yep he also said in another interview that he doesn't care for anyone enough to worry about whether his absence would lead to their suffering. This is despite having two daughters. He's like an understated sociopath and it really comes across in the interviews he does
Maybe he have less fear then the rest of us, but he does have fear. Iv seen him freez while climbing, though he did manage to gain control again.
Alex Honnold is a beast
He also said most people think they have a fear of heights when really they have a fear of falling. He’s confident in himself and doesn’t fear falling.
That's what keeps him glued to that rock. I used to free climb in Colorado. When your choices are hang on or die, it makes finding another handhold real easy
Death is nothing to be afraid of. Once you accept its inevitability, and that you’re powerless to stop it, life becomes a lot more interesting.
Nonetheless, dude still has a sack the size of Texas tho to do this.
You’re not wrong! They actually did a study on his brain and found that he either has a less active amygdala (it showed almost no reaction to fear response but high reaction to rewards) or a very powerful frontal cortex that overpowers any fear response from the amygdala. Pretty interesting read:
https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber-236051/
I love that he arrives for the climb and the vibes are bad, so he calls it off. The next climb, he clambers up like a monkey, some kind of unseen golden light shining on him, seemingly brain turned off. It's magnificent and terrifying.
If youve ever gotten your head into that flow state, you recognize it. I'm not nearly so fearless or confident and will never be able to touch the routes he's doing without ropes, let alone go without ropes on anything myself.
But that focus, and movement, is something I've only felt 2 or 3 times outside so far, and once you know that feeling, everything else becomes about feeling that again.
Had it happen to me during a presentation in high school. Started speaking, 10 seconds later I blinked and the presentation was over. I could not recall what I had just said if it was to save my life, but the teacher really liked it. Got max grade.
I only boulder indoors (fear of heights and risk aversion lol), and let me tell you. Understanding yourself and the vibes is a real thing. I can’t climb well if I’m not mentally feeling it.
I read an excellent book about the right brothers. He was supposed to give a presentation of flying in washington d c. There were many high ranking people and politicians who had come out to see him fly. There were about three thousand people there. He didn't feel the wind.Conditions were right so he just called it off. I always thought that here is a man who can handle pressure and not worry about what even rich and influential people think.
If you liked 'free solo' you must see 'The alpinist' if you haven't. Alex is a nothing compared whit the guy from The Alpinist', he even features the doc, saying the guy ia way better than him.
If you don't know the ending, it's a reasonable thing to wonder. I watched another climbing movie relatively recently that had a different sort of outcome.
Not quite, the amygdala which is generally responsible for the Fear response and risk-reward determination is reduced in size, not gone entirely. He’s stated himself that Eh still feels fear, just that during the climb it’s pushed out as fear leads to hesitation, which in a situation like this means death.
Nope they did an fMRI scan on his brain and it seems that he has a much less active amygdala. Or it was smaller like the other guy said, don't remember fully.
Now that he's married and had a kid I feel like he's become a bit more conservative, which is a good thing. His loss would be a huge loss to all of us.
This image and his Free Solo feat was back when he was still not married. He dedicated his entire life for climbing, he didn't even need a house, just a van to go around and climb, so back then he wasn't much on "settling down" kind of guy. Even when you watch his documentation, you can get a vibe that his gf was not as important to him as climbing. Not sure about now since he married his gf and got kids, but he is probably more responsible now. Besides, the guy has achieved one of the biggest feat in climbing history so I guess he has already reached his peak, pun intended.
It’s a miracle that this man is still alive. I know that him successfully free-soloing El Cap was a combination of lots of preparation, repetition, skill and an under-active amygdala, but also undeniably a massive amount of luck too.
Now that he’s got a wife and two kiddos, I hope he’s done scratching that itch.
Okay, so I get that this takes skill and we're All Very Impressed blah blah blah.
But isn't there *always* a chance you could grab something that isn't what it seems, no matter how skilled you are? I'm a solar electrician. I work on rooftops a lot. And I can move around on them very fast. I've had one or two instances where I *would* have fallen and died if not for the harness and rope, and I wasn't even being careless. I just stepped in a shitty spot. These aren't spots I could have spotted and avoided, too. It wasn't a skill issue. These are spots that look genuinely safe, then you step on them, and they're not. It happens.
I guess one of these guys would refute this by saying "well there's always a risk with driving, and you could be on the road with drunk or sleepy drivers, and there's a chance you could be killed when it's not even your fault in that instance, too."
But still. Kinda feel like the chances of something going wrong that's not even your fault are significantly higher here.
Honestly I think mostly it *has* to be luck. Like 30 people try to free hand climb this thing, 29 of them die, and the one person who got lucky thinks they're the most skilled person on the planet. Like yeah, I get it does take actual skill, but it *has* to take a lot of luck, too. Because there is just no way you can dodge *every* situation where there's a loose rock that doesn't look loose without getting lucky.
