Alex Honnold

And it was like the season was winding down.

It was kind of like, well, I should at least take a shot because I'd done a lot of prep and I felt mostly ready.

And it turns out I just wasn't ready, ready.

And so I wound up bailing.

But that was kind of my end of the season.

Like, I think I can squeak this in knowing that if I couldn't squeak it in then, then I'd have to wait six more months.

And with the pressure of the film crew and all that stuff, knowing that there are all these people like working and waiting for you, you're kind of like, well, I'd at least try to get this done.

It's like all these people are waiting on me.

But as it turns out, I just didn't quite have it yet.

And then when I ultimately did do it in the spring, I was much better prepared, felt way better.

The whole experience worked out better.

So now in retrospect, I'm like, oh, I'm glad that it played out that way because it was better.

But at the time, I was like, oh, God, I failed on this thing.

All these people are watching.

It's embarrassing.

It was all very stressful at the time.

For me, the thing is, is that if I'm going to go climb the wall, you know, I start climbing at 430 in the morning or five or something.

So that means some of my friends to get in position at the top of the wall or getting up at like one in the morning and then hiking to the top of a mountain with a heavy backpack.

And if you're asking a bunch of your buddies to go hiking at 1 in the morning, you better live up to your end of the thing.

If you say you're going to do something, you better actually do the thing because you're friends.