Alex Honnold

Yeah, I've actually never been asked something quite like that.

In some ways...

I mean, the kinesthetic aspect is maybe the whole thing.

Like, I mean, it is kind of like dancing or something where you are just flowing over stone.

I mean, obviously, you're looking around and you're looking at your footholds and you're sort of placing your feet correctly that way.

But really, you're just doing sequences.

You're just flowing like your body is moving.

I mean, I think when you climb well and particularly when you rehearse something and you know the climb really well, it feels like jogging or swimming or sort of other elemental movement patterns where it's just like your body doing what it's meant to do.

And it feels great.

You know, it's like it's really nice.

For me personally, that's maybe my favorite moment in climbing is when you surprise yourself.

Um, and this isn't so much with free soloing because with free soloing, you don't want to be surprised, but, uh, but with, uh, but with a rope on, you know, you have moments all the time where you're sure you're about to fall because you're, you know, up against your physical limits or whatever.

And then you stick a move that you were sure you weren't going to.

Um, and you know, it doesn't happen that often, but when it does, you're like, oh, I exceeded my own expectations.

It's like, it's like the best feeling, you know?

It happens from time to time.

In some ways, actually, I was telling one of my friends, I think that that might be one of the ways in which I see aging.

You know, like as I'm getting older as a climber, I think I surprise myself less often.

You know, I think as like a 24-year-old, you just don't know your own limitations that much and you frequently surprise yourself where I'm like, wow, I really outdid myself.

I really did something that I was sure I couldn't do, but I managed to do it.