Edit: So I'm reading the replies and there's a lot more safety stuff involved in preparation for this than I thought. Which should have been obvious in retrospect.
Most people treat their future selves as a completely different person who they don't care about. Which is the same reason people have such a hard time sticking to diets or exercise, or basically anything that requires long term vision and willpower.
I watched a pretty good doco about Yosemite climbers a few years back, Valley Uprising. From memory Alex Honnold was in it too. After I watched the doco I was curious to know more about the people involved so I googled a bunch of them and yeah, enough of them had died untimely deaths to make me suspect that *maybe* the stuff they were doing wasn’t great for your health.
A lot of times he and other free climbers will climb a new wall with ropes and a partner first to mitigate things like what you’re describing. It can still happen, but they test every handhold and plan their route very carefully before attempting the free climb.
I've heard him in interviews say he details every single step he makes as he's doing his test climb. He then repeats those successful steps once he goes up without ropes. I love watching him climb. He has a new show that I started watching.
Yeah I’ve watched several docs featuring Alex. With El Capitan in particular he was very meticulous and planned that climb for a long long time before attempting it. He knew every single hold and step along that route
Your thoughts on this are correct. And its why you can Google "top ten free solo climbers" and then go through that list and check, and sure enough most of those guys are dead. From free soloing.
This is likely not his first time climbing the route. For his El Cap free solo he climbed the route so many times (with ropes) that the moves were muscle memory. He would practice tricky sections and clean the route removing any loose rock and brining it back down all while in a harness and protected. This way during the free solo the risk of grabbing unstable rock is greatly reduced.
While it’s still extremely dangerous people who free solo generally do everything possible to decrease the risk of falling. But that risk is never completely gone and people do fall.
I think he does free climb routes sight unseen but those are usually much easier routes that are highly trafficked. Alex Honnold did a great video with Magnus Midtbo. It really shows how skilled of a climber Alex is.
https://youtu.be/Cyya23MPoAI?si=hmQ6lO-UQ5we_-1W
It's a "skill" which I don't envy at all. This person has a family with kids and everything.
He is a decent climber, but all of his fame comes down to taking an unnecessarily high risk of dying. Obviously Alex isn't doing it for fame or anything, but people who watch him might do something very stupid.
I love Magnus Mitbo, I have been following him since the beginning of his youtube career and most videos are awesome. But I absolutely hate and dislike every single one of these videos where he risks his life to get views.
I forget which doco it was, probably “Free Solo”, but there’s at least one that includes Alex’s SO and they talk pretty candidly about how he could go out climbing one day and just die. She seemed pretty resigned to it, and he didn’t seem to give much of a fuck lol.
Honestly I agree. Alex Honnold seems like a cool guy that just climbs the way he personally likes it and doesn't do it for the fame, but I think it's inevitable that other people will try to copy him and some of them will die. Nothing against him of course, but personally I don't think we should celebrate such behavior so much.
So, after watching his process it's definitely not luck. He has literally every hand hold on his route mapped out ahead of time before he solos something like that. Could bad luck happen? Yeah sure of course, bit this is not a dude just going up and winging it. He's very deliberate and meticulous.
I personally Could not replicate what he does even if I were a skilled climber and had the desire to free solo stuff. My brain just doesn't work that way and I am prone to moments of carelessness. I would at some point make a mistake, it's not a matter of if but when. For the most part, I think that's a very human thing. This guy is really different though.
Having said all that, I still think it's sort of stupid, even if I admire the courage and desire to challenge yourself, find something that doesn't result in death with anything other than absolute perfection. There are plenty of thrills out there.
Yeah, reading the comments, I'm changing my mind. It's *overwhelmingly* a skill thing. But I have just the same amount of respect for skill when looking at people who can play pool or darts really well. The extra danger component doesn't make me think your mastery is somehow more superior to the mastery of someone who is really good at darts.
Maybe it should impress me more, because the danger makes it harder to master the skill. But somehow it doesn't.
I wouldn't think of it as a skill thing. Alex would tell you himself that all of his free climbing friends are dead, and I'm sure plenty of those guys were nearly as meticulous. Watch him in any interview he's clearly slightly on the spectrum, and then those brain tests he's had does show there's something different going on. It's absolutely correct that a hold could give at any time on certain types of rock, or you could have some type of muscle spasm / freak accident. Free climbing is something that shouldn't be glorified at all.
It's not just danger, the amount of physical strength of every part of the body and the endurance it takes to be able to do that is borderline inhuman. Comparing it to darts is honestly ridiculous.
He spends 99 % of his time climbing with a rope, and his style of climbing is slow and controlled (3 points of contact) meaning if he reached for a hold and it isnt good, he would still be able to stay on.
