Usually, when we watch Alex Honnold on the big screen, our main concern is: will he fall off this time? After all, the climbing legend carved out a name for himself in the climbing history books by free soloing El Capitan, a 3,000ft rock face in Yosemite, without protection. For his next project, we don't have to worry about his climbing skills – but his acting skills might be another question.

Honnold has a rare scripted role in the upcoming Hollywood movie The Sound, a climbing-based thriller directed by Brendan Devane.

Honnold will be playing himself in the film, which tells the fictional tale of a group of "world class" rock climbers whose expedition on the mysterious Forbidden Wall turns into "a harrowing battle for survival hundreds of feet above the ground" when they meet with a harrowing force.

The trailer, which you can watch below, shows Honnold clad in his trademark The North Face fleece and reveals he has at least one line, though it's not yet known how much screen time the climber gets and whether he actually needs his usual La Sportiva TC Pros for any of the action.

Climbers Hazel Findlay and Brette Harrington (The Alpinist) are also listed as cast members playing themselves on IMDb, but there's no sign of Adrian Ballinger, who was reportedly signed up for the film back in 2023, according to an article in Deadline.

Thanks to climbing documentaries like Free Solo, Valley Uprising and his recent venture The Devil's Climb, Honnold is no stranger to the big screen, but a scripted adventure is certainly a departure for the climber, who's been better known is recent years for thoring himself behind environmental initiatives and working with the Honnold Foundation to advance solar vance energy access all over the world.

Initial feedback to the trailer is skepitcal at best, with one commenter writing: "how can this simultaneously look so amazing yet so terrible?" Devane's previous outdoor thriller, The Canyonlands, about a Utah rafting trip gone wrong, received an almost impressive one-star rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But let's be honest, none of that is likely to stop us from watching this when it comes out on June 27.

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Alex Honnold got to check off another death-defying climbing stunt this week while in Arizona – jumping from one perilous rock formation to another on one of Sedona's classic towers.

The Free Solo star has been enjoying a family vacation in the desert over the last week or so, and needless to say, that has meant a lot of time on the rock. For his final climb of the trip, Honnold says he was inspired by the fictional agent Ethan Hunt.

"I got to go out and have a full on Mission Impossible adventure," says Honnold.

That meant onsight soloing Coyote Tower (he was climbing without protection on his first attempt of the route, without any prior knowledge and without falling) then leaping from the summit over onto Courthouse Butte.

Because he was going it alone, we can't see any footage of the actual jump, but in an Instagram post, which you can view below, he does share short videos from either side of the vault, something even he admits was a little thrilling.

"I don’t think I’d ever soloed a tower before and jumped off - so exciting! None of it was particularly challenging, but it was so fun and scenic and adventurous."

The move is a typical part of the six-pitch, 5.10c route, but most climbers would, of course, do it using trad gear. For Honnold, though? All he needed were his approach shoes, which he carried in his backpack, and a pair of La Sportiva TC Pro shoes for the climbing.

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A new rock climbing documentary has been released showing three of the world's best climbers in a race to get back to sending a 9a route.

Race to 9A, directed by climber Simon Yamamoto, follows Alex Honnold, Tommy Caldwell and Sonnie Trotter as each man tries to become the first to return to climbing at 9a level – equal to 5.14d in the Yosemite Decimal System. It shouldn't be that hard, you might think – Caldwell climbed the Dawn Wall in 2014, Trotter repointed Estado Critico in Spain in 2015 and even though Honnold says his 9a attempts later turned out to be more like 8cs, no one doubts the Free Solo star's climbing abilities.

But the three men share a common affliction: they're getting older. They have families now. And their focus on training just isn't what it used to be.

"My life used to be all about rock climbing, and now I would put rock climbing as one of like four equal priorities," says Caldwell, who first climbed a 9a aged 18. Last year, we saw him climb a new route on the biggest alpine face in North America with Honnold, but the ensuing documentary The Devil's Climb highlighted the struggles of aging and climbing.

"When life gets busy and the kids are sick, it starts to get easier and easier to say, oh I'll do it tomorrow," says Trotter in the opening of the 28-minute flick. He began at age 16 and was the first Canadian to climb at 5.14c.

