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Loco de Pedra
Mountain climber
Around the World
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If you say human spirit have not advanced, it has not contributed to anything and was worthless, you are right.
If you say human spirit has advanced, it has greatly contributed to Human kind spirit and awareness at a global and cosmic level, by just being present, you are right.
I feel this feat (and many others) of commitment and presence, Buddha style, has had a immense positive impact on earth and beyond. Due to the newly created synapses, we will never be the same again 😉
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dhayan
climber
culver city, ca
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Don't denigrate the things you can't see or measure. They have more impact than we can grasp.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Ekat got it right on the first page. It is nobody's business what goes on in his head. You can't get any more private than what lies in your own mind.
So let's celebrate him. He is doing amazing things. We know how Bachar and Steck ended up. One little slip on what was for them easy ground.
I've also soloed many routes that I would have died on if I blew the crux, but all much easier, and of no consequence.
I loved soloing. At the time, I wasn't worried, because generally I understood every move of those routes. I was exposed to soloing on my first trip to a climbing area that had real climbers. We almost all did it to some degree or other.
Honnold is definitely the King Bee of soloing. He looks to be in good control, but I doubt he will solo El Cap again.
Just the idea of soloing El Cap is so alien to me. It boggled my mind when the Nose went free. Climbing progresses, and Honnold is just part of that progression. Can you all remember what it was like to sit in the meadow and look at El Cap for the first time? It is an amazing and beautiful cliff. It is so big and steep that it seems like a dream. Actually climbing it seems crazy..until you do an El Cap route.
But what goes on in his mind is nobody's business. Viva Honnold!
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AE
climber
Boulder, CO
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Jul 18, 2017 - 01:14pm PT
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As the inevitable aftershocks of Alex's unprecedented free solo of El Cap continue to send reverberations in wider and wider circles beyond the small epicenter of rock climbing, opinions run fast and free-ranging - veneration, condemnation, idolizing, idol smashing, premature eulogizing, hero worship and more, running the full gamut of judgements positive and negative. For the climbers who praise him to the heavens, elevating his prowess and making a meme of his name, I say, beware of a collective hubris. Ragging and bragging come from the same motivation - to elevate oneself at the expense of others. Projecting personal ideations onto an Alex avatar objectifies the man, diminishes his personality and human achievements beyond climbing, and creates an inappropriate, inflated concept of perfection and power that is a stereotypic, one-dimensional cutout we mortals love to stand behind, peering out through the eyeholes for a selfie.
There is too much BS in the notion that any new level of athletic excellence becomes an elevation of the human spirit, whatever the F that means. If doing anything solely because you want to do it is heroic, every hedonist becomes a hero. Rugged individualism devoted to purely self-satisfying pursuits is hedonism in a flannel shirt. What Alex did was intensely personal, despite the media coverage, so it is not appropriate for the rest of us to look for some benefit for us or the world. I am so glad he did not proclaim his justification via some religious philosophy, political screed, nor patriotic manifesto.
The climbing community has an ambiguous relationship to soloists, admiring the act but judgmental about the motivations, worried about repercussions from the outside world, especially if a well-publicized climb goes wrong. We also mistakenly equate the art with the artist, the act with the actor. Thriving PR industries exist to ascribe mythologies to shore up lackluster personalities who just happen to create great works. To be totally candid, there have been other soloists in the past, here and abroad, who might have attempted such a project, and whether successful or not, the climbing community would have judged their efforts very differently.
It is a measure of the type of person Alex has revealed, that so many express concern about his future well-being. One refreshing thing about Alex appears to be his own self-awareness with regard to the place his achievements hold in the scheme of things. He gets the paradox, the self-indulgent side of his focus, is honest and open to discussing it all. He seems to be capable of differentiating the "I do this" from the "I am this." He defines his soloing; his soloing does not define him. Nor should the rest of us.
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Jul 18, 2017 - 05:40pm PT
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Very well-written and thoughtful post, AE.
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GusLevy
Social climber
La Canada
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Jul 20, 2017 - 03:09pm PT
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"Jun 6, 2017 - 12:29pm PT
the only way a runner could possibly compare would be if they were in a 4 hour race with the best runners in the world and everyone except for the winner gets killed in the end. The thing that seperates this achievemnent from all the ball players, runners, paddelers, bikers and skiers etc in the world is the fact that the athlete will die with any mistake made in the 4 hours to complete the task and the fact that there is only one person in the world that can do this."
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson
I was introduced to Honnold like many non-climbers via the 60 Minutes episode a few years ago. In the past, I had casually followed the various climbing and alpine exploits sporadically but never felt a visceral attachment - it is to me a pocket of the sports world like cycling, kayaking, surfing, etc. that was an athletic hobby for those who weren't interested in the popular ball sports.
