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Sierra Shafer: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody. We are so excited to be kicking off the outside festival at the film and ideas section. I know it's a full house, so don't be shy. Come up. Don't be afraid to crawl over each other. I'm Sierra Schafer. I'm the editorial Director of Lifestyle at ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ. I'm so excited to be introducing, uh, this conversation that I know we've all been looking forward to. This is gonna be with one of the most iconic athletes in the world, Alex Honnold.

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PADDYO INTRO VO

Hey, pals. We have another extra special treat for your ear holes today: A terrific panel from the ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Festival's Ideas program. Today, you're gonna hear climber wunderkind Alex Honnold talk about being extra great at climbing and what it takes to remain calm in the most extreme situations. He was joined on stage by friend of this pod  Shelby Stanger, who hosts her own show, REI’s Wild Ideas Worth Living Podcast sponsored by The REI Co-op Mastercard. Enjoy the chat, pals!

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Shelby Stanger: Thanks.

Alex Honnold: Nice job.

Shelby Stanger: Alright, Denver, we are so excited to be here. Um, a climber named Emily Harrington told me that climbing with Alex. is like playing basketball with Michael Jordan and interviewing him is even better because he makes you feel so comfortable. He just pointed out some guy changing behind us in the middle of the street and now, and you relaxed

Alex Honnold: is a very handsome man down.

He was very handsome. So it's, it's insane. So we're

Shelby Stanger: excited to be here with all of you today. Really quickly. Who here is a rock climber?

Raise your hand. Makes Wow. We got a big, yeah. Yeah.

Audience: Okay.

Shelby Stanger: Who here has watched free solo? Yeah, everybody. Wow. Who here has listened to the Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast? All right, we got a few of you. Okay, so on the [00:02:00] podcast we talk about. Wild ideas. Those are ideas that scare you will keep you up at night, and that if you pursue them along the way, you're probably gonna wanna turn back and be scared again.

But if you keep going, your life will never be the same again. And one wild idea often leads to another and another, and your life, you know, wild idea, free solo El Cap, and then you get an Oscar and it just keeps going and going and spreading like wildfire. Um,

Alex Honnold: most ideas end that way. You guys should try it.

Shelby Stanger: Yeah. So, Alex, you ready?

Alex Honnold: Love it. Let's, you's always ready.

Shelby Stanger: We got, we gave him a cookie before. It's just, yeah. I'm

Alex Honnold: actually super ed. She brought me a chocolate chip cookie so I get psyched before we started and, and it, it worked.

Shelby Stanger: So since most people here watch free solo and know you from your big moment of, uh, free soloing el cap, when was the very first time you had the wild idea to do it? Like, did it hit you like a bolt of lightning or was it kind of a slow burn and it just. Came to you?

Alex Honnold: No, it was kind of a, a natural progression.

I'd sold it a few [00:03:00] things in Yosemite. I free sold it a half tome, which is a 2000 foot wall, kind of similar to El Cap for those that dunno. and so after I free sold it half tome, I was kinda like, oh, el cap is the next obvious thing. But it actually wound up taking me, I guess eight more years before I, I actually did the free solo.

it was one of those things where it was like, I'm gonna do that next season, and then the next season I drove in Yosemite and looked at the wall. It's like, I'm definitely not doing that. It was like, totally, totally insane. And so that process repeated itself for many seasons until eventually I've sort of put the effort in and started actually working on it.

But, but it was kind of a, a dream on the back burner for many years.

Shelby Stanger: I love that. And how did you know you were ready? Like. You'd put in a lot of work. You deleted social media for a little bit. Just talk, talk to me a little bit about some of the things that went into it. 'cause it wasn't like, oh yeah, just 10 years and then I did it.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, no, I mean, what, like, which part do you even wanna focus on? 'cause that's kind of the whole thing. There's the, there's the six years I guess, where I consistently went to Yosemite, looked at the wall and thought that's impossible. And then didn't actually try to. Work on the free solo at all. But during those six years, I still worked on tons of other projects and I free soloed other walls and things that were, uh, [00:04:00] smaller but harder in some ways or, you know, whatever.

Like the things that pushed me in different ways. And I went on expeditions to different parts of the world and I still learned quite a lot as a climber. And so for the, those six years is not as if I was directly working on the free solo val cap, but I was definitely broadening myself as a rock climber and sort of building the skills.

You know, now in retrospect I can see that I was building the skills required to eventually get there. But so then eventually the mental, I sort of. Made a little, flipped a switch, so to speak. You know, I was like, you know what? I think I maybe can do this. I need to actually start putting the work in directly to, to, to do this, this project.

And so then, and, and just by happy coincidence, that's when the, the filmmakers behind the film free solo, uh, approached me about doing a feature documentary. I basically just decided that I was gonna start putting the effort in to, to do the, the actual climb. And so I was like, oh, perfect timing. Now I've got a built in team, some people to help me with this whole process because it's a tremendous amount of effort to.

work on a wall like that. for those that don't know, I mean, there's a lot of like hiking ropes to the summit and repelling down and hauling the ropes back out. And it's just, it's just a lot of toil. And I was like, you know, having, having a team there will make this quite a bit easier. And [00:05:00] so then I spent two years working on the actual climb.

And so when you ask about what the preparation was, you're kinda like, what's eight years of, of broadening and pushing? And then two years of direct training on the actual route. I mean, it's just a long journey. Not, not every big idea should take that long, hopefully.

Shelby Stanger: But the mindset, the mindset part where you're like, okay, now I'm gonna do that.

Can you just walk me a little bit through like when that switched, when you're like, I'm gonna go all in.

Alex Honnold: Yeah. So I guess the two years that I was working on the climb, I mean I started it deciding that I was gonna put in all the effort and find out if it was possible. I mean, I didn't know if it if it would ever feel possible or rot, but I realized that.

That it was never gonna look easy. That was kind of the thing is that for years I've been driving to Yosemite, hoping that some season I would look up at the wall and think, now it looks easy. I'm gonna do that this year. And I kind of realized that it was just never gonna look easy and it was never gonna be casual.

And so I was like, I'm gonna have to put in all the prep work and the training and the the time, everything without knowing whether or not I can do it and just find out. And so. You know, it's, it is not as if I just, I dunno, when you ask like, what was the moment? I'm like, well, there wasn't really a moment.

I just sort of acted as if I was going to do it eventually and [00:06:00] did all the prep work and kept working as if I was gonna do it. But I didn't really know right up until kind of near the end. I mean, I don't know, it's, it is like a classic fake it till you make it kind of thing. Yeah. Where you were like, I don't know if I can do it, but I'm just gonna do everything as if I'm gonna do it.

And then by the time I got to the point where I had finished all the preparation, done everything I need to do, I was like, well of course I'm gonna do it because I'm. Incredibly well prepared. I'm well trained for conditions are perfect, like everything is lined up. And so then it feels like an inevitability where it's like, obviously I will do this 'cause I've just spent years working towards it.

But while you're working towards it, you're like, well, who knows?

Shelby Stanger: But I think what's so important is you said it's never easy. Like it's, it's never gonna look easy. Eventually, you kind of just have to, you gotta prepare as much as possible and then you gotta go do it.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, I mean, sort of by definition, if you're doing something that you've never done before, and especially if it's something that's never been done full stop.

You know, even if you believe you can do it, you're sort of like, we don't know until you actually do it. It's true. I don't know. And so it's, it's like, it's always gonna be a little scary and a little nerve wracking and a little like, I mean,

Shelby Stanger: just like we've never done a live podcast before, so this is a big experiment right here.