At the time of filming, in the spring of 2024, Honnold has a two-year-old and two-week old, so even though he himself is the baby of the trio – still in his 30s – he admits that even he's feeling the pace of family life.

"Realistically, over the last two months I've been climbing outside two days a week, maybe, and then training in the gym maybe two days a week and just totally haggard all the time," says Honnold.

Honnold says he thinks that Caldwell, 46, is having an easier time "grounding down" into middle age, and while the Dawn Wall star doesn't give off major FOMO vibes in Race to 9A, it was only in October 2023 that he expressed sadness after failing to send the Heart Route in Yosemite.

According to Honnold, all three have climbing partners already, but they're "24-year-olds without jobs who can spend six hours a day in the gym" and aren't up all night doing laundry like he is. So the three of them set what Trotter calls "a gentlemen's challenge" – each works on his own project to see who can be the first to get back to 9a graded routes.

The film shows the men visiting each other as they project their routes – and also bailing on visits due to sick kids – and contemplating the virtues of being in competition with climbers who are going through similar things.

"It's definitely ignited something in me where I know that they will be working towards the goal and I don't want to get too far behind," says Trotter, who's chosen Spirit Quest after belaying Caldwell on the route years ago.

"Basically, if I can exceed my own expectations and perform at a higher level than I thought I coul,d then that's that's fine," says Honnold philosophically about his attempt to send Bachelor Party on Potosi Mountain near his home in Vegas.

He says that as far as he's concerned, the only thing standing between him and being able to climb anything on earth is finger strength, but the accountability of his friends is helpful too.

"It helps to have training partners who are aspiring for the same things but also struggling with the same challenges."

If you follow the climbers, you probably already know who wins the race, but just in case, we won't spoil it for you. Check out the film below, which is refreshingly heartfelt and worthy of half an hour of your attention.

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“Well, that’s the crux of it,” is an oft-used phrase to describe the most pressing or important issue, problem or puzzle. In essence, the crux is the most important part of something, the issue on which things hinge. It terms of climbing, this notion of a hinge is very apt. The crux of a climb is like a gate or a door, barring progress. If you can unlock the crux, you’ve proved yourself worthy of the rest of the route.

At their best, climbing routes are like puzzles that are solved through a combination of ingenuity, technique and athleticism. Nowhere do you need all three to come together in your favor as much as your do at the crux of a climb.

So far, so vague. So, exactly what is a crux in climbing? Let’s stop dancing around the question. Here we consider how a crux impacts the overall grade of a route, and look into a few famous examples from the annals of climbing and mountaineering history.

What is a crux in climbing?

A crux is a climbing term for the hardest move or section on any given climbing route. It may be the part of the climb that involves the most technical difficulty, or it could be the most exposed or dangerous section of a route.

In bouldering, the crux is almost always the move that requires the most advanced climbing techniques to overcome. However, in other forms of climbing, the term psychological crux is also often used to describe a section of a route that may be technically easier than others but scarier due to the exposure or the consequences of a fall.

Similarly, in trad and sport climbing, a crux may occur due to lack of potential gear placements or the distance between bolts, leading to a very run-out stretch. On these kinds of sections, a fall would be more dangerous, as the climber would fall further before their protection caught them. So, even though they may be technically easier than some parts of the climb, a climber may still consider this kind of section to be the crux of a route.

In high-altitude mountaineering, crux sections can be particularly dangerous if they lead to long queues up in the 8,000-meter death zone. This is what happened during the 2008 K2 disaster, when the lack of fixed ropes on the Bottleneck, a steep and narrow couloir beneath towering seracs, led to long delays for those attempting to reach the summit. In 2019, mountaineer Nims Purja took a famous photo of queuing mountaineers in the Hillary Step region of Everest in 2019. The photo went viral and serves to underline the dangers that overcrowding can cause on the world’s highest mountains.

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How does the crux alter the overall grade of a climb?

Whether you’re mountaineering, ice climbing, bouldering, trad climbing, sport climbing or scrambling, the route you’re eyeing up will probably have a grade that indicates how difficult it should be. There are various climbing rating systems and pursuits often have more than one grading system, usually arising due to the development of the sport in different parts of the world.

