Alex Honnold Biography
Alex Honnold is an American rock climber born on August 17, 1985, and known for his free solo ascents of big walls. He is the only person who managed to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He also holds the record for climbing the Yosemite triple crown, an 18-hour, 50-minute link-up of Mount Watkins, The Nose, and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome.
Alex says that he prefers tall, long routes and that he tries to do them quickly. He is inspired by the climbing by climbers like Peter Croft, John Bachar, and Tommy Caldwell, and even more by beautiful sites like El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Honnold is well profiled by 60 Minutes and the New York Times. He has also featured on the cover of National Geographic, appeared in international television commercials, and starred in numerous adventure films including the Emmy-nominated, Alone on the Wall.
The renowned mountain climber is also the author of the memoir Alone on the Wall (2017) and the subject of the 2018 biographical documentary Free Solo, which won a BAFTA and an Academy Award. Alex is sponsored by The North Face, Black Diamond, La Sportiva, Goal Zero, Stride Health, and Maxim Ropes.
He is the founder of the Honnold Foundation, an environmental non-profit organization. He maintains his simple “dirtbag-climber” existence up to date when he leaves his van and travels the world in search of the next great vertical adventure.
Alex Honnold Age
How old is Alex Honnold? Honnold is 38 years old as of August 2023. He was born on August 17, 1985, in Sacramento, California, the United States of America. In addition, he celebrates his birthday every 17th day of August.
Alex Honnold Height
Height: 1.81m|181cm|5’11”
Weight: 73 kgs|160 lbs
Alex Honnold Family
Honnold was born to Charles Forrest and Dierdre Wolownick Honnold in Sacramento, California. He has a Sister called Stasia. His father died of a heart attack in July 2004. His parents worked as educators as he grew up.
In his first year of college, Honnold’s parents divorced while his maternal grandfather passed on. As a result of the depression, Alex skipped many classes to boulder by himself at Indian Rock.
Alex Honnold Wife | Spouse
Honnold is happily married to his lovely wife, Sanni McCandless (Cassandra McCandless). The duo met in 2015 at a book signing and began their relationship soon after.
Alex Honnold Climbing Career
He started climbing in a climbing gym at the tender age of 5 where he beefed up his frequency by age 10. His enthusiasm led him to participate in many national and international youth climbing championships as a teenager.
After his graduation at Mira Loma High School as part of the International Baccalaureate Programme in 2003, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, to study civil engineering. His maternal grandfather died at the time when his parents were divorcing during his first year of college.
This made Honnold skip many of his classes to boulder by himself at Indian Rock. He narrates the experience as “heinous. … I didn’t live in a dorm. We had a family friend who let me stay in his two-bedroom apartment in town. In the one year, I have been at Berkeley, I never met anybody. I never spoke to anybody.”
He dropped out of Berkeley college and spent time living at home and driving around California to go climbing.
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In 2006 nobody had his attention. In 2007, Honnold free soloed Yosemite’s Astroman and the Rostrum in a day, matching Peter Croft’s legendary 1987 feat, and was suddenly pretty well-known. A year down, he free soloed the 1,200-foot, 5.12d finger crack that splits Zion’s Moonlight Buttress.
The climbing was reported on April 1 and at first, viewers never took the news seriously. Five months later, Honnold took the unprecedented step of solo climbing the 2,000-foot, glacially bulldozed Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. Croft described this climb as the most impressive ropeless ascent ever done.
In November 2011, Honnold and Hans Florine missed setting the record time on the Nose route on Yosemite’s El Capitan by 45 seconds by landing at 2:37. On June 17, 2012, the duo set a new record of 2:23:46 (or 2:23:51 on that same route respectively.
Alex gained massive recognition after his 2012 solo of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. Later, he had a subsequent 60 Minutes interview.
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On June 3, 2017, he made the first free solo climb of El Capitan, completing the 2,900-foot Freerider route in 3 hours and 56 minutes. The take, described as “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever”. In addition, the race was documented by climber and photographer Jimmy Chin and documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi, as the subject of the documentary Free Solo.
Among many other awards, the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (2018).
On June 6, 2018, Alex teamed up with Tommy Caldwell to bypass the speed record for the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite. They finished the approximately 3,000-foot route in 1:58:07. This record time made them the first climbers to complete the route in less than two hours.
Alex Honnold Net Worth
Honnold has an estimated net worth of $2 million. The renowned American rock climber began rock climbing when he was eleven years old.
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