Alex Honnold: I mean, we are and we are [00:07:00] gripped, you know, this is, this is full on.

Shelby Stanger: So Alex and I had the honor of talking last night at re i's, uh, flagship store in Denver. It was awesome. Um, and. The audience asked a bunch of questions, but he told some really funny stories and I kinda wanna go back there.

Um, you, you won so you, you free, you free sold El Cap. It was a huge moment. You're the man. No one in the world has ever done anything like it. It's, it was incredible. Few months later you won the Oscar life, got pretty wild. Prince William was in the mix. Like there was some crazy stuff. Will you just give us like a quick highlight of like some of the wild stuff that happened post Oscar?

Alex Honnold: You mean like just all the Oscars parties? Like yesterday we got into salacious gossip about a-list, celebrities 'cause like that. But this is now, this is a refined audience. We're not getting into gossip, you know, it's like, so maybe talk about

Shelby Stanger: your, like, intro to Hollywood, just some of the fun things that happened.

Alex Honnold: Well, yeah. So I called it my deployment to Hollywood because, uh, when the film came out, I did six months basically of nonstop events promoting the film. And the whole thing [00:08:00] kind of snowballed where it's like the, you know, it's a, it's a documentary about rock climbing. So it started with this limited release in a handful of theaters, places like, uh, like Boulder and Denver, honestly.

Um, just because you know that, that you'll be able to fill a theater there. And then as the film did well, it kind of rolled out more broadly and more people saw it and it wound up taking off way more than any of us ever could have guessed or hoped. I mean, it wound up being a, a whole thing, but, so it was six months of just nonstop events.

And I was like, I mean, it's pretty crazy. And then in some ways it actually felt a little bit like, uh, athletic training. Because the, the events ramped in intensity for the whole time. Like you start with like the Audio Guild Society Awards, and you're like, who cares about the Audio Guild Society? You're like, whatever.

You know? And then, and then you go to the BAFTAs, which is like the British Academy Awards, and you're like, oh, we just met Prince William. You're like, that seems a little fancier. You're like, uh, and then, you know, and then eventually it's

Audience: Is he cool?.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, it honestly, it was insane. Yeah, I'm sure. No, I was like, oh, you could see how royalty dominated Europe for thousands of years.

Yeah. Because, uh, no, like he had such a regal bearing. I was like, wow, he's an incredible, I was like, I would follow him into battle. I would [00:09:00] ride a horse behind him. It was like, it was, it was amazing actually. And, uh, anyway, and then it culminates in the Oscars, which is like total insane pageantry and just complete whatever.

And so it, it honestly felt like training for an event where you're like, oh, I'm doing longer and longer runs, and then I'm doing my marathon. I'm peaking. And then now I'm gonna bed rest for a while. And that's basically what happened after the Oscars is like, we went to the Oscars freaking one, we're like, this is crazy.

And then, and then you collapse in a heap and you're like, I'm so tired.

Shelby Stanger: I wanna talk about that. Because you know, most adventures will do this huge adventure. Like they'll hike the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail, or you know, do a big Everest. And then afterwards there's this kind of like post adventure blues.

And when I talk to you. You didn't really have that, which I thought was pretty amazing. 'cause you just did like the biggest thing you've always wanted to do and you didn't really have this. Oh great. What now moment, which I think is really important. Um, because you had the tactic that you didn't even really plan, but you did.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, I mean that's not to say that I've never had post goal blues because I [00:10:00] mean, I think part of the whole fun of having a project, having a big idea, having something to work on, is that it gives you direction and purpose and like something to get outta bed and something to train for and something to be psyched for.

And so. Certainly throughout the year, I have moments where it's like I finish some big project or I, you know, accomplish some climb that I'm excited about and then you're left with a month of kinda like, what do I do with myself now? Like, I need a new project, I need a new goal, I need something. But, but we were talking specifically about the free solo el cap and, and whether or not I had some kind of big come down post free soloing EL cap.

and in that case I didn't because part of the strategy for free selling EL Cap was that, So I knew that the freestyle el cap is largely a mental challenge. It's like the psychological aspect is, is you know, physically I've climbed El cap many times with a rope. I've climbed it without falling off with a rope.

So I knew that I could physically climb El Cap. I mean that, that's hard obviously, but it's not, that's not the cutting edge part. The doing it without the rope part is the part that makes it really hard. And that's basically a mental challenge. And so

Shelby Stanger: no big deal.

Alex Honnold: Well, you know, and so I also knew that, that if I free sold it all cap, it'd be the biggest thing I'd ever do.

You know, it'd be a. I, I knew it'd be big [00:11:00] and I knew I'd be super proud of it, but I didn't want to make it bigger than it needed to be because I knew that it was already predominantly a mental challenge. And so by putting it on a pedestal, making it feel like this is the biggest thing of your life, this is the craziest climb we ever do, this is like, this means so much.

That almost makes it too big and more of a mental challenge. And so I felt like. For me, part of the process was to actually make it more part of my normal year, and so I was looking at my Yosemite seasons as training for other expeditions that I was doing throughout the year. So right after Yosemite, I went to Alaska to climb some other big mountains, and I was looking at Alaska as training for an expedition I did to Antarctica later that winter.

And so I was kinda like, whether I succeed or not in Yosemite this season, either way I'm training for Alaska, Alaska's preparation for Antarctica, I'm climbing all these different walls. It's all part of the normal cycle of being a professional climber. It's kinda like it takes a lot of the mental stress off achieving this big.

You know, historic, personal first, whatever, whatever you wanna call it. It's kinda like, oh, I'm just training in the valley and I have a goal while I'm in the valley. But really it's all just practice for Alaska. And so I think that that whole strategy kept me from experiencing the same [00:12:00] kind of come down that you're talking about.

It wasn't like I'm training for the Olympics, you know, I either win or lose, but either I'm just done afterward. It was kinda like, well literally the next week I was in Alaska climbing other big walls with friends. I was kinda like, well that's

Shelby Stanger: so the moral of the stories, when you have a wild idea have like a couple more wild ideas.

You just have to keep going and going and going. That's awesome. No, it is good advice though.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, no, I, I mean, honestly, and, and I knew that what I was doing in Alaska was not like, didn't really matter. You know, we climbed a couple of new routes. They were kind of stupid. No one would ever climb again.

No big deal. Yeah. And the things we did in Antarctica were, were cooler, and I'm proud of those. And, you know, it was a great expedition, but again, it's, it's trivial converted free, sawing el cap. But the key for me was to look past the, the one goal. You know, it's not as if that's my end point and my life will end when I do this.

I was kinda like, oh, this is my goal. But I've got a whole year laid out ahead of that. And then, I mean specifically with free selling El Cap, the, the film came out the next year 'cause they do a year of post-production, which is pretty normal. Then the whole crazy six month deployment to Hollywood, which was like a whole experience.

And so then by the time that's wrapped up, you're kinda like, well it's been a couple years I've been doing stuff nonstop. And you're just like, life is [00:13:00] moving on. You know, it's like time to set new goals and come up with new ideas.

Shelby Stanger: Well, I want to talk about one of those next ideas which you ended up getting married.

I don't know if this was like a goal, but you ended up getting married. You have two daughters, June and Alice. I'm really curious, you know, what's it like being a dad?

Alex Honnold: That's great. I suspect half the audience probably probably knows it, but Yeah, it's amazing.

