#honnold

[madlori]

Today in "random internet shit that annoyed me..."

This image from a Cracked article titled "16 Things We Picture Wrong (Thanks, Movies)"

HEY CRACKED. YOSEMITE IS MORE THAN ONE SPOT.

It is correct that there are cables on the side of Half Dome. Half Dome is one (1) place to ascend a wall among many dozens in the park. And Kirk wasn't meant to be climbing Half Dome! He was meant to be climbing El Capitan, one of the most challenging wall cimbs in the world:

Also, what hikers are doing on Half Dome IS NOT MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. It's hiking with some extra difficulty. I should add that ZERO casual tourists on a day trip are climbing those cables. For one thing there's a lottery for permits. For another, it's a very strenuous like 8 hour hike to get TO the cables, let alone up and back down.

Climbers flock to El Cap because of its difficulty. In the documentary "Free Solo," climber Alex Honnold climbed El Cap without harnesses or ropes (aka free solo) which had never been done before.

Incidentally, Alex was asked to evaluate mountain climbing scenes in movies and he gave the Kirk climbing scene in STV pretty high marks for realism.

You should watch the clip, it's amazing. Honnold is so deadpan and hilarious.

[guy60660]

Douglas Honnold | John Lautner | The Modernist | Julius Shulman

[zingaplanet]

Yeah but sports covers used to hit differently

[nihillist-blog]

Free Solo (2018)

[dentpx]

My new celebrity crush is this guy who apparently is one of the best climbers in the world. I watched like 3 of those breakdown videos yesterday and I’m in love

[ahedderick]

From our Swallow Falls Park trip this summer. Ok, you guys are just TRYING to give me new gray hair, now . . .

Augh! Don't!

[ID: Two photos of a large, eroded rock structure in the middle of a river. Two slim young men are halfway up, examining the rock for climbing holds. In the second picture, one of them is looking up at a rock overhang, thinking about climbing it.]

At one point I felt compelled to go over to another mom who was standing nearby and looking VERY stressed. "They're 22," I told her, "I just have to hope for the best."

[averagehighlife]

Ran into my heroes today. These guys are the reason I pour my heart and soul into rock climbing and getting to meet them in person was fucking surreal.

[hitthebreeze]

[myths-and-girls]

Look out Alex Honnold, Merlin is free soloing his way through

[ramascreen]

National Geographic Debuts Trailer for "Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold"

National Geographic debuts trailer for ARCTIC ASCENT with Alex Honnold who attempts to make history, leads a team of scientists and world-class climbers on a thrilling expedition to study effects of climate change. The Three-Part Series Premieres Feb. 4 on National Geographic and Available Next Day on Hulu and Disney+ Having long dreamed of exploring the unclimbed peaks of Greenland, Alex Honnold…

[texasbodybuilders]

How do you get Biceps like Echo Charles?

Recently, on the Jocko Fuel channel, Echo Charles discusses how he’s gotten such large Biceps. So you want Biceps like Echo Charles? but how do you get Biceps like Echo Charles? Let’s take a deep dive and see how he does it, below: Free Solo The first few minutes of the video is Jocko and Echo speaking with Alex Honnold — the individual who was highlighted in the movie “Free Solo” who solo…

[teenageread]

Review: The Impossible Climb

Synopsis:

The climbing community had long considered a "free solo" ascent of El Capitan an impossible feat so far beyond human limits that it was not worth thinking about. When Alex Honnold topped out at 9:28 am on June 3, 2017, having spent fewer than four hours on his historic ascent, the world gave a collective gasp. His friend Tommy Caldwell, who free climbed (with a rope) the nearby Dawn Wall in 2015, called Alex's ascent "the moon landing of free soloing." The New York Times described it as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." It was "almost unbearable to watch," writes Synnott.This majestic work of personal history delves into a raggedy culture that emerged decades earlier during Yosemite's Golden Age, when pioneering climbers like Royal Robbins and Warren Harding invented the sport that Honnold would turn on its ear. Synnott paints an authentic, wry portrait of climbing history, profiling Yosemite heroes John Bachar, Peter Croft, Dean Potter, and the harlequin tribe of climbers known as the Stonemasters. A veteran of the North Face climbing team and contributor to National Geographic, Synnott weaves in his own amateur and professional experiences with poignant insight and wit. Tensions burst on the mile-high northwest face of Pakistan's Great Trango Tower; photographer/climber Jimmy Chin miraculously persuades an intransigent official in the Borneo jungle to allow Honnold's first foreign expedition, led by Synnott, to continue; armed bandits accost the same trio at the foot of a tower in the Chad desert

Plot:

Free solo sounds what it means, you are free and alone. No ropes, no harness, just your chalk-covered hands and a thousand-foot surface of a wall, waiting for you to reach the summit, or die. Of all the forms of climbing, free soloing is one of the most dangerous, as one mistake could cost you your life. Yet, to Alex Honnold, one of the world's greatest free soloists, it was everyday life. The first time Alex Honnold went climbing, was the day his life changed forever, as his days were spent chasing the sun and the next wall he had to climb. At the front of it, all was El Capitan. Found in Yosemite Park, this 2308 meter tall slab of rock. It was always Honnold’s dream to climb it, and on June 3, 2017; he completed this climb before some of us even woke up. Yet, before Honnold's solo El Captian, he did a lot more climbs, and a lot of climbers before him also completed legendary routes. Mark Synnott, author, and fellow climber write this book not only to tell the public of the great Alex Honnold, but to mark it as a tribute to the history of climbing, taking you on Synnott’s journey as a climber, who they meet along the way, and give life to climbers who are no longer with us but have made the sport what it is today. 

Thoughts:

This book is written for climbers, but the general public can read it too. As a non-climber, I am not sure how well Mark Synnott makes this book appealing and accessible. Synnott does explain the more complex climbing terminology such as the styles and the grading system, yet does it more when it comes up in the story vs. all at the beginning. This gives it a natural flow, despite Synnott's time jumping a lot. With the first chapter talking about Honnold thinking about soloing El Capitan, he does not actually complete the climb till the final chapter, leaving ten chapters to talk about other climbs that sometimes Honnold is not even a part of. With a bit of a historical underselling, Synnott also writes it as a story, making up conversations, giving us the rivalries, the bickering, and painting vivid pictures on the climbs of these big walls and how cramped Honnold’s box was. As a climber, this book is fantastic, and truly captures the history of climbing. Alex Honnold free soloing El Capitan, where a plot point is one of several, as Synnott takes you through multiple famous climbs, name drops a lot of great climbers, and uses their own knowledge of the sport to make it enticing for all. If this book does not make you want to start climbing and join this growing population, I do not know what will, because Synnott is an incredible writer and a fantastic climber.

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon

[a-solitary-sea-rover-backup]

Now that they have Jimmy Chin as a friend in common, I want Alex Honnold and Peter Burling to hang out being sweet adorkable adventure sports nerds and also do some crazy expedition together. The nerdy millennial version of Sea, Ice, and Rock.

[cornsobsessions]

alex honnold announcing his retirement from climbing via a thumb war soap ad was not something i ever expected to say and yet i kinda love it

[winstonbinch]

Honnold X Caldwell. This delivers

[hitthebreeze]