Alex Honnold

Well, more that there weren't smartphones, there weren't cameras, you know, it's like, it's not even about the social, it's about the whether or not you can record it easily.

I mean, personally, I'm way into it.

I mean, I was a kid that got into climbing, into climbing gym, and it's changed my life for the better.

You know, like I love climbing.

I think it's great.

you know, I can certainly see the sort of commercial influx from the Olympics or sort of like more mainstream adoption of climbing, but that's kind of great.

Cause I mean, most of my friends are sort of climbing industry adjacent professionals in some ways, you know, like they make, they're like coaches or dietitians or setters.

Like they, they make the climbs that people climb on.

Um,

And so basically the bigger the industry gets, the more people like that can make a living doing the thing that they love to do, even if they're not necessarily sponsored professionals at the highest level.

So I'm kind of like, you know, a broadening industry is kind of good for everybody.

And mostly, I mean, climbing is awesome.

Like if people enjoy, you know, it's like, why not get into climbing?

It's like certainly, I mean, I think it's better than most other fitness modalities.

You know, it's like, oh, why do CrossFit when you go rock climbing?

It's way cooler.

There are probably certain aspects you wouldn't want to do alone for safety reasons, but... I think when people ask, like, what do you worry about with climbing culture and all that kind of stuff, like with the Olympics and the...

mainstream appeal kind of like you know if somebody wants to be a climber and only go to the climbing gym in a in a major city for their entire life like that's great like if they just want to climb plastic the rest of life that's still better than going to crossfit or doing whatever else i'm like that's cool like you don't have to go climb el cap to be a climber i'm kind of like people can do whatever they want and i think i think that's great for the sport and and you are seeing standards rise

There's a little bit, not that much, but climbers often, like competition climbing, like bouldering, which is in the Olympics, has definitely taken a slight turn towards parkour-ish sorts of moves, like big run and jumps and like crazy swings and things like that.

And so some old school climbers complain that it's like gotten a little too jumpy, that type of bouldering.