Uh, no, I mean, it was always, I mean, actually, so bringing it back to free soloing el cap and whatever. I mean, part of the reason that I felt some pressure to do some of those climbing goals is that I knew that, that I wanted to have a family at some point. I, you know, I didn't wanna live in my van by myself for my entire life.

Like I knew that eventually I'd live in a house and have a family and,

Shelby Stanger: but do you sometimes like miss it?

Alex Honnold: Oh yeah, I know. I mean, it's awesome. And I mean, I love living in the band. It's easy and it, well, I mean of, of course. Yeah. But, but on the other hand, I mean, I've chosen to have a family. Like I just don't wanna be 65 years old living in my van by myself.

Like, that's, that's sad. And, and, and. To some people with all respect to like the eight people here who are 60, their land by themselves. Like there's probably a couple people here who live in a van

Shelby Stanger: and they're 65. So I was like, oh, okay. [00:14:00] I have all good, I

Alex Honnold: have many friends who are still on that exact same path and I'm like, you know what?

Power to you. But, but I, that's not, that's not ever the future that I saw for myself. Like, I wanna have a family, I wanna have grandkids someday, I wanna do the whole thing. But I kind of knew that, that some of the goals that I had for climbing made sense to do pre family to some extent. 'cause they're just so all encompassing that it makes sense to just go all in on some of the climbing projects.

Before you have little kids. And now that I have little kids, I'm like, thank goodness I did. Because it turns out having little kids is a, is a whole journey of itself.

Shelby Stanger: What are some of the funniest things they've recently said? Oh, there they are.

Alex Honnold: Oh, there they are.

Shelby Stanger: Beautiful.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, this photo looks strangely.

D This was for like a parenting magazine. It's so embarrassing. It's a photo shoot, but it was, uh, uh, now I It's

Shelby Stanger: so cute.

Alex Honnold: Yeah. Yeah, it's cute. Oh, you

Shelby Stanger: guys are gorgeous. Okay, so June and Alice, I mean, they, they have to say some funny things. You're their dad. Anything that like surprised you recently or they said that you were just like, oh my God, it's so, no,

Alex Honnold: I know my, my 3-year-old, the bigger one, so this photo is maybe taken a year ago, so now they're quite a bit, I mean, they changed so quickly at this age, but, so the, the bigger one, uh, I mean she basically sees me [00:15:00] packing my bag nonstop every, you know, 'cause I, I'm still climbing outside probably four days a week or something.

And so almost every day she's seen me unpacking a backpack, repacking a backpack, packing snacks, doing a thing. And she doesn't know anything about rock climbing yet, per se. I mean, she sees us training in the home gym and going outside and going bouldering and things, but she doesn't like know what that really means.

But, so I was just telling her, I, I just tell him it all up was, I'm going mountain climbing. We're gonna, the mountains we're climbing. Climbing mountains. And so she's always like, I wanna go mountain climbing mostly. 'cause she loves eating snacks. She loves little bars and things and so any excuse for her to eat a bar and like go to the mountains.

Shelby Stanger: I was, I was gonna ask you like tactics to get your kids outside, but that's kind of bits all about snacks. Snacks all about about snacks. Which is funny though because

Alex Honnold: it makes you realize that so much of being an adult outdoors. It's also about eating snacks. That's his basically like all. What I call all technical snacks, like all bars and energy products and all that are basically candy.

It's like adult candy that you get to eat when you're exercising. And I'm kinda like, oh, I love exercising. Probably 'cause I love candy. Like

Shelby Stanger: if I go snowboarding, I literally stop every run and get hot chocolate.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, exactly. It's the worst. Exactly. I'm sort of like, yeah, you see it in the kids and you're like, oh, you shouldn't eat all that [00:16:00] candy.

And then you're like, actually, wait. That's literally all I do. And I, and I do this like all the time 'cause I'm outside so much like, uh, it seems

Shelby Stanger: so I think a lot of people are wondering, are you still soloing now that you're, you're a family man, you've got kids.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, yeah, I am, um, not, maybe not as intense, not as hardcore maybe though.

I mean, I just did a, a film project a couple months ago. That was kinda the first hard thing that I've done in a while. Um, yeah, I definitely am definitely spending less time doing easy soloing. I'm just at home a lot more. I mean, I think that the biggest difference with having kids is that, uh, I try to be at home for like basically wake up in bedtime every day.

And so I'm just there for family meals and, you know, I'm just at home a lot more. And so the nature of my adventures have kind of shifted in, in time where I'm sort of like, oh, I can go adventuring from nine to five during the day. You know, it's like, I actually, I haven't even thought about it, but as now I'm a professional climber in the real sense of the word where I work in nine to five.

But, uh, but I try to climb outside, you know, in those tight hours. I like freaking hammer it back down a mountain to like make it back before childcare goes home, things like that. We're like, oh, you know, the nanny leaves in an hour. You're like, oh no, I have [00:17:00] 2000 feet of t just hammer down. Yeah. The, the, the crag that I'm climbing at currently is, is a 2000 foot descent to get back down to the road.

And, uh, I've, I've prd it twice in the last two weeks, like setting personal records. 'cause I'm like, oh, the nanny leaves at five. I am screwed. Like, you

Shelby Stanger: have a recent story where you were out in your neighborhood climbing and something kind of happened and. Your phone sort of,

Alex Honnold: yeah, that was the soloing misadventure from two weeks ago or something.

Shelby Stanger: Can you just tell that story because it's, it's a really great story.

Alex Honnold: Well, or it's a really sad story. My, my phone died in a tragic mountain accident. Um, basically I went out soloing on something that I thought was kind of easy and it would be kind of fun. It was kind of just like a, an angst flat afternoon scramble.

I was like, oh, I'll just go do a thing. Um, but it was like 50 mile an hour winds and it turns out.

Shelby Stanger: And how high up were you?

Alex Honnold: Well, the route was like 1500 feet or so, and I was maybe 700. I was like halfway up this wall. And, uh, and it was the kind of thing where when you hike into the canyon, it's quite windy, but it's kind of warm, so you're like, oh, this is nice.

You know, it feels good. Anyway, on the wall though, it turns out it was insanely windy and, uh, it turned out it was untenable and [00:18:00] I basically had to bail 'cause it was too windy. But then also my phone blew outta my pocket. And, uh, I mean my, uh, I was shirtless, but my, my shorts were like billowing up like the Michelin man, you know?

And basically in my chalk bag, it flipped and everything's flying everywhere. And the chalk in my eyes and my backpack straps are slapping you nonstop. And you're like, ah. I was like, I can't see and I can't, you know, you're getting buffeted, like pushed by wind back and forth. And I was like, this is kind of intense.

Anyway, but uh, but my phone was also my car key and I was all alone in the middle of nowhere. Oh wow. And I was kind of like, oh, now I'm screwed. 'cause it was kind of like afternoon. I was kind of like, even if I make it to the top, then I have to circle back around the mountain to get back to the base to find my phone.

'cause I need the key. Otherwise I'd have to just quest back to the highway and try to hitchhike home or. Basically all the options were really bad. And I was like, I'm so hosed. And so I wound up down climbing the whole thing, and I found the phone, even though it was totally broken and shattered, it still worked to unlock my, my car.

So I managed to drive home.

