Alex Honnold
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But like when I started free soloing as a kid, not that I like started and then only did that, but on my first free solos when I was young.
In the back of my mind, it would always be like, if you slip, you'll die.
And the reality is that there are tons of places where your foot can slip and nothing else moves.
Like your hands are locked on, you're holding on tight, and your foot slipped, and you're just kind of like, oh, my foot slipped.
And you keep climbing, and it's no big deal.
I mean, there are also some places where if you foot slips, you're going to die for sure.
And the key is differentiating between those.
But I think when I started, you know, it was like, if anything happens, you'll die.
And as you do it more, you're actually like, no, I mean, a lot of things can happen and it'll be fine.
You just have to make sure that the wrong thing doesn't happen at the wrong time.
There's a, there's a quote in the film free solo or a friend of mine, Tommy Caldo, who's a very well-known climber says something like all the people who are big free solos are dead now.
And it kind of implies like, you know, free soloing is dangerous and they all died soloing.
But the reality is that basically none of them died soloing.
Like one or two soloists have died soloing.
Though my preferred statistic is that no one has ever died doing something cutting edge.
So like no one has ever died pushing the envelope, like doing something extreme.
There have been a couple free soloists who have died free soloing easy terrain, like just out doing something casual and maybe a hold breaks or maybe something happens.
Like it's impossible to know what because they die.