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Alex Honnold
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Alex Honnold

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Also known as Alexander Honnold, Alexander J. Honnold, Honnold

Alexander J Honnold is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big wall climbing routes. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park via the 880-metre (2,900 ft) route Freerider at grade 5.13a, the first-ever big-wall free-solo ascent at that grade, a climb described in The New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever".

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  • Parks 2
  • Allein in der Wand
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  • Alone on the Wall
  • Alone on the Wall : The Definitve First-Person Account of Alex Honnold's Free Solo Ascent of the Iconic 3,000 Foot El-Capitan

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Key facts

Born
( 1985-08-17 ) August 17, 1985 (age 40) , Sacramento, California , U.S.
Occupation
Rock climber
Spouse
Sanni McCandless ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 2020 ) ​
Type of climber
Free solo climbing Big wall climbing Bouldering Sport climbing Traditional climbing Competition climbing Alpine climbing Buildering
Highest grade
Redpoint : 5.14d (9a) Bouldering : V12 (8A+) Free solo : 5.13a (7c+)
Retired from competition
circa 2004
Known for
First-ever to free solo a 5.13a (7c+) grade big wall route The first person to free solo a full route (from base to summit) on El Capitan via Freerider (5.13a) Speed record holder on The Nose route of El Capitan First person to free solo Taipei 101 building

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Official website

Alex Honnold

Alex Honnold is a professional adventure rock climber whose audacious free-solo ascents of America’s biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world.

alexhonnold.com

The only human to free solo Yosemite’s 3000 foot rock monolith, El Capitan. No rope, climbing alone. More people will walk on the moon than will do what Alex Honnold has done. His extremely rare skill and unmatched mental focus have helped make him climbing’s transcendent, breakout star, inspiring millions around the world. This week, Alex is attempting a live, Netflix-documented free solo climb of Taipei 101 , bringing the intensity of free soloing into an urban environment and unfolding the ascent in real time before a global audience. Beyond his 2017 history-making ascent of El Cap, dramatically documented in the Oscar-winning film Free Solo , Alex is simply one of the hardest working, certainly most accomplished, and greatest climbers to ever live. His feats have blown the doors wide open on the sport of climbing, placing him at the front of mainstream media like 60 Minutes, The New York Times, and the cover of National Geographic. Alex continues to push himself, building on a singular resume highlighted by speed records on The Nose, the famous 24 hour “Triple Solo” of Mt. Watkins, Half Dome and El Capitan, and cutting-edge expeditions in Antarctica, South America, Greenland and elsewhere. Humble and self-effacing, he is deeply appreciative of the position he holds in culture and uses it for the greater good. In 2012, Alex founded the Honnold Foundation, an environmental non-profit that provides grants to organizations advancing solar energy access all over the world. Their vision was simple: to improve lives and reduce environmental impact. In 2021 alone, Honnold Foundation supported 44 communities across 17 countries, all focused on community-centered innovation catalyzed by solar energy. Alex is always looking for opportunities to share stories from the sport he loves. A host of the Climbing Gold Podcast, Alex explores the unique stories of climbing culture that originally drew him to the sport. Recently he’s led several environmentally-focused documentary and TV projects, putting his climbing skills to use by reaching hard to get to corners of the earth. Alex lives in Las Vegas with wife Sanni and his daughters June and Alice. These are the companies that allow me to climb all day every day.

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Encyclopedic overview

Alexander J Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big wall climbing routes. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park via the 880-metre (2,900 ft) route Freerider at grade 5.13a, the first-ever big-wall free-solo ascent at that grade, a climb described in The New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever".

In 2015, he won a Piolet d'Or in alpine climbing with Tommy Caldwell for their completion of the enchainment (known as the Fitz Traverse) of the Cerro Chaltén Group (or Fitzroy Group) in Patagonia over five days. On January 25, 2026, he free soloed the Taipei 101 tower in Taipei, Taiwan, the tallest buildering free solo climb in history and graded at circa. 5.11.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Alex Honnold” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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