Shelby Stanger: Okay. I'm not a rock climber, but down climbing sounds. Yeah. Good job, Alex. But um,

Alex Honnold: actually, I mean, so the real story, the, the crux of the pit, the crux of the thing is 10 D is like 180 foot, 10 d pitch for any of the rock climbs and I'd climbed. [00:19:00] 175 feet of the pitch. And I was like, basically right below the anchor and I just like, couldn't really do the last five feet 'cause it was just too crazy windy.

And I like couldn't, it was like thin lie backing up a thing. And I was like past the crux already, but it was just too intense and I wound up having to down climb the whole crux and the whole thing and I was like, oh, it was, it was all a botch. But that's the kind of thing that you try to avoid

Shelby Stanger: is down.

This might be a silly question in all your rock climbers, but is down climbing solo even scarier than going up?

Alex Honnold: Um, not if you're well practiced. It looks terrifying. Like I don't

Shelby Stanger: like going down anything once I've climbed up it.

Alex Honnold: Yeah. Well the fundamentals of it are that you're assisted by gravity, so it's easier, like, think of it that way.

I mean, 'cause it is technically easier to go down than up, think of it that way. But on the other hand, it's harder to see your feet. It's harder to see the holds. Uh, and also it's just, I don't know, I, I practice a lot of down climbing. I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life with like going up things down, climbing things, bailing off things.

And so. I think I've done more down climbing than anybody like ever. I bet. Just because I'm adding, most people don't, don't have an [00:20:00] opportunity to down climb that much, but so if you practice it, it's not that crazy.

Shelby Stanger: Okay. I probably won't, but I've, I, I like that idea. Um, how has, but how has becoming a parent changed your relationship with risk?

Alex Honnold: Well, it's hard to follow up this harrowing story of misadventure with this story. I know, but I want to, because yesterday in general.

Shelby Stanger: Even someone asked, you know, they were like, like, I love that you're doing this and I love, you're still getting after it, but your kids might get to the age where they're like, dad, like, can you just not, or I don't know.

Alex Honnold: Yeah. And, and then maybe I'd be like, you know, if you ask me not to, maybe I wouldn't. But I mean, the whole point is that I'm trying to do things that, that feel safe for the most part. I mean, this whole thing went kind of sideways and you're kinda like, well, sometimes, sometimes you make mistakes like that and it doesn't work out.

But in general, I'm doing way less. Easy soul. I'm just doing more time training my garage, like going sport, climbing, just doing things close to the house, keeping the hours tighter, being with the kids more. Um, I dunno. But then, yeah, I was saying, I did a film thing a couple months ago and I was like, God, I just love, love climbing walls though.

It's so, it's so great. So I mean, I think, you know, if you do it [00:21:00] carefully and you try to make good decisions,

Shelby Stanger: can you talk about Sedona?

Alex Honnold: Yeah. What about it?

Shelby Stanger: Oh yeah. Can tell us about, you recently went to Sedona and did you know some climbing up there? Did it looked, did something amazing, something

Alex Honnold: cool.

I'm like, what whatcha are you getting at? What'd you do? Well, actually, I mean this, well, there was

Shelby Stanger: one thing I couldn't ask you about. So I wanted ask you about Sedona.

Alex Honnold: Well, oh, I guess, 'cause the other thing is, yeah, she asked me about it, this climate. I'm talking about this film project and I was like, well, it's NDA, it's so, I'm not really supposed to talk about it, but who cares about it?

You know, there's a camera, we talk about it anyway, it's like, it's a, yeah, no, it is fine. Um, but no, Sedona was a family trip. We did, uh. I mean, we did a two week family trip to Sedona and, and climbed nonstop. I mean, to me that's honestly the ultimate way of balancing family with with climbing is that we went with the whole family, gone to every beat, did a nice thing.

Literally climbed every day, you know, happy with the kids in a new place, pushing the stroll around. It was just so wonderful and like New Rock and, uh, we were so psyched. Did, yeah. Did a lot of climbs that I was very happy about. How,

Shelby Stanger: how does it work with you and Sanni when you take the kids climbing?

Like how do you guys work as a team so you can all climb, oh, we

Alex Honnold: kind of alternate. Or we have c Charlie in this case we brought, uh, my [00:22:00] in-laws, my wife's parents climb as well. But they're, they're old and pretty casual, and so it's an easy way. So we're like, we brought a, like a nanny who was with us for a bit.

And then my main climbing partner is also like a lifelong friend who, uh, just like a homeless person. Josh basically lives in his van. Um, but he's like, great with the kids. There's

Shelby Stanger: definitely van Lifers here.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, I'm sure there, I'm sure there must be, but they're not as scrappy as Josh. I bet. He's like really scrappy, but he's like one of my longest climbing friends.

And so. I mean, I guess the, the long short is that we try to assemble the right community around us where it's like between the in-laws, the nanny, my friend who's really good with kids, and then all of us sort of cycling around with different partners and, you know, taking turns and doing all the things and everybody gets to climb as much as they need.

Shelby Stanger: I love that. Um, so you've been taking your, your family on climbs, but I've also seen you in like a lot of movies where you're helping someone else with a big goal. Did something with Tommy. I just watched Emily Harrington's movie Girl Climber, which is actually here at the ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Festival where she free climbs Golden Gate and she's like one of [00:23:00] three people to do it.

And you're like, you're coaching her and you're funny in the right times, but you're also like pushing her in a way that no one else can push you because you're also the only guy who's like really done it. And so she respects you. But I'm just, I'm just curious, is that like becoming a mentor? Become a bigger part of your life, or is it just that you, like, I'm curious how you enjoy helping others succeed.

I mean, you also took your mom on El Cap, which is so cool.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, I definitely would never call myself a mentor of any kind. I, I would say that I'm a good, I try to be a good friend and good partner and like help people do things that they're trying to do. I mean, I think, I'm sure everybody here has experienced that with like crewing for a race or like helping a friend in the long run or things like that.

You know, I mean, I have lots of my own personal athletic goals and I'm working towards my own things a lot, but every once in a while you're kinda like, it's fun to support your friends. It's fun to take turns on things. It's like, it's nice to feel like the pressure's on somebody else and you're just out supporting them having a nice day and you're like, today is their day to succeed and I'm just here to have fun and enjoy the mountains.

It's like, I mean, I kind of love doing that, but, but also I think it kind of naturally happens as you get older a [00:24:00] little bit. You know, I mean, some of it, I mean like with El Cap, like with Emily climbing El Cap, kinda like I've spent so many days on El Cap. It's just easy for me to help. You know, I'm kinda like, I know where to go for the different things and I know how to do the repelling and how to get into the positions and I just spend a lot of time up there.

And so it's easy to help other people with like, oh, here, here's how you do it. Like let's go do it together.

Shelby Stanger: But you're also like really funny while you're doing it. So I'm curious how you use humor in these like high stakes moments. Because there are some times where it's like a little precarious and you just make this like totally funny joke that,

Alex Honnold: well, I mean, do me to,

Shelby Stanger: or is it just you?

Alex Honnold: Why would actually, like, are they precarious moments? I mean, that's kinda the whole thing is that I think, um, I mean she's talking about specific, has anyone seen girl climber? I guess a few people were at, at Mountain Film in Telluride, but, um, and is it showing here?

Shelby Stanger: It is showing here.

Alex Honnold: That's cool. Yeah.

Well, hopefully people get the opportunity to see it. It's, it's pretty cool. It's, uh, it's, it's, it's amazing. It's the, it's the anti-free solo in a lot of ways. It's, uh,

Shelby Stanger: it's great. But, but you know, you talk about humor and how, like you use humor. So is it an intentional tactic or is it just part of the Alex Honnold way?