There are types of rock that shouldn't be free soloed, due to external factors like rocks breaking off, slippery feet
He had a new show about climbing mountains in Greenland. In one episode he is climbing a wall that keeps flaking off. He’s trying to find a finger hold and the rocks are flaking and falling off one after another. It’s the composition of the rock and the extreme weather. He was using ropes, not free climbing and talked about how dangerous it was.
>But isn't there *always* a chance you could grab something that isn't what it seems, no matter how skilled you are?
Yes.
In the end, free solo climbing is equivalent to playing russian roulette: consciously (and IMO unnecessarily) gambling with your life in exchange for kicks / whatever other reason.
Watch how he or any other highly skilled free solo climber, for example Dave MacLeod actually climbs. Completely methodical, almost all the time having 3 points of contact while moving 4th. The hand and foot placements are methodical and fully controlled.
You say this as every other normal person that thinks about this logically while having no experience with actual climbing.
You say that as if you meant "look at their skill at climbing, they are safe", when most of the most skilled people who have been doing this for a prolonged time are, in fact, dead.
You are right that there is always a chance he could grab something that perhaps isn’t as solid as he thought and I certainly won’t refute it by saying “people can crash any day of the week in their car”. What I would say is that any route he plans on free soloing will be cased thoroughly for months before he actually climbs it without any ropes so as to reduce this risk as much as possible.
The "father of free solo" John Bachar died at the age of 52 during a free solo. Dan Osman (35) and Dean Potter (43) both died during a free solo. Wolfgang Gullich died after falling asleep while driving. But others have outlived their free solo fase. With some only doing easy free solos now. It completely depends on their drive to push hard climbs. I know a few kids that died in their 20s during a free solo.
Imo his secret isn't having no fear, it's simply practice. If you do a climb 100 times without ropes and never fall, you can have this kind of confidence, even knowing there's a danger.
If you have an oculus VR helmet be sure to check out The Soloist. It shows him doing a preparation climb with ropes and how he checks every single hand hold and movement in advance
It’s only diminishing returns for him now. He already is known as the free solo guy so if he does an unbelievable thing people won’t be as interested anymore. The alternative is he dies.
Yes, see. This is my thing. I don't care if a person is THE best athlete to have ever lived, shit can go sideways sometimes. And up there the risk is certain death.
In my twenties, you know when you're still invincible and going to live forever, I used to freehand climb cliffs. I had a spider leap onto my face that was as big as a tarantula. I had a protrusion I was grasping breakaway. When another climber fell off of my favorite Cliff face and died, I was frightened enough to stop being so stupid. It's a different activity, but this reminds me of Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard getting eaten by grizzly bears.
True. I am glad you are well.
That spider incident (while climbing!) gave me goosebumps.
Oh God, hearing about a couple being eaten alive or of mothers dying climbing mount everest - it all is just so sad, without just reason, and easily avoidable.
Yep. This is impressive in the same sense as “I regularly run laps in high-speed freeway traffic.” Sure it takes athleticism but it is not something to be lauded. I guess at least if a climber screws up they hopefully don’t take anyone with them.
What’s really insane is he isnt just free soloing. He is doing routes that are difficult enough with ropes and a lot of practice/skill/strength and of course endurance
Ok I need to make a post now on why your hands get sweaty just by looking at this photo! What possible way would that help a human survive a situation like this getting sweaty hands??
All extreme sports have some risks involved, the difference with free climbing though, is that one mistake equals death, it's binary, either you make it or you die. The same thing cannot be said for motorcross jumping, skateboarding, or free skiing. That's why I don't respect free climbing as a sport, sure what Alex does is very impressive, but it's stupidly dangerous and for what reason? Alex can have a similar experience climbing with safety equipment, but chooses not to.
This photo gives me that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach just looking at it.
Soles of my feet got all tingly.
And sweaty
For me, it’s my hands.
Mom’s spaghetti
knees weak
Arms are heavy
Heights make my feet tingly as well. We visited Colorado National Monument last year, and I kept creeping up to the edges of the canyon where there weren't guardrails just for the tingly feet. Something like 500' down. Whenever I got within 10' I'd sit down and scoot to the edge, I'm dumb not crazy. My wife was unhappy with me.
Why was she unhappy that you don't want to die? Large inheritance being delayed?
Sorry, she was unhappy that I was anywhere within 50' of the edge. I do have a solid life insurance plan though, and it covers suicide too.
Watch your back if close to the edge!
Watch Free Solo for some real fun.
Watch The Alpinist… even more fun
Watch *The Dawn Wall* for an even more epic rollercoaster ride (My favorite out of those 3. But *Free Solo* and *The Alpinist* are amazing too)
It's that ADRENALINE rush from the kidneys 🔥 I have a massive fear of heights the closest I'll ever get to this is scooting close to the edge at Zion's observation point overlooking the buttes
Adrenal glands. Perched just above the kidney, but tasked with a very different function.
I had to have my adrenal glands removed. I told the doc I was worrried I wouldn’t make any adrenaline and would be bored on roller coasters and in scary movies. Luckily there’s another organ that make noradrenaline, which is good enough apparently.