The difficulty of any given crux will have a significant impact on the overall grade of a route. For example, a mostly easy route with two very difficult sections would not be given a grade that suggested it was easy, as this would lure the climber into a false sense of security. So, the overall grade usually reflects the difficulty of the crux. To give an example: Freerider on El Capitan, the route famously free soloed by Alex Honnold in 2017, is graded 5.13a, which is the same as the crux, a section known as the Boulder Problem.

One grade system that takes things a little further, adding a certain amount of nuance, is the one used for trad climbing in Britain. Here, climbs above a certain level of difficulty are given two grades: the trad grade and the technical grade. The trad grade represents the general difficulty of a climb and the technical grade specifically represents the difficulty of the hardest move.

Famous cruxes

We thought we'd indulge ourselves and reveal the specifics of three famous cruxes, one from the world of high-altitude mountaineering, one from Yosemite and another projected by arguably the world's greatest climber, Adam Ondra.

The Hillary Step – Everest

Named after Sir Edmund Hillary who, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first to climb it en route to the summit of Everest in 1953, the Hillary Step is perhaps the most famous example of a crux in the world of mountaineering. This 12-meter rock face was located between Everest’s South Summit and the main summit, high in the death zone, at 8,790 meters. It represented the final challenge those approaching Everest from the Nepalese side would have to face before unlocking the easier (all things are relative, right?) ground to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain.

You’ll have noticed the use of the past tense in the previous paragraph. This is because the Hillary Step is no more. The rock face is thought to have fallen victim to the devastating Nepal earthquake of April 2015. This part of the climb is supposedly easier now.

The Tibetan side of Everest is no stranger to crux sections either and has some notable Steps of its own, three of them on the northeast ridge. The Second Step is the best known and most difficult. Whether or not George Mallory and Sandy Irvine managed to overcome this barrier during their ill-fated 1924 summit bid remains a significant mystery. It’s significant as, if they had, they’d have had no substantial difficulties (again, relatively) ahead to stop them from achieving the summit.

American mountaineering legend Conrad Anker climbed the Second Step as part of the filming for the 2010 feature film The Wildest Dream. He was dressed and equipped as Mallory would have been in the 1920s. Of whether Mallory and Irvine might have made the summit, he said: “It’s possible, but highly improbable.”

The Boulder Problem – Freerider, El Cap

Alex Honnold’s free solo of Freerider on El Cap was one of the most groundbreaking moments in climbing history, while the subsequent 2018 feature film Free Solo was a global sensation. There were many fascinating aspects to the film, from Honnold’s relationship with fear and the people around him, to the post-modern way in which the film crew formed a part of the narrative.

The crux of Honnold’s climb was the Boulder Problem on Pitch 23, graded 5.13a. Described by Honnold as, “Incredibly difficult… A very intricate sequence,” it involves a series of challenging moves, including the smallest hold on the entire route (according to Honnold) and a karate kick style manoeuvre to finish. The alternative to the kick is a dyno. For the uninitiated, a dyno is a leap, where the climber jumps from the wall entirely in order to grab hold of a good ledge – not ideal when you've got nothing but 1,700 feet of air beneath you and you're not attached to a rope. Needless to say, Honnold chose the kick for his free solo.

Understandably the Free Solo film features the Boulder Problem prominently. In fact, it feels as though the whole film pivots on that single moment. The filmmakers do a fantastic job of building the tension towards it, underlining the importance and meaning behind Honnold overcoming the crux of the route. By that point it has already featured in a scene where the crew discuss the consequences of Honnold getting it wrong, with Jimmy Chin looking vaguely horrified at the prospect of seeing his friend “falling through the frame to his death”. Fast forward to the climb and Marco Beltrami’s score crescendos as the film crew watch Honnold approach it, before the music settles on a dissonant note that stretches out like a taught wire and slowly fades away.

As he sets about tackling the crux, Honnold’s heavy breathing duets with ominous piano chords as another dissonant drone gathers volume. “He’s got it,” exhales the watching Mikey Scaherfer, as Honnold smiles at the remotely mounted camera that captured the drama, and warmer tones return to the score. It’s a superb representation of how the build-up to a crux can feel as a climber or a mountaineer, along with the sense of relief, freedom and joy once it’s done. Of course, the stakes are higher than usual in this example...