Alex Honnold: It's not an intentional tactic, it's just that you're legitimately [00:25:00] out having a good time doing anything that you love to do. And so situations, I mean, basically all of climbing is you're accepting an inherent level of risk. Like it's always a little bit sketchy, but you don't have to make it seem sketchier than it actually is.

I mean, this kind of goes back to the same mental games around, uh, you know, free selling El Cap and like I knew that it'd be a big deal. I don't need to make an even bigger, big deal by like piling on the pressure. And so I think that if you're up climbing on El Cap with a, with your friend and you have ropes and you have gear, it's like you know that there's some risk in that.

I mean, climbing always carries some risk. Like you could pull a rock, you cut the rope, everybody could die. I mean, like there's small chances that things could go wrong, but you've accepted those types of risks. You've minimized 'em best you can. You know what you're doing, and so you may as well have a good time doing it.

And so I think that's kind of the thing is I think what you might look as like, oh, they're up there cracking jokes, and you're kinda like. Why else? Like, shouldn't you be cracking jokes all the time anyway? It's always, you're having fun with your friends should always,

Shelby Stanger: you should always be cracking jokes.

Um, yeah. Last night someone asked me to ask him the, the biggest muscle you train regularly. You asked me,

Alex Honnold: what is the largest muscle that you regularly [00:26:00] train? And I was like, what do you mean by that? And uh, I like, thank you

Shelby Stanger: Alex. You saved me on that one. Um, I turned his red as the fake campfire in front of me, just so you know.

PADDYO VO:

More from Alex Honnold and Shelby Stanger, Live! from the ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Festival after the break.

MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL

I think Alex really does bring out best in people and you know, like empathy that's, that seems to be like a muscle that you've really built over the years.

Alex Honnold: I was like, no one has ever called me empathetic. I

Shelby Stanger: know, but you, you have become empathetic. Like you're pretending like you're not, but you are.

Anyways, I think everybody here is scared of something. I'm obviously was scared of just being on stage today, but you offer really great advice on fear and I'd be great if you just wanted to get outta your soapbox about fear and. Kinda some tactics on dealing with fear.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, sure. I mean, depends.

Should we just go, go full, full hog with Let's go full hog. Okay. We're going. I think they want, you

Shelby Stanger: guys want it? Yeah. Yeah, they want it. We're about to do wild ideas, so, you know, wild ideas are inherently a little scary. [00:27:00]

Alex Honnold: Okay. Well we started talking about this yesterday and I started to rant basically, 'cause I got on my soapbox and started preaching about fear.

'cause people ask about fear all the time and it's such a broad subject and I feel like there are a lot of different places we can go with this. I mean. Part of it is, is just that, like when was the last time you were really afraid and then, and how often are you afraid and how often do you have to determine whether or not your fear is well-founded or, or just, you know, sort of general anxiety, like does your fear actually matter?

Should you act on it or not? I mean, something that we're talking about, it's like we all experience hunger like somewhat regularly, actually, maybe not 'cause we live in a very affluent country, but, but in general, like you feel hunger pangs from time to time and you're kinda like, oh, I'm hungry. But I'm just gonna sit on that, set it aside and I'll eat when it makes sense.

'cause I'm gonna meet my friends later and we'll eat then. And I feel like fear is the same kind of physiological signal that your body is receiving. Like your body, it's your body telling you something in the same way that hunger, like, you know, I don't know, sunburn I, I don't know. It's like your body is sending you signals and you can heed those signals or not.

You just have to learn how to differentiate when they [00:28:00] matter or not. In the same way that sometimes hunger is super important, sometimes it isn't. And so I think one of the things that, that climbing, one of the things I've really gained from climbing is that climbing's scary and you're scared climbing all the time.

Like I'm scared climbing all the time. And on a low level, a lot of the time you ignore it. But even sport climbing, you know, you get above your bolt and you're sort of like, it was kind of scary. Like I don't want to just fall off right now. And there're often moments of like, oh, what if this hole breaks and I pitch backward off this even though I have a rope and it's probably safe, it's probably fine, but you don't know for sure.

And so you're always like a little bit scared. And 'cause there always are real consequences to climbing. Like you always should be a little bit scared because you know, if your BLA isn't paying attention like you, you could die. And so I think that having that exposure to fear all the time helps you to parse out when it really matters or not.

And I think that's an important life skill, basically. Because, I mean, there are a lot of things like public speaking. I used to be terrified of public, like I was a very shy child. Afraid of everything, afraid of anything in public. But ultimately you're like, who cares? You know? It's like you're not gonna get hurt.

No one's. You know, and I mean, the free solo tour [00:29:00] really taught me that because it's six months of just nonstop events. And I was kinda like, ultimately, even if you suck, you're still going home to your friends and family and they don't care. So it's like, you know, it's fine. Like, I'm not gonna remember anyway.

It's like, is this, is this one of those times? Am I sucking?

Shelby Stanger: No, you're doing great. But, um, you know, I, I think you've also told me like personal advice. You know, fear is just the unknown and sometimes you just have to kind of do the thing that you're scared of and keep doing it. I mean, once you've even suggested like, Hey, if you're going somewhere cold, like train in the meat locker.

I was like, whoa. Cool. Okay. I, I don't think I said that. I know you don't remember. I think you said that. I'm, I'm gonna pull up the podcast. She podcast pulled up these weird quotes. Anyways, yeah, we've done some interviews before and I'm like, you've done a couple.

Alex Honnold: I swear I've never said any of these quotes, but I really like

Shelby Stanger: that and I, I'm, I'm running with it.

Um, I'm curious just about, you know, daily, Alex, how you stay motivated and how you get after you've got kids, you've got parents. So like what are your non-negotiables that you have to do like every week? Like how often do you have to get out to climb or go on an adventure to just stay stoked?

Alex Honnold: I generally climb four or five days a week.

I try to climb [00:30:00] outside, say three or four days a week.

Shelby Stanger: But is that like indoor outdoor in your gym? Like what does that look like?

Alex Honnold: Ideally, I'm climbing outdoors at least three or four days a week. Um, though, I mean, we've just had two small babies and so naturally the first several months of having a baby, uh, I was doing more time in the garage and just at home a lot more.

And, um, you know, fewer adventures, but, and the garage is

Shelby Stanger: like a pretty decent, it's

Alex Honnold: like, it's a nice home climbing gym. Yeah. Um, a nice

Shelby Stanger: home climbing gym like. Like legit,

Alex Honnold: like a nice home climbing, like a nice one. Like it's not

Shelby Stanger: like, yeah, it's not like an average climbing wall.

Alex Honnold: A couple holes. Well, it's only because I live somewhere that doesn't have a great commercial gym, and, and we live kind of out town a little bit.

And so it just makes sense to have like a nice home thing, honestly, because all our friends come to use the home gym that way. And so then you get to see all your friends without having to, 'cause with two babies you're kinda like, you know, we're just not socializing that much. So it's nice to have the friends come to you, but so,

Shelby Stanger: so a couple of, you know, week weekly you don't go.

And then how about like. Yeah, big trip a year. How many like big wild ideas a year? I think

Alex Honnold: probably average over my, my 18 year career as a professional climber, whatever that means. Like for all the years I've been sponsored climbing, [00:31:00] I've probably been averaging one big expedition a year. I love that.