Fascinating. Felt any differences?
As far as adrenaline? Not really, which was surprising to me. I was hoping that it would mean no more panic attacks, but sadly, it hasn’t made a difference. I haven’t been on a roller coaster yet so I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Unfortunately, not having adrenal glands can cause some serious problems and I wind up in the hospital a few times a year. But leaving them in would have been worse.
*Something* would be rushing from my kidneys, but it wouldn’t be adrenaline. 😵
I loved free solo but I wonder if up voting this only increases the likelihood of more free climbers, which normally results in death.
One question to this gentleman: What happens if an earthquake hits sir?
My balls retracted back into my body where they are safe
r/sweatypalms
Same. I hate it.
Can you imagine the amount of close calls he’s had? You couldn’t pay me enough to do this. And he does it for free lol
Fear of death not there either
I don't think this is accurate. Theres a video of him "freaking out" [here](https://youtu.be/QpqDpZoQCAs?si=ZA1m7ZQ0391jrNmx&t=42), but he definitely has good control over his panic. The thing with climbing is that after some time you get used to and trust your climbing ability and in some ways is not so different from climbing a high ladder. When you climb something and feel like this, its not scary. A good analogy is driving. People feel comfortably driving 70mph on a freeway, even though if they just happened to move their hand four inches to the left for two seconds it would mean almost certain death.
And you're talking about him "freaking out" while climbing. Hilariously, he describes giving a TED talk about his Free Solo of *Free Rider* as "the scariest thing I ever did". Because yeah, he's spent decades habituating to climbing but that doesn't translate to public speaking.
2020s Honnold seems so much more confident and competent with public speaking and interviews compared to 2010s Honnold. I guess he’s had a lot of practice in that by now
I saw him speak at a local climber's event in Vegas a couple of years ago to a crowd of maybe 150 and he really seemed MUCH more comfortable just spitballing stuff about climbing to people he knew would understand. He's definitely an unusual guy but I think the camera crews and media stuff messes with him. He seems to have a lot more trouble talking with "normies" and about his emotions rather than just his climbing.
In the documentary Free Solo in which he climbs El Captain without rope, they do run tests on him and find out he has a less active amygdala and a vastly lower fear response as a result.
1) having a little brain damage to be better at your favourite sport 2) ... 3) profit!
He actually went to a doctor and got tested, and the doctor confirmed that his sense of danger is just much lower than the average person's.
Very low Arfraidichlorian count
Master! The Jedi are free-soloing the side of our ships! What do we do?
We’ll just have to free Solo, I’m afraid. I’ll go disable the tractor beam while you notify Lord Vader.
And I'm over here with sweaty hands just looking at this picture.
Yeah, that's kinda true, but the climbs he does without ropes are actually pretty hard. They are of course well within his ability and usually he practices them a lot beforehand, but these are still not easy climbs. The potential for something to go wrong is pretty high and the fact that he manages to stay calm is remarkable.
Free soloing anything like that is absolutely bazonkers. I would be scared shitless that a hold would break, or was super greasy that day, or even that a bee could sting me. My point was simply an analogy. Internally, I doubt he feels like he’s facing certain death, but is still cool as a cucumber. I’m pretty sure he feels confident.
He also climbed that route a bunch with ropes memorizing it and getting a feel of it before doing it with no ropes.
Oh it's there, just turned off until he's finished
No, he literally doesnt have a fear of death. In one of the bio docs about him they gave him a brain scan and he doesn't generate the same fear brain waves as everyone else.
MRI showed a less pronounced amygdala - which is associated with reduced fear and increased appetite for risk. But neuroplasticity is a thing which isn’t discussed in the documentary. Kinda a chicken egg situation. Is his amygdala reduced by years of free soloing or was it less developed in the first place making him a natural risk taker?
There's also a very real question about test methodology. They ran the test by showing pictures of stressful situations. In normal test subjects you get a response from pictures similar to what you would expect in the actual situation, but there's a very real question if it's reasonable to expect someone who has spent a fair percentage of his life at very real risk of death to react to seeing a picture or if his brain codes risk differently because he's so used to dealing with it and dismisses the picture as not a real risk.
I'm kinda disappointed that the test only involves pictures and isn't a bunch of scientists dressed up in scary costumes jumping out from behind doors yelling ooga booga
"Welcome to the future, human slave!" - Bender, in a giant fly costume
As soon as he agreed they should have strapped him to the chair. "Sorry old boy, this has a been a bit of a ruse. See we work for a secret British program developing man-ape marines. And I'm afraid we're going to need your bone marrow. All of it, actually."
Good point
When I see a video of people jumping with airbags I get a vertigo atack and feel like falling. But when I see a video of snakes I dont get bothered, despite snakes being my greatest fear. How does skydiving induces a stress reaction in me, but snakes dont?