The V15 boulder problem – Silence, Flatanger, Norway

The hardest climbing routes in the world are obviously destined to have some “interesting” cruxes. In 2017, Czech climbing sensation Adam Ondra sent the world’s first 9c (5.15d) route on Silence, a ridiculously difficult 45-meter route on an overhanging cave in Flatanger, Norway.

The crux comes about midway up, with a series of three boulder problems. These are so technically challenging that Ondra applied bouldering grades to sum up their difficulty, touting the first of the three as a V15. This obstacle demanded extreme precision, upside down climbing and an extreme drop knee. To rest at the end of the sequence, Ondra had specifically trained his muscles in order to bat-hang, before cracking on with the next of the three boulder problems.

The entire route has yet to be repeated by any of the world’s greatest sport climbers. However, Italian climber Stefano Ghisolfi has successfully repeated the famous crux.

Alex Honnold ticking off yet another big wall climb may not exactly be surprising anymore, but it's still newsworthy, and the climbing legend revealed he had casually chalked off another onsight free solo of another 5.10d climb this week.

Onsighting in climbing means climbing a route for the first time without any prior knowledge of it, and free soloing means doing it without any protection – like a harness, belay device or rope. A climbing route graded 5.10d is hard. But posting to Instagram, the Free Solo star says he chalked off Gift of the Wind Gods on Mount Wilson in less time than it takes most people to play 18 holes.

"I was really impressed by the quality of the climbing - it’s a beautiful route that I’m surprised doesn’t get climbed more," says Honnold, who apparently was able to enjoy the views as well as risk life and limb and even took the time to share an impressive bird’s nest at the top of the route.

"I made it car to car in Oak Creek in 4 hours, which is a personal best I think for climbing a big route on Wilson.

Mount Wilson is the highest peak in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, near Las Vegas where Honnold lives, and the Gift of the Wind Gods route entails some 1,500ft of vert and multiple pitches, if you're actually climbing with a partner and using ropes.

If you're Honnold? It was all just one big pitch.

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At 11,916 ft / 3,631m, Mount Charleston is the tallest peak in the Spring Mountain Range, near Las Vegas, Nevada. To get there and back, hikers must traverse 17.5 gruelling miles through dense bush and unforgiving underfoot terrain, which becomes especially treacherous in winter when trails are heavily iced.

In only the past few weeks, nine people have been rescued attempting to scale Mount Charleston, prompting mountain rescue officials to plead with the public to take proper precautions.

“One slipped, sliding 100 feet and colliding with a tree, causing severe leg injuries. Another slid an additional 100 feet before stopping on a ledge,” explained a social media post from LVMP Search and Rescue.

Even Alex Honnold, the free climbing extraordinaire behind ‘Free Solo’, struggled to make the top.

The 39-year-old shot to fame in 2017 when he became the first person to climb a grade VI route up Yosemite's El Capitan summit without any safety equipment.

Making his first attempt to hike up Mount Charleston on November 27, the world-renowned climber was thwarted by large ice sheets around the Mt Harris section of the trek.

“We were only wearing running shoes,” explained Honnold in a social media post, who returned a week later with crampons and proper equipment to tackle the trek.

Wearing Black Diamond micro-spikes over his running shoes, Honnold summited Mount Charleston after a tough day of solo hiking.

Alongside the right footwear, Honnold made sure to pack appropriately.

“I ate all my food, drank all my water, wore all my layers, and generally felt like I nailed my packing,” he said on Facebook.

Crampons are an essential tool for harsh, icy conditions. Attaching to the bottom of your shoes, these metal spikes dig into icy terrain to bolster your traction and ensure you stay stable.

Proper hydration and nutrition are also non-negotiable in the backcountry. Although it varies per person, the age-old rule dictates that you should carry one liter of water for every two hours you spend hiking.

Replacing electrolytes is essential too. On long hikes, you’re likely to lose lots of salt when you sweat. To avoid the risk of becoming hyponatremic - where the sodium level in your bloodstream drops too low, these salts can be replaced by snacks like potato chips and peanuts as well as sports drinks.

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Watching television has got a load more expensive in recent years. While streaming started out as a cheaper alternative to cable and satellite subscriptions, price increases and the epic quantity of platforms available mean it’s easy to part with a lot of cash keeping up with your favorite TV shows and movies.