Like one big trip to sort of big mountains or you know, alpine things or something like Antarctica or somewhere where it's like a full on expedition expedition where you're living in a tent for a month or more. So I think one thing like that a year is enough to sort of scratch the itch. 'cause I mean, I, I like that stuff and I find it inspiring and it's, it's great to see the, the greater ranges and to travel and whatever, but I don't like it enough to do it more than once a year.

You know? It's like, I mean, 'cause I think ultimately I love rock climbing and most of those types of trips you spend too much time sitting in the rain and tent and not enough time rock climbing.

Shelby Stanger: do you have any wild ideas on the horizon for this coming year?

Alex Honnold: Well, it depends how you define a wild idea.

I mean, I have a whole list of, of climbing goals that I'm interested in things. I mean, for me, the challenge, there was a

Shelby Stanger: few, just like a few of them that you can,

Alex Honnold: oh, I don't know. I mean, come on. She like, but they're good ideas. I mean, I think one of the real challenges of, of being a professional climber is coming up with good ideas.

Like that's like coming up with things that haven't been done, things that that suit you well, things that are interesting and so. I don't know. I, I thought up a, a pretty cool link up in Yosemite, that, that's basically all, all the things in [00:32:00] Yosemite. Ooh. Which I think, I think would be fun. But, uh,

Shelby Stanger: all the things in Yosemite, that sounds pretty badass.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I mean,

Alex Honnold: we'll see. And then, yeah, and then there's some link up stuff around the house, but basically it's just, I think for me, the challenge is always that you can think of these cool ideas and then you're kind of like, well, how does that fit in my overall year? Like, will I be fit for that kind of thing?

Do I have the time to train for that specific kind of thing? Do I want to spend that much time working on that kind of a goal? And so at any given time, I kind of have like a buffet of different ideas and goals. And then the, the challenge is to make 'em all fit together in a way that that works. You know?

It's like because, uh, you know, I like rock climbing and so I'm kind of like, okay, if I wanna be able to climb my hardest grades, that's at the opposite end of the spectrum from in chaining every mountain in a certain place or something. 'cause that's more like a running type of goal or like an easy soloing goal anyway.

So trying to make all your goals work together so that you can. You know, do one thing that gets you better for the next thing, which gets you better for the next thing, and then you peak with the last thing that you're all excited about. I don't know. I mean, it's, it's hard to structure the year that way, and especially for me with, with family and, and like life obligations and things like that as well.

You're sort of [00:33:00] like, well, I really wanna do this thing, but it's only good in September, October and I know that I'm gonna be traveling for work then anyway, and my family's gonna be doing something and my wife is traveling for work. Then you're kind of like, well, that's not actually a great time to pursue that, that goal.

That's gonna take a ton of effort. Let's focus on a different thing instead.

Shelby Stanger: Yeah. And then in your, in your free time when you're not like doing these wild ideas, what are some of the things you like to do? Like I read crossword puzzles.

Alex Honnold: Yeah. Do I do I think you're pretty good

Shelby Stanger: at them.

Alex Honnold: I've gotten better.

I do the crossword every day. I'm, I really like, it kind of does every single

Shelby Stanger: day and like comes, completes it. That's amazing.

Alex Honnold: Well, I think compared to somebody who actually is into Crossroads, I'm, I'm very, very bad. Oh, okay. Whatever. But compared to somebody that's never done a crossword, I'm very good.

But, um, I

Shelby Stanger: want switch gears really quickly and talk about the Honnold Foundation. Um, why did you start it? What's your mission right now and what, what are you excited about right now?

Alex Honnold: Yeah, cool. So, the Honnold Foundation, uh, I think I started in 2012, but we support community solar projects around the world.

So. Since 2012 or so, I've been given a third of my income away, and now we receive [00:34:00] tons of money from donations.

Shelby Stanger: A third of your income away. Yeah. That's awesome. There's not a lot of people in our industry doing that, Alex, hold on. Actually, I mean,

Alex Honnold: so I, I think that's one of the things about having lived in my van for so long and just and loving rock climbing is that it is always been easy for me to, to give quite a bit to charity like that because I'm kinda like, I'm doing exactly what I love to do.

I'm spending my time the way I want to be spending my time and the rest. You know, you don't really need the rest. So it makes it, I don't know, it makes life very simple in a lot of ways. I'm like, there's nothing that I need to be, like, I'm never gonna buy a yacht. You know? Like I, I, I don't, I don't need a yacht.

I, it's stupid. Really? I kind

Shelby Stanger: of would like one, but I, I gotta get, but that's 'cause you

Alex Honnold: love the ocean. I hate the ocean. Oh yeah. We talked about surfing. Yeah.

Shelby Stanger: And I think Alex should come surfing with me, but, um, right now that's a hard no. Yeah, he's hard. No, but he does foil board, so if we have any foiler out here, you know.

Alex Honnold: I only like water sports where I don't get wet. So I like paddle boarding a little bit and I like e foiling a little bit. Basically things, if I never have to get wet, then I'm like, it is quite beautiful to be out on water, but I just don't wanna get wet, which is a weird [00:35:00] I whatever.

Shelby Stanger: We're almost getting time to let the audience ask questions, but just really quickly, what advice would you give people to start, like first thing that they need to do if they're gonna go out and pursue their wild idea?

I

Alex Honnold: mean, it depends on the wild idea, but I mean, I think the big thing is you just start, you just start taking some steps. 'cause you know, you can sit, I mean like with El Cap, I sat on the idea for years just hoping that it would somehow magically happen. You know, like each year just being like, maybe this is the year.

And then after many, many years you're like, it's just not gonna happen unless you, unless you try. And so finally I was like, oh, it's time to start trying. And then I put the two years of actual effort into it and then was ultimately able to do it. But now in retrospect, I'm kinda like, you know, I probably could have started that process four or five years sooner and, and been able to do it then, but I just didn't, I don't know.

You just keep hoping that it'll just happen. And then in my case, uh, I think I just turned 30, which I know isn't like old, old, but I was kinda like, oh, life is passing by and I'm not doing the thing I wanna do. And I'm kinda like, oh geez. Like I should probably get to it. And so then you have to start at some point.

Shelby Stanger: I mean, that's the age when I like quit my job. Landed a story, in [00:36:00] outside magazine. It was like, I'm gonna be an adventure journalist. It's a good,

Alex Honnold: and here you are.

Shelby Stanger: Here I am. And it one wild idea led to the next and the next. So I have a wild idea for you. All right. Now, are you cool if we do this like Yeah, let's do it.

Okay. So I think all of you have been sitting here listening to Alex talk about wild ideas. We're you're gonna have lots of time to ask him some questions too, but I know you all have a wild idea. Something that you've been thinking about that's been brewing. We've got like two minutes. I want you to find someone in the room you don't know and tell them your wild idea.

We're gonna call you back in two minutes because then Alex is gonna be available to answer audience questions.

Alex Honnold: All right, ready? So talk to somebody who don't know next to you and just talk about a good idea. Let's do it

Shelby Stanger: one, and you can come tell us. Lets

Alex Honnold: listen.

I, I don't know you guys, what's, what's your good idea?

Shelby Stanger: Alex, come back. All right you guys for the q and a. Alright. You gotta help me just be like,

Alex Honnold: alright. Okay guys, we're back. We're back. [00:37:00]

Shelby Stanger: Okay. I heard some awesome wild ideas. I heard opening a dog sanctuary, providing energy, becoming a pro skier like.