Watching Honnold free-solo Half Dome, however, was both visceral, fascinating and inspiring. The sports that I have played a lot have been baseball, tennis, golf and running: With golf in particular, it is easy to appreciate the mental side of sports far more than the athletic aspect of sports. For those who seriously participate in a sport, it becomes obvious that the drama and spectacle of sport lies far more in the champion golfer's ability to sink a winding 6-ft putt to tie on the last hole rather than watching the big golfer who pounds his drive 350 yards on the first hole. In each sport, there will always be the bigger, faster, stronger and more nimble athlete just around the proverbial corner: True greatness is therefore measured in the long run by those who are able to stand out for their displays of a champion's mental strength and heart.
Honnold is the most inspiring athlete in the world for me at this time. His ability to control his mind is literally singular at the present time. To be able to sustain such precise mental focus for the extended amount of time that he does when confronting death as his penalty is literally mind-boggling: Basketball players may have to make two free throws to tie at the end of the game, the golfer needs to make the putt to tie at the last hole, the pitcher has to throw the strikes in the last inning of the World Series, etc...these are the pressure packed moments that we play and watch sports for because it shows the mental strength of the athletes. 90% free throw shooters turn into 60% free throw shooters at the end of big games for a reason - nerves control us human beings.
I have read the various articles and stories in these past few weeks since Honnold's amazing feat. I have read about how Ondras, Megos, etc. can do this or that technical move that Honnold may not be able to. Well, tomorrow or the next day, there will always be a new guy (or gal) who will push the technical aspects of climbing. Physical evolution of our species is fairly constant. Furthermore, the world of sports is filled with amazing physical achievements, to me the greatest climbers with rope are akin to watching the Olympic gymnasts on the ring apparatus: Fairly neat stuff to watch but it merely reveals a lot of technical physical training was involved. What we do know is that if one were to place Ondras in the middle of El Capitan without ropes, however, that he would assuredly be dead before the sun went down because the introduction of great physical harm will have an amazing effect upon one's physical abilities.
Anyway, thanks all for this great outlet, the whole Honnold story has been truly fun to follow.
P.S. For those alpinists out there...read about the story of Albert Johnson being chased by the RCMP in the early 20th Century. That may be the most incredible alpine feat of all time!
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rbord
Boulder climber
atlanta
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Jul 20, 2017 - 05:19pm PT
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Nor should the rest of us.
Should is a funny word, and IMHO, we're more defined by it than it is defined by us.
That humans are influenced by other people's beliefs, behaviors, accomplishments - IMHO, should is as should does, and the way should does is that we ARE affected by those things.
Advances in climbing haven't been the result of (only) physical/technical/equipment advances. We see what other people do, what they've done, what they believe they can do, and we're affected by it - it affects our beliefs about what we can do, and those beliefs then affect our behaviors. 5.15? For an inferior climber "girl"? Sure, if you give it enough belief (and maybe stop thinking of them as girls).
Alex didn't start up El Cap ropeless without a belief that he could do it. And his belief that he could do it didn't come out of thin air. It came, in part, from the beliefs and behaviors of people that came before him. Just like his belief and behavior contributes to the beliefs and behaviors of the people who will come after him. IMHO, exactly the way that it should.
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drF
Trad climber
usa
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Jul 20, 2017 - 05:29pm PT
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Alex Honnold did the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim in the Grand Canyon in two big steps.
Alex Honnold hand-jammed the entire Monster Off-Width on Freerider.
Alex Honnold has paddled a whitewater kayak from the summit of Mt. Everest to Base Camp, in winter.
Alex Honnold correctly predicted 100 percent of his NCAA Tournament bracket in last year’s office pool.
Alex Honnold eats nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Alex Honnold understood Ulysses the first time he read it.
Alex Honnold has never had a problem connecting to the wifi network anywhere.
Alex Honnold got the new Jay-Z album two weeks before it came out.
Alex Honnold onsighted your project.
Alex Honnold’s van is zero-emission because it runs on the world’s collective awe at his climbing achievements.
Alex Honnold set an FKT running the John Muir Trail barefoot while only eating plants he found along the trail. And he high-fived a black bear.
Alex Honnold used all his vacation days last year.
Alex Honnold surfed Teahupoo on the back of a tiger shark.
Your dog is normally quite skittish around new people, but took immediately to Alex Honnold.
Alex Honnold is secretly the creator of many of your favorite memes.
Alex Honnold completed an Ironman Triathlon riding a razor scooter for the bike segment.
Alex Honnold’s old climbing shoes smell like lilacs.
Alex Honnold is actually also Jimmy Chin, and photographed himself free soloing Freerider.
Alex Honnold parallel parked his van in a very tight space yesterday without even slightly bumping the cars in front of and behind him.
Your cousin’s friend met Alex Honnold at an event a couple years ago and Alex Honnold was very friendly to him.
You failed to mention
Alex Honnold cut Chuck Norris in half. Top to bottom, with a dyno ring-lock maneuver.
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jul 20, 2017 - 07:47pm PT
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At some time in the evolution of his soul, Alex Honnold will use the focus and fearlessness he developed to seek complete freedom, or enlightenment. This in turn always has a ripple effect for others seeking enlightenment. That is the most lasting aspect of his current feat of athleticism.
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