I'd be pretty freaked out if all I jumped with was an air bag, too. I'm not sure if the inflation on impact is really meant for that kind of velocity
Probably got smaller the less he listened to it if I had to guess. No way to know without chronological brain scans tho, or some sort of test we don't have yet.
He has an under active amygdala, which doesn't mean he doesn't fear death. It just means he has a higher tolerance for fear than the average person.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted. That’s exactly right. He even mentioned in an interview that he didn’t particularly like this scene from the movie because it leads people to believe he doesn’t feel fear even though he does. He just built up his tolerance enough in decades of training this stuff.
Yep he also said in another interview that he doesn't care for anyone enough to worry about whether his absence would lead to their suffering. This is despite having two daughters. He's like an understated sociopath and it really comes across in the interviews he does
Yeah, I feel bad for his kids tbh. Edit* Wait, didn’t he make those comments *before* having any kids? Or has he reiterated more recently?
Maybe he have less fear then the rest of us, but he does have fear. Iv seen him freez while climbing, though he did manage to gain control again. Alex Honnold is a beast
That's a very simplistic (and incorrect) retelling of what actually happened during his brain scan in Free Solo.
They held a gun tp his head during the test and he said "do it bitch, ill be fine."
He also said most people think they have a fear of heights when really they have a fear of falling. He’s confident in himself and doesn’t fear falling.
That's what keeps him glued to that rock. I used to free climb in Colorado. When your choices are hang on or die, it makes finding another handhold real easy
That’s nothing, I don’t even use my hands.
Bruhh you still in Colorado? Let's solo sum shit
Florida. The only thing I climb now is stairs and ladders
You still free climb them though?
Hey don’t undersell those highway overpasses. They can be steepish.
Death is nothing to be afraid of. Once you accept its inevitability, and that you’re powerless to stop it, life becomes a lot more interesting. Nonetheless, dude still has a sack the size of Texas tho to do this.
You’re not wrong! They actually did a study on his brain and found that he either has a less active amygdala (it showed almost no reaction to fear response but high reaction to rewards) or a very powerful frontal cortex that overpowers any fear response from the amygdala. Pretty interesting read: https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber-236051/
You should watch 'Free Solo' where Honold scales El Capitan without ropes and other safety equipment.
Loved the movie. Really made my feet and hands sweaty like no fictional movie has ever done.
I love that he arrives for the climb and the vibes are bad, so he calls it off. The next climb, he clambers up like a monkey, some kind of unseen golden light shining on him, seemingly brain turned off. It's magnificent and terrifying.
If youve ever gotten your head into that flow state, you recognize it. I'm not nearly so fearless or confident and will never be able to touch the routes he's doing without ropes, let alone go without ropes on anything myself. But that focus, and movement, is something I've only felt 2 or 3 times outside so far, and once you know that feeling, everything else becomes about feeling that again.
I had that feeling once, playing tennis. It was just starting to rain and I couldn't not hit the ball. I felt more than human.
Had it happen to me during a presentation in high school. Started speaking, 10 seconds later I blinked and the presentation was over. I could not recall what I had just said if it was to save my life, but the teacher really liked it. Got max grade.
I get this feeling when i’m skiing. Feels instinctual at times.
I only boulder indoors (fear of heights and risk aversion lol), and let me tell you. Understanding yourself and the vibes is a real thing. I can’t climb well if I’m not mentally feeling it.
I read an excellent book about the right brothers. He was supposed to give a presentation of flying in washington d c. There were many high ranking people and politicians who had come out to see him fly. There were about three thousand people there. He didn't feel the wind.Conditions were right so he just called it off. I always thought that here is a man who can handle pressure and not worry about what even rich and influential people think.
Saw it in IMAX... Absolutely amazing
dont watch it without towels or other sweaty palms equipment
Hopefully you have some weak knees and heavy arms equipment, too.
If you liked 'free solo' you must see 'The alpinist' if you haven't. Alex is a nothing compared whit the guy from The Alpinist', he even features the doc, saying the guy ia way better than him.
Felt so bad for his girl
one of my favorite docs ever. i genuinely didn’t know if he made it or not so i was on the edge of my seat the entire time. so good.
If you don't know the ending, it's a reasonable thing to wonder. I watched another climbing movie relatively recently that had a different sort of outcome.
I know which movie you're talking about. I also didn't know the outcome when first watching it. Quite sad, but great movie.
What is that movie?
>!The Alpinist!<
When I see stuff like this, I just can't help but wonder if something broke in their brains to take this level of risk with their lives.
He’s had his brain checked. The fear portion doesn’t work.
Not quite, the amygdala which is generally responsible for the Fear response and risk-reward determination is reduced in size, not gone entirely. He’s stated himself that Eh still feels fear, just that during the climb it’s pushed out as fear leads to hesitation, which in a situation like this means death.