Did you hear any good ones? I'm sure you did. Yeah. Well, we talked about climbing. What? Talking about, you know, of course. Amazing. Okay, so we have a static mic that you can line up or we have a roaming mic that someone's gonna bring to you if you have a question. Um, so if you want, you guys can just make a line behind.

Is there anybody else? Run to the middle there. Mic right here in the middle. Get some. And, um, there's also a roaming mic. Somewhere around here that we can bring to. If you raise your hand, the, the guy bringing the Roro make is this nice gentleman in the black right here. So just raise your hand. Alright, let's, let's use, okay, let's go for it.

Rapid fire too.

Audience: Okay. Rapid fire starting out. I just wanna say thanks for being here and I think there's lots of people that consider you a mentor. Um, yes. And I really like the fact that you are using your climbing expertise in projects like you did in Arctic extent to help science. And I wondered if you.

We're thinking about doing more projects like that in the future [00:38:00] where you can actually use your skills to help scientific projects.

Alex Honnold: Yeah, definitely. The, the Arctic Center for those that no know is at Disney plus, or like a National Geographic show on Disney Plus I did, um, where we. Went to Eastern Greenland and climate scientist, it was totally amazing expedition for me and I'd love to do more things like that.

But that's kind of just up to the nature of television, which is, which is fickle. But um, but to me it's a little, I mean, that's the ideal kinda expedition to me where we did something that I was, I mean, the two climbs who did in that, I was legitimately proud of those climbs. I thought they were cool. The whole terrain was incredible.

I learned a ton. The scientist Heidi was, was so inspiring and I, I personally learned so much and I was kinda like, oh, this is an ideal expedition. And so certainly if anybody here works in, uh, broadcast, uh, you know, television, I'm like, I'm down to do more things like that, but it's just hard to get that stuff made.

Shelby Stanger: Great question.

Audience: I'm interested in what surprises or fascinates you outside of climbing in sport. Could you tell a story or anecdote that was beautiful or harrowing or profound with sport outside of climbing,

Shelby Stanger: like surfing? Just kidding.

Audience: Well, that's

Alex Honnold: [00:39:00] definitely not beautiful or profound. Come on. That's surfing.

Uh, wait, I don't even understand. That was like a beautiful story that's not related to climbing. Like, have do I, have I, do I know anything about that?

Shelby Stanger: Hiking foiling?

Alex Honnold: No, no. Those are water things. I don't know. Um, Well, uh, yeah, I've had some of those with skiing and running and just mountain mountain adventures in general. I mean, I'm basically just not very good at any kind of outdoors sport. What, what

Shelby Stanger: town skiing thing?

Alex Honnold: Yeah, like that's a good example. Uh, trying to ski Mount Whitney with, with, uh, with a professional skier, but he didn't even ski 'cause he was dying of altitude sickness and I couldn't ski it 'cause I can't ski.

So it was, it was generally, it was generally a big misadventure, but they down

Shelby Stanger: Mount Whitney, which is. Tallest mountain in California. Right.

Alex Honnold: Well, is it fair to call it skiing if you don't make any turns?

Shelby Stanger: Yes. I

Alex Honnold: was like, we, we can ask the, uh, the, the, the serious skiers here in the house. You know, it's like, I don't know if it totally counts.

It's amazing. But we survived Anyway. Okay, another question.

Audience: So, um, part of the two minute break, my thing that I was talking about was, uh, I'm, I'd like to train and get to my doing my first five 13 a Hmm. Um, which would be the hardest climb I've ever done in my life. But I haven't quite [00:40:00] decided on the climb that I'm gonna do.

And I know that you've talked with Tommy Codwell, uh, I think you haven't done a five 15 yet, and I remember there might have been an interview where you'd like, maybe I'll try that. Have you decided to do that and have you kind of ballpark what, five 15 you might try?

Alex Honnold: Yeah, it's actually, so what you're referencing was the race to nine a, which is actually 14 D not five 15, but um, but either way, yeah.

Tommy and I have kind of have a gentleman's wager kind of racing to, to hard grades again as, as middle-aged dads, you know, trying, trying our best to be decent climbers, but. Um, yeah, actually, uh, tomorrow I'll be trying a route that is maybe 14 D, maybe 14 C. But either way I think it might be one of the hardest things I've ever tried.

Um, tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Fly back tonight. Rad. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, well, I, I've been pretty tight with my schedule because if you want to climb your best outside, you kind of have to go outside and try, try the thing that you're working on. So, um, yeah. So I'll get back late tonight and tomorrow morning I'll hike up to the cliff and I'll try to send my bro and, uh.

You know, I think I have a good shot, but we'll see. But then you never know because the day after travel stuff, you're always [00:41:00] just a little like, oh, I feel kind of creaky. But, so I have two, two more days up there. Um, before I'm, before I have to leave for the season, so I'm kinda like, oh yeah, I'm still trying my best.

We'll see.

Shelby Stanger: I was gonna make a big hands joke, but

Alex Honnold: anyways, let's keep going. Go ahead. Good luck. Good luck on your 13 ams. Psyched for you.

Audience: How you doing? Ho? Um, yeah, I think as a climber we always have the experience no matter how much you're trying. We go to the gym and there's some 12-year-old kid just crushing our project.

Alex Honnold: Dude, dude, I, I, I have that experience all the time.

Audience: So I would say if you had the opportunity to be 12 years old, again with your mind, your experience, what are, are some things you would do and approach climbing a little differently as far as like your climbing, like adventures and career? Oh, that's an

Alex Honnold: interesting, if I could put everything I've learned into the body of a 12-year-old, like an over stoked 12-year-old.

Yeah, I don't know. But I would be an unstoppable 12-year-old. That would be incredible. I, I, I mean, I would love the opportunity to do it again, just because I feel like there's so many things that I've learned, learned about, like how to climb walls and training and just all the things that have taken me so long to learn, um, that I'm like, man, if I could start over knowing all that, I would be so good.

But, uh, but sadly I can't. So that's a [00:42:00] good, yeah. But yeah, that's, that. I'm, I'm, I'm happy with the journey that I've taken to That's, that's fine. But I man to be a good 12-year-old.

Shelby Stanger: What's your favorite crags snack?

Alex Honnold: Favorite crags snack. I always take a bell pepper to the crag. I love eating a bell pepper like an apple, just num, num, num, num num. Yeah, love that.

Audience: Is there any fictional character or story that inspired you as a kid?

Alex Honnold: Fictional characters? Uh, yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, uh, there, there's some things like Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, like some classic like fantasy type tales that I routinely think of like while traveling because there's so many landscapes on earth.

Where you're like questing through the mountains and you're kind of like, I could see a hoit showing up here. Like, or like, surely there's a dwarf around the corner. You know what I mean? Like, when you're like fully in the mountains by all, by your onesie, you know, like having some total adventure. Like there's just a lot of landscapes in the world.

I mean, there's, you know, fantasy authors like take that stuff from, from reality basically. Yeah. I, I read quite a lot as a child, like sci-fi and fantasy and things like that. And I do think that it's [00:43:00] that, uh, that I think about it a lot as an adult while traveling. 'cause you just see those worlds except they all exist.

Audience: So you mentioned earlier that some of these big trips, they're hard because you go and you're stuck in the rain or the cold or whatever for a long time before you get to do as much climbing. How do you like, keep the energy high and like keep the excitement high for like those days that you actually do get to go get out and climb eating

Alex Honnold: sugar, you make sure you have enough sugar.