That’s why Hulu’s Black Friday deals are worth getting excited about. Right now US residents can get a whole year of Hulu and Disney+ (with ads) for just $2.99 per month – that’s a massive 72% saving on the usual $10.99 per month.

A subscription to Disney+ gives you access to a whole world of exciting National Geographic content, including The Devil’s Climb. In the much-talked about documentary film, top climbers Alex Honnold (star of Free Solo, also available on Disney+) and Tommy Caldwell mount a spectacular expedition to cycle, sail and climb their way to the top of the 9,000-foot Devil’s Thumb in Alaska. Back in October the duo told us how they trained for their adventure.

Hulu is also a great place to experience the great outdoors on screen. It’s the place to watch 10 seasons of hit reality show Alone, in which brave contestants have to survive in the wilderness (yes, totally alone) for as long as they can.

And if you need another excuse to snap up this Hulu Black Friday deal, both streaming platforms are also home to hours and hours and hours of top TV and movies, from Marvel, Star Wars and The Simpsons on Disney+ to The Bear, Only Murders in the Building and Shōgun on Hulu.

If you just want to watch Hulu content, you can save a whopping 90% on a subscription to the Hulu (with ads) option – that’s 99¢ per month instead of the usual $9.99 per month.

Both Hulu Black Friday deals are available in the United States until Monday, December 2. At the end of the initial 12-month period your subscription will auto-renew at the standard monthly rate.

Alex Honnold is an American climbing legend and perhaps the most famous rock climber in history. He’s best known for his daring free solo climbs on the big walls of Yosemite and beyond. For the uninitiated, free soloing is a dangerous form of rock climbing where the climber ascends without protective gear or a rope. For many, it's the purest form of climbing, though the consequences of a fall are often fatal.

Honnold’s exceedingly bold 2017 free solo of the Freerider route on El Capitan was a seismic moment in climbing’s history, while the resulting Free Solo documentary film made Honnold a global superstar. However, Honnold’s achievements go way beyond his daring free solos. He’s set many speed records and even achieved dazzling firsts in the world of mountaineering, as well as being an environmental activist, doing important work in the fight against climate change.

We asked one of our mountaineering experts to take a look at his incredible life and to attempt to put his achievements into some form of context that not just the world’s elite climbers and Spider-Man can understand.

Early life

Honnold was born and raised in Sacramento, California and caught the climbing bug early, aged five, often attending the local gym. He soon progressed and as a teenager he competed in indoor climbing competitions. He’d also often climb outdoors alone, expanding his comfort zone and giving him a first taste of free soloing.

He was enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, studying Civil Engineering, when his parents divorced in 2003. Then, his father died of a heart attack in 2004 and Honnold dropped out of college. With his mother’s blessing, he pursued his dream of a career in climbing, driving around California and developing his skills.

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Ascending to stardom

Peter Croft’s 1987 free solos of Yosemite’s Astroman (5.12c) and the Rostrum (5.11c), climbed on the same day, are the stuff of rock-climbing legend. So, when the relatively unknown, 23-year-old Honnold rocked up in September 2007 and repeated this feat, he was suddenly on the climbing world’s radar. That year he’d purchased a Ford Econoline van, which allowed him to travel between climbs, chasing weather windows. Considering his rapid rise to stardom, the van may as well have been a space rocket.

Astroman and the Rostrum were just the beginning. A 2008 free solo on Zion’s Moonlight Buttress (5.12c) was so audacious and unbelievable that many thought it was a joke when the news broke. However, it was Honnold’s free solo ascent of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (5.12a) that propelled him into the mainstream's consciousness. He’d free climbed the route several times previously and on September 6, 2008 he set about becoming the first in history to free solo the route. He famously almost grabbed a carabiner, having lost his nerve towards the end of the climb. However, he conquered his fear and made it to the summit. The climb featured in the 2009 film Alone on the Wall.

In June 2012, he achieved the staggering ‘Triple Solo’ of Mt Watkins, Half Dome and El Cap in less than 24 hours. He’d climbed ‘the Triple’ in under 24 hours only weeks before, alongside Tommy Caldwell, and then returned to see if he could pull it off alone. Although he used protective gear on some of the more technical sections, Honnold asserted that he free soloed around 95% of the adventure. Afterwards, the usually self-effacing Honnold admitted that “Okay, that was a big deal” – so it must have been something special.