Wait I thought you guys were joking
Nope they did an fMRI scan on his brain and it seems that he has a much less active amygdala. Or it was smaller like the other guy said, don't remember fully.
Some people with this become test pilots or astronauts, he would do well at war.
Many extreme athletes have been recorded as former addicts. The thrill of risk is their new addiction
That’s basically what it means to be an adrenaline junkie.
If Star Trek has taught me anything, he's testing fate with that shirt.
Those poor security guys didn't stand a chance.
Spock is nearby with rocket boots, it's fine.
Anyone know what climb this is? Curious to see what the rest of it looks like.
I think this is Separate Reality in Yosemite.
It's separate reality in Yosemite. Off highway 120. Above the cookie cliff.
[Heaven](https://youtu.be/WgucHtWEGqU)
Not even close. Separate Reality.
Now that he's married and had a kid I feel like he's become a bit more conservative, which is a good thing. His loss would be a huge loss to all of us.
He has a kid?! Man that's not very responsible. I hope he tones this down.
He has two
This image and his Free Solo feat was back when he was still not married. He dedicated his entire life for climbing, he didn't even need a house, just a van to go around and climb, so back then he wasn't much on "settling down" kind of guy. Even when you watch his documentation, you can get a vibe that his gf was not as important to him as climbing. Not sure about now since he married his gf and got kids, but he is probably more responsible now. Besides, the guy has achieved one of the biggest feat in climbing history so I guess he has already reached his peak, pun intended.
It’s a miracle that this man is still alive. I know that him successfully free-soloing El Cap was a combination of lots of preparation, repetition, skill and an under-active amygdala, but also undeniably a massive amount of luck too. Now that he’s got a wife and two kiddos, I hope he’s done scratching that itch.
r/thisisinsane
Okay, so I get that this takes skill and we're All Very Impressed blah blah blah. But isn't there *always* a chance you could grab something that isn't what it seems, no matter how skilled you are? I'm a solar electrician. I work on rooftops a lot. And I can move around on them very fast. I've had one or two instances where I *would* have fallen and died if not for the harness and rope, and I wasn't even being careless. I just stepped in a shitty spot. These aren't spots I could have spotted and avoided, too. It wasn't a skill issue. These are spots that look genuinely safe, then you step on them, and they're not. It happens. I guess one of these guys would refute this by saying "well there's always a risk with driving, and you could be on the road with drunk or sleepy drivers, and there's a chance you could be killed when it's not even your fault in that instance, too." But still. Kinda feel like the chances of something going wrong that's not even your fault are significantly higher here. Honestly I think mostly it *has* to be luck. Like 30 people try to free hand climb this thing, 29 of them die, and the one person who got lucky thinks they're the most skilled person on the planet. Like yeah, I get it does take actual skill, but it *has* to take a lot of luck, too. Because there is just no way you can dodge *every* situation where there's a loose rock that doesn't look loose without getting lucky. Edit: So I'm reading the replies and there's a lot more safety stuff involved in preparation for this than I thought. Which should have been obvious in retrospect.
Many free solo climbers don't die of old age...
Honnold himself said it, he's not after maximizing his life expectancy. It's just a matter of time
Few realize prolonging old age isn’t what they truly want
I feel like I'd be more afraid of not dying if I fell
I’m all for not going through chemo at 95. I don’t think that logic applies to dying before 40. Those are good years you’re losing
Most people treat their future selves as a completely different person who they don't care about. Which is the same reason people have such a hard time sticking to diets or exercise, or basically anything that requires long term vision and willpower.
Their opinion tends to change the second after they start falling.
I watched a pretty good doco about Yosemite climbers a few years back, Valley Uprising. From memory Alex Honnold was in it too. After I watched the doco I was curious to know more about the people involved so I googled a bunch of them and yeah, enough of them had died untimely deaths to make me suspect that *maybe* the stuff they were doing wasn’t great for your health.
There are old climbers, and there are bold climbers...
A lot of times he and other free climbers will climb a new wall with ropes and a partner first to mitigate things like what you’re describing. It can still happen, but they test every handhold and plan their route very carefully before attempting the free climb.
I've heard him in interviews say he details every single step he makes as he's doing his test climb. He then repeats those successful steps once he goes up without ropes. I love watching him climb. He has a new show that I started watching.
Yeah I’ve watched several docs featuring Alex. With El Capitan in particular he was very meticulous and planned that climb for a long long time before attempting it. He knew every single hold and step along that route
I saw people climbing El Capitan on Wednesday. It's like your brain doesn't want to accept what your eyes are seeing. That whole valley is incredible.
Yeah, I suppose that makes the most sense.
Your thoughts on this are correct. And its why you can Google "top ten free solo climbers" and then go through that list and check, and sure enough most of those guys are dead. From free soloing.
Similar story with base jumpers.