Um, no, no, I'm just kidding. You just try to say psych. So like, I did a month expedition in Guyana, um, in the jungle. And so it was a month we were in the mud the whole time. It was like so buggy and muggy and like raining nonstop. It was like kind of heinous. Um, we hang boarded every other day for the whole trip.

And the wall that we climbed, we were literally rock climbing for five days out of this one month trip, which I think is the least climbing I've ever done in my life. I was gonna, and the, even the climb we did was only like a 12 pitch, five 12 or something. And so I was like, in a whole month of climbing, I've, I've climbed 12 pitches.

I was like, this is so bad. On the other hand, we did just workout stuff nonstop for the whole, like every other day for the whole month. And then, uh, I came home from [00:44:00] the trip and I sent my sport project some supposed 14 c like the next week, and I was kinda like, it works. You just have to just keep hanging and stay psyched, you know, just like keep, keep working out.

And so. Um, I don't know. I think you just have to like, find, find the motivation. But on that trip, I mean, I also read a ton of books and, and like, just festered in the fricking hammock. I mean, it's like you, you know, you do the best you can. Cool.

Audience: So I wrote this down so I don't stumble on my words so much, but.

I just wanna know about your personal experience with like business and the intersection with that and climbing. And I know when you're climbing El Cap and when you're preparing for that, it really demanded such a unique blend of your passion, precision, risk taking, and most of all, like your connection to the environment and your hundred foundation really reflects such a similar spirit in that clean energy space.

And I just wanna know, we're talking about all these big ideas that you want to have and big ideas that you have personally and. Um, between climbing and clean energy, uh, intersecting in your approach to, how does that intersect in your approach to taking risks and creating impact overall?

Alex Honnold: Yeah, I mean, I don't know [00:45:00] exactly what you mean by that, but um, but the random thing that, that I'm thinking about is that, I mean, we're talking about big ideas.

So the work that we do, the Holland Foundation, we support, uh, we give grants to, to nonprofits around the, like, to community organizations around the world that then use solar in their communities in whatever way betters the community. And actually I think that that's kind of an example of. Of small ideas that you just support.

I mean, 'cause the things that we're doing are basically, it's really basic. It's like panels on a school, you know, or like panels, uh, you know, to provide light for the first time in some village in, in rural, wherever that doesn't have, has never had access to power, things like that. I mean, I think that there's something to be said for, for relatively simple ideas that you just have to execute.

And I think that's a, an important distinction between like big ideas, which is like, let's power the world versus the sort of small ideas where like, this person needs light. And you can do that with a freaking 40 watt panel and a tiny battery in an LED bulb. And so, you know, it's like, I think you don't need to over overthink some of those kinds of solutions where like, you don't have to solve the world's problems, just start community by community solving very small problems.

And, and that's what we've been doing at the HA Foundation for so many [00:46:00] years. And I mean, that's partially because as a rock climber, you just don't make that much money and so you just can't give that much. It's not like the, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where you can give billions to it. You're kinda like, oh, we have limited means, but we can solve some problems and we'll start with those problems that we can solve.

So anyway, I mean, that's my little soapbox about. Big ideas versus small ideas is like, you don't wanna overthink it either. Like start with the things you can do.

Shelby Stanger: Alright, thanks. Um, we think we have time for like one or two more questions.

Alex Honnold: Let's get the little kid go. Yeah. Let hoist him up.

Yeah.

Audience: What's the hardest climb you've bouldered and do you like bouldering?

Alex Honnold: Yeah, that's embarrassing. I, I, you know, I try my best. Uh, I, I do like bouldering. I try my best. I'm a terrible boulder. Um, I Boulder V 12 ish kind of, um, they're all, probably not V 12, they're probably V 11. I don't know. Um, I do my best.

It's, it's so bad by modern standards, but, you know, it's okay.

Shelby Stanger: We time with one more question, sorry guys. And after [00:47:00] Alex is gonna be at the North Face tent, and he's gonna be around definitely this festival for, for at least till six

Alex Honnold: tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Until I go to the airport so I can send my project tomorrow.

Yeah.

Um, what's the biggest or scariest fall you've taken? Ooh.

Alex Honnold: With a rope or without both. Both, yeah. Okay. I, I should've known. Um, let's see. So. The biggest fall without a rope. So I actually have fallen off soloing a couple times when I was younger. Uh, always be below the first bolt on, on route that I was down climbing.

Sort of like random, kind of silly. But actually it was kind of interesting because like you free solo a route, you're like way up there. You're like, I'm sending, this is extreme. And then you climb back down and basically as you get closer to the ground you get more and more sort of playful about like, you know, it basically feels like bouldering again.

'cause you're only like six feet off the ground. And when I was young I had two different times where I was like six feet off the ground and basically just fell off. Or like kind of slipped. And so it's just like a normal bouldering fall. You just land in the sand and you're kinda like, oh, didn't even see that.

That's embarrassing. And so I've never actually taken like a real fall and, and in my mind I was always [00:48:00] kinda like, well that's because as you get really close to the ground, you just get a little looser. 'cause you can, you know, obviously I'm not climbing that way when I'm up high. But I think in general I'm a lot tighter about all that now.

I haven't fallen off so long in a long time. Um, like. Um, yeah, ever. Thankfully that was

Shelby Stanger: amazing.

Alex Honnold: And then biggest rope falls, dunno, nothing. Uh, I've taken tons of rope jumps off. Things like when you do some huge sport pitch and you just don't clip the bolts on the whole second half and then jump off some whole cave.

But that's always intentional 'cause it's, you're like, this is epic. You know, it's, it's, it's for fun. But

Shelby Stanger: Alex, thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. This was so awesome. Um, you're amazing. Just a quick note, a. A wild idea is wild if it's wild to you. And the kind of wild ideas we're mostly interested in are the ones that involve nature, which is healing.

An adventure, which is gives us the courage to do something else in our life that's meaningful as Alex has demonstrated. Um, I'm gonna be at the Wild Ideas, the REI co-op Wild Ideas Worth Living stage in the festival all day and [00:49:00] reviewing people from like in an hour till 6:30 PM tonight. Alex is gonna be somewhere near the North Face booth and elsewhere.

But really appreciate you guys coming. This was the first Live Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast. Thank you. Cool. Thank you to outside.

Alex Honnold: Thank you. Thank you all so much. Alright, let's give it up one more

time for Shelby and Alex. Thank you guys so much.

FADE OUT

MUSIC

PADDYO OUTRO VO:

That was climber extraordinaire Alex Honnold talking  to Shelby Stanger, host of REI’s Wild Ideas Worth Living Podcast sponsored by The REI Co-op Mastercard, recorded live at ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Festival in Denver, Colorado, which has been called the South By Southwest of the outdoors. This year's fest was amazing. I hope you can join us at next year's. And remember: A few of the panels from this year's Ideas Program are currently in our pod feed so if you've not already, give them a listen. They are flippin great!

And sidenote: [00:50:00] Dear cherished audience members, make sure to email us your guest nominations and your thoughts on the pod to ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Podcast At ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Inc Dot Com. We wanna hear from you and understand your auditory delights.

The ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Paddy O'Connell. But you can call me PaddyO. The show is also produced by storytelling wizard, Micah "One time I ate a dozen donuts in 7 minutes" Abrams. --that's a true rue story by the way-- Music and Sound Design by Robbie Carver. And booking and research by Maren Larsen.

The ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Podcast is made possible by our ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Plus members. Learn about all the extra rad benefits and become a member yourself at ¹ú²ú³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Online Dot Com Slash Pod Plus.