Despite the accolades and admiration of the climbing community, there was one prize that had yet alluded Honnold, an entirely free solo ascent of El Capitan.

Free soloing El Cap

Honnold’s long-held ambition to become the first person to completely free solo a route on El Capitan came to fruition on June 3, 2017, when he climbed Freerider (5.13a), taking 3 hours and 56 minutes to conquer its 30 pitches.

Putting the climb into context, El Capitan is a vertical granite cliff, 914 meters high. It’s virtually the center of the rock-climbing universe and for many climbers would represent the pinnacle of their career. Indeed, most take between 4 to 6 days to climb it. For another way to sum it up, Tommy Caldwell put it like this: “Imagine an Olympic-gold-medal-level athletic achievement that, if you don’t get that gold medal, you’re gonna die. That’s pretty much what free soloing El Cap is like.”

It was the culmination of years of effort. Honnold applied himself obsessively to solving the problem of climbing El Cap, rehearsing crux sections, such as the Boulder Problem, countless times with a rope before committing to the free solo. He took assiduous notes, memorizing every move, every foot placement, in order to achieve his goal. It wasn’t all plain sailing either; in the autumn of 2016, Honnold made an initial attempt to climb the route but bailed on the Freeblast Slab, a particularly scary section 600 feet into the route. The almost featureless slab provides only tiny holds, requiring climbers to precariously smear their way upwards.

His achievement was documented in the Oscar-winning documentary film Free Solo, bringing Honnold and Yosemite to a massive global audience who were enthralled by the vertigo-inducing footage. Worldwide, the film grossed $28.6 million, making it one of the most successful climbing films in history.

Honnold and fear

Given his penchant for ropeless climbing on routes many of us would find terrifying even with the security of a rope, many have questioned whether Honnold is simply wired differently to most people. Interviews with him often focus on the death-defying nature of his climbs and this is a common theme in Free Solo. A 2016 MRI scan revealed that Honnold’s amygdala responded less to certain distressing images than other people’s. The theory is that he’s desensitized himself from the fear of free soloing by normalizing it.

It’s clear Honnold has a higher fear threshold than most, or maybe it’s that, as he put it in Free Solo: “Maybe my amygdala is just tired, you know, from too many years of being all gripped.”

Other adventures

It’s Honnold’s free solo Yosemite climbs that have garnered the most attention, yet his career has taken him around the globe, climbing in places like Alaska, Patagonia, China, Greenland and Morocco.

In 2014, he and Tommy Caldwell pulled off an audacious, seven-peak traverse of the Fitz Roy massif in Patagonia. They were the first in history to achieve this and the feat earned them a prestigious Piolet d’Or award. The climb featured in Red Bull TV’s A Line Across the Sky.

Honnold was back in Patagonia in 2016, setting a record time on the Torre Traverse alongside Colin Haley, who brought valuable experience of the region. The effort entailed a north-to-south traverse of the iconic granite towers of Cerro Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger and Cerro Torre. Despite all these successes, Honnold is characteristically self-deprecating about his ability as an alpinist, saying: “I’m definitely still a rock climber fumbling along.”

In June 2018, Honnold was back in Yosemite with Caldwell for a blistering speed record up El Cap’s The Nose, a route that was famously first free climbed by Lynn Hill in 1993. The pair managed the climb in just 1 hour, 58 minutes and 7 seconds, breaking the magical 2-hour barrier. One way of putting this achievement into context is that most climbers would spend a day getting to a feature named Sickle Ledge. With Caldwell leading, they were there in just over 11 minutes. The fascinating timelapse below shows this climb in fast forward.

In his latest adventure, Honnold teamed up with Caldwell once again to cycle, sail and hike 2,600 miles from Colorado to the Devil’s Thumb on the Canada-Alaska border. The idea behind the self-propelled journey – the subject of National Geographic/Disney Plus documentary The Devil’s Climb – was to champion environmental causes.

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Honnold noted how depressing much of the bike ride was in terms of the human impact along much of the route, in stark contrast to the protected, natural beauty of the national park regions. After arriving at the Devil’s Thumb, they completed the first single-day traverse of the massif’s five peaks, taking under 12 hours.