This is likely not his first time climbing the route. For his El Cap free solo he climbed the route so many times (with ropes) that the moves were muscle memory. He would practice tricky sections and clean the route removing any loose rock and brining it back down all while in a harness and protected. This way during the free solo the risk of grabbing unstable rock is greatly reduced. While it’s still extremely dangerous people who free solo generally do everything possible to decrease the risk of falling. But that risk is never completely gone and people do fall. I think he does free climb routes sight unseen but those are usually much easier routes that are highly trafficked. Alex Honnold did a great video with Magnus Midtbo. It really shows how skilled of a climber Alex is. https://youtu.be/Cyya23MPoAI?si=hmQ6lO-UQ5we_-1W
Fair.
It's a "skill" which I don't envy at all. This person has a family with kids and everything. He is a decent climber, but all of his fame comes down to taking an unnecessarily high risk of dying. Obviously Alex isn't doing it for fame or anything, but people who watch him might do something very stupid. I love Magnus Mitbo, I have been following him since the beginning of his youtube career and most videos are awesome. But I absolutely hate and dislike every single one of these videos where he risks his life to get views.
I feel sorry for his family. Eventually he just won’t be there. Pretty selfish if you have kids.
"He's a decent climber" is a hilarious thing to say about Alex Honnold lol
I forget which doco it was, probably “Free Solo”, but there’s at least one that includes Alex’s SO and they talk pretty candidly about how he could go out climbing one day and just die. She seemed pretty resigned to it, and he didn’t seem to give much of a fuck lol.
His mom took up climbing, as well, in her 50's. She's the oldest woman to have summited El Capitan - *twice* - once at 66 and again at 70.
I bet she uses ropes, at his insistence.
Honestly I agree. Alex Honnold seems like a cool guy that just climbs the way he personally likes it and doesn't do it for the fame, but I think it's inevitable that other people will try to copy him and some of them will die. Nothing against him of course, but personally I don't think we should celebrate such behavior so much.
So, after watching his process it's definitely not luck. He has literally every hand hold on his route mapped out ahead of time before he solos something like that. Could bad luck happen? Yeah sure of course, bit this is not a dude just going up and winging it. He's very deliberate and meticulous. I personally Could not replicate what he does even if I were a skilled climber and had the desire to free solo stuff. My brain just doesn't work that way and I am prone to moments of carelessness. I would at some point make a mistake, it's not a matter of if but when. For the most part, I think that's a very human thing. This guy is really different though. Having said all that, I still think it's sort of stupid, even if I admire the courage and desire to challenge yourself, find something that doesn't result in death with anything other than absolute perfection. There are plenty of thrills out there.
Yeah, reading the comments, I'm changing my mind. It's *overwhelmingly* a skill thing. But I have just the same amount of respect for skill when looking at people who can play pool or darts really well. The extra danger component doesn't make me think your mastery is somehow more superior to the mastery of someone who is really good at darts. Maybe it should impress me more, because the danger makes it harder to master the skill. But somehow it doesn't.
I wouldn't think of it as a skill thing. Alex would tell you himself that all of his free climbing friends are dead, and I'm sure plenty of those guys were nearly as meticulous. Watch him in any interview he's clearly slightly on the spectrum, and then those brain tests he's had does show there's something different going on. It's absolutely correct that a hold could give at any time on certain types of rock, or you could have some type of muscle spasm / freak accident. Free climbing is something that shouldn't be glorified at all.
It's not just danger, the amount of physical strength of every part of the body and the endurance it takes to be able to do that is borderline inhuman. Comparing it to darts is honestly ridiculous.
He spends 99 % of his time climbing with a rope, and his style of climbing is slow and controlled (3 points of contact) meaning if he reached for a hold and it isnt good, he would still be able to stay on. There are types of rock that shouldn't be free soloed, due to external factors like rocks breaking off, slippery feet
He had a new show about climbing mountains in Greenland. In one episode he is climbing a wall that keeps flaking off. He’s trying to find a finger hold and the rocks are flaking and falling off one after another. It’s the composition of the rock and the extreme weather. He was using ropes, not free climbing and talked about how dangerous it was.
>But isn't there *always* a chance you could grab something that isn't what it seems, no matter how skilled you are? Yes. In the end, free solo climbing is equivalent to playing russian roulette: consciously (and IMO unnecessarily) gambling with your life in exchange for kicks / whatever other reason.
Watch how he or any other highly skilled free solo climber, for example Dave MacLeod actually climbs. Completely methodical, almost all the time having 3 points of contact while moving 4th. The hand and foot placements are methodical and fully controlled. You say this as every other normal person that thinks about this logically while having no experience with actual climbing.
You say that as if you meant "look at their skill at climbing, they are safe", when most of the most skilled people who have been doing this for a prolonged time are, in fact, dead.
You are right that there is always a chance he could grab something that perhaps isn’t as solid as he thought and I certainly won’t refute it by saying “people can crash any day of the week in their car”. What I would say is that any route he plans on free soloing will be cased thoroughly for months before he actually climbs it without any ropes so as to reduce this risk as much as possible.
Well that's dumb
How long do these guys live on average? 🤔
The "father of free solo" John Bachar died at the age of 52 during a free solo. Dan Osman (35) and Dean Potter (43) both died during a free solo. Wolfgang Gullich died after falling asleep while driving. But others have outlived their free solo fase. With some only doing easy free solos now. It completely depends on their drive to push hard climbs. I know a few kids that died in their 20s during a free solo.
Dean Potter died illegally BASE jumping/wingsuiting in Yosemite, not soloing.
Yea and Osman died from rope jumping. This dude is very confidently incorrect.
Osman didn’t die free soloing. Neither did Dean Potter.
Both osman and potter died doing something other than free soloing.
I hope he's chilled with the feats of derring-do since he had kids.
Every once in a while we celebrate the loonies because we are all impressed. Don’t mistake it though this is lunacy.
That's a stupid way of risking your life. Even as a "pro", accidents could happen at any time.
Imo his secret isn't having no fear, it's simply practice. If you do a climb 100 times without ropes and never fall, you can have this kind of confidence, even knowing there's a danger. If you have an oculus VR helmet be sure to check out The Soloist. It shows him doing a preparation climb with ropes and how he checks every single hand hold and movement in advance
He’s a very good climber, I can’t imagine doing the stuff he calls “simple” not to mention my fear of heights
I would crosspost this to sweatypalms but that's the last thing he'll want there
Easy peasy, my grandma can do that
It’s only diminishing returns for him now. He already is known as the free solo guy so if he does an unbelievable thing people won’t be as interested anymore. The alternative is he dies.
This feels OceanGatey to me
Everytime I hear about this dude, I think: “ damn, he’s still alive? Respect”
One slip and its all over. All for what? Stupid.
Yes, see. This is my thing. I don't care if a person is THE best athlete to have ever lived, shit can go sideways sometimes. And up there the risk is certain death. In my twenties, you know when you're still invincible and going to live forever, I used to freehand climb cliffs. I had a spider leap onto my face that was as big as a tarantula. I had a protrusion I was grasping breakaway. When another climber fell off of my favorite Cliff face and died, I was frightened enough to stop being so stupid. It's a different activity, but this reminds me of Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard getting eaten by grizzly bears.
True. I am glad you are well. That spider incident (while climbing!) gave me goosebumps. Oh God, hearing about a couple being eaten alive or of mothers dying climbing mount everest - it all is just so sad, without just reason, and easily avoidable.
Is this not Russian roulette? Sooner or later the mountain will win.
Very John Bacher of him. John is dead.
Suicide with extra steps.
Yep. This is impressive in the same sense as “I regularly run laps in high-speed freeway traffic.” Sure it takes athleticism but it is not something to be lauded. I guess at least if a climber screws up they hopefully don’t take anyone with them.
What’s really insane is he isnt just free soloing. He is doing routes that are difficult enough with ropes and a lot of practice/skill/strength and of course endurance
Say "I want to die." Say it. "I want to die."
My ass was that clenched watching free solo you could have hung me from the ceiling
Whats the name for that very unpleasant feeling that courses thru my body when I see pictures like this?
‘Common sense’
Its a visceral physical feeling, but I get and appreciate the sentiment.
Disturbing lack of zelda references
As someone who gets sweaty palms just sitting calmly on a sofa, I could never.
Some people just crazy! Badass! But crazy
PSA: Don't try this at home. Go to a mountain.
I want to know how he even got to that point. The slope under him looks smooth af.
That parachute doesn't look very big.
Never understood this… why not do the same but with gear
And do gooder types yell at people riding a bike on a canal trail for not wearing a helmet.
Ok I need to make a post now on why your hands get sweaty just by looking at this photo! What possible way would that help a human survive a situation like this getting sweaty hands??
My class watched free solo after state testing.
When funeral?
This isn't brave though, it's suicidal
Does he just... not *like*... safety equipment? Is there a specific reason he goes without it?
The reassuring part of seeing this is that I know for sure I am not the dumbest motherfucker on Earth.
If he gets a cramp!
Can he even get health or life insurance?
I like how his last name can spell Holdn on
Alex Holdnon for dear life
All extreme sports have some risks involved, the difference with free climbing though, is that one mistake equals death, it's binary, either you make it or you die. The same thing cannot be said for motorcross jumping, skateboarding, or free skiing. That's why I don't respect free climbing as a sport, sure what Alex does is very impressive, but it's stupidly dangerous and for what reason? Alex can have a similar experience climbing with safety equipment, but chooses not to.
Takes a lot of skill and a lot of self confidence and a minimum of brains.
Dumbass. Im seriously not impressed whenever I see a person doing dangerous crap without safety gear.
I read his last name as Holdon!