Personal life and the Honnold Foundation

Honnold is married to Sanni McCandless, who he met in 2015 at a book signing. Their relationship was a key driver of the narrative in Free Solo, which put the spotlight on McCandless’ efforts to balance her worry for Honnold with her desire to support him in his endeavors. They married in September 2020 and have since had two children, June and Alice.

Honnold has long been an advocate of environmental sustainability and founded the Honnold Foundation in 2012. This non-profit provides grants to organizations striving to advance clean, solar energy around the world.

Alex Honnold, one of the world’s most daring climbers, has his sights set on free climbing The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California.

The iconic 5.14 big wall route is usually climbed with aids, such as haulers, pitons and a rope pendulum, at various tricky pitches.

But Honnold has been working on a project to scale the 3,000ft tall, precipitously steep route with no such aids. He will face long, smooth and sometimes polished cracks, as well as intimidating and highly exposed traverses.

Fewer than a dozen people have free climbed The Nose since its first ascent in 1993 by Lynn Hill. The following year, Hill, also American, set a sub-24-hour record free climbing the route.

Honnold, 39, took to social media this week to announce to fans that he is currently in Yosemite to work on the project, which incudes practising a number of crux moves on the 31-pitch route, with fellow climber Brett Harrington.

There are a number of points on the route where most climbers rely on aids. Hill explains that, for example, at the Great Roof pitch, a free climber needs to "surf sideways on smooth, featureless rock with his or her fingers jammed into the crack above". Another major challenge comes higher up at 'Changing Corners'.

However, Honnold, who has two young children, was quick to point out that it is not a free solo attempt, which would mean using no ropes or aids. The climber has famously free soloed other iconic routes, such as Freerider on El Capitan.

Honnold is also no stranger to The Nose, having climbed it several times with aids. He also holds the team speed record of the route with Tommy Caldwell. The climbing pair scaled it in just under two hours.

You can find out how Honnold trained for an audacious climb on the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska and his epic home climbing gym.

What is free climbing?

Free climbing is the umbrella term given to any style of climbing where you’re not reliant on gear to get you up the wall. So, although you could be gear-free, you’ll almost definitely be wearing climbing shoes and you may well even be on a harness and top roped or placing pieces of protective gear like cams in case you fall.

Free climbing is in contrast to another style of climbing called Aid Climbing, in which you use ladders and other devices to pull yourself up. Aid climbing is used in scenarios where free climbing would be impossible, for example a sheer rock face with zero holds. In free climbing, you're using your own arms and legs to power yourself up a rock face. In many kinds of free climbing, you are indeed using gear, but this gear doesn’t actually propel you up the wall – it prevents you from getting injured in case you fall.

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The Devil’s Climb follows renowned rock climbers Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell on their audacious attempt to summit the notorious Devil’s Thumb, a perilous 9,000-foot (2,760m) peak in the Alaskan wilderness. This expedition, spanning 2,600 miles by bike, sailboat and on foot, tests the climbers’ physical and emotional limits.

For Tommy, it marks a critical comeback after a serious Achilles injury, while for Alex it represents one of the most thrilling adventures of his life. These two long-time friends and climbing partners aim to make history by completing the first-ever single-day traverse of all five peaks of the Devil’s Thumb massif. Directed by climber Renan Ozturk, the documentary showcases their shared determination, skill and deep bond as they pushed themselves to the edge.

Climbing the Devil’s Thumb was such a massive challenge. Can you tell us how you prepared for such an expedition, both physically and nutritionally?

Alex Honnold: In terms of nutrition, we basically ate anything and everything we could get our hands on. As we traveled through towns, we ate at diners and stopped wherever we could to fuel up. It was like constantly throwing coal on the fire because we were cycling for eight hours a day. So yeah, we were eating a lot – probably more than usual just to keep our energy up. We weren’t too stressed about specific diets, just about eating enough.

As for physical preparation, it was a bit different for Tommy and me. Tommy was coming back from a serious Achilles injury, so that affected his training. For me, this expedition was an extension of my usual climbing life. It wasn’t so much something I trained specifically for because I felt like the climbing aspect was within the scope of what I do in a normal month or two. I’ll admit, I probably should’ve trained more for the cycling part, though – I wasn’t in cycling shape at all. But the actual climbing? That was normal, though definitely more adventurous and in cooler locations!

Tommy Caldwell: Yeah, that’s about right. For me, the climbing wasn’t as hard as what we typically do, although it was definitely dangerous. But technically speaking, the rock climbing wasn’t too challenging, especially compared to some of the harder things Alex and I have done in the past. It was actually perfect for where I was physically. Because of my Achilles injury, I hadn’t climbed much in the past two years, so I wasn’t in great climbing shape when we started the trip.

I did spend more time training for the cycling than Alex did because that’s what I could do. With the Achilles injury limiting my climbing, I leaned into the cycling more in preparation for the trip. So, the physical aspect was manageable, but it was definitely a journey.

Speaking of the cycling, that part of the trip looked brutal, especially with the rain and big trucks flying by. What was that like?

Alex Honnold: Yeah, honestly, the cycling wasn’t as fun as the climbing. I had hoped to prepare more for the cycling, but life kind of got in the way. Right before we started, my daughter got sick, and then my wife and I both got sick, so I was dealing with all that. I had planned to do some bigger training rides, but those didn’t happen, so I showed up at the start still not feeling 100%. In retrospect, I should’ve been better prepared for the cycling. I mean, the roads weren’t great, and the weather wasn’t helping. There were a lot of moments where I thought, “This isn’t fun at all.” But you just adapt and push through.

Tommy Caldwell: For me, the cycling was an important part of the adventure. I think for Alex, it was more of a necessary annoyance to get to the climbing, but for me, it added to the magnitude of the trip. If we had just flown to the Devil’s Thumb and climbed it, the whole thing would’ve taken about a week. That didn’t feel big enough for me. I wanted something that felt epic, something way bigger. So we decided to cycle, sail, and hike into the mountain. We could’ve taken a helicopter straight to the base, but that wouldn’t have made the climb feel like the grand adventure I envisioned.

The cycling – and everything leading up to the climb – was part of expanding what’s possible in these kinds of expeditions. I loved that we made the journey into something massive.

Before tackling the Devil’s Thumb, you did a major preparation climb at the Bugaboos, an alpine paradise in British Columbia that combines Yosemite’s rock quality with glacier features. How did that help the preparation?

Alex Honnold: The Bugaboos were a perfect training ground for Alaska. It has glaciers, moraines, and rocky terrain – similar to what we’d face on the Devil’s Thumb, but on a smaller scale. Alaska’s peaks and glaciers are massive, but the Bugaboos allowed us to brush up on skills like glacier traversing and walking on snow without the same level of intensity. It gave us a good chance to practice before taking on the larger, more dangerous mountains in Alaska.

I detected a sense of relief after completing that training climb, especially for you, Tommy. I guess it marked your return to expedition mode and proved your Achilles was holding up. Would you say that's accurate?

Tommy Caldwell: Yeah, that’s totally fair. It felt like everything was coming together. You know, when you plan these expeditions, there’s always this uncertainty – like, “Is this too ambitious? Are we going to make it?” So, when we finished a big climb like the Bugaboos, it was definitely a moment of relief.

You guys made it look intense! At one point, I noticed you were eating breakfast, while a rockfall could be heard crashing down in the distance. What were you eating there?

Alex Honnold: Oh yeah, that was probably freeze-dried oatmeal or something similar. A lot of the time we were eating typical backcountry food. You know, stuff that’s easy to carry and prepare, like freeze-dried meals with oats and dried fruit. It’s basic, but it does the job when you’re in remote areas.

Tommy Caldwell: Yeah, we had a fair amount of those freeze-dried meals. You get used to them. It’s just part of the experience, especially when you’re far from any other food sources.

How did the experience of traveling such a long distance on bikes, boats, and foot impact the final climb itself? Did it make the summit feel more meaningful?

Alex Honnold: Definitely. I think any summit becomes more meaningful when you’ve put in a lot of effort to get there. The whole expedition – cycling, sailing, hiking – it made the actual climbing more significant. By the time we reached the base of the Devil’s Thumb, we were already deep into this adventure, mentally and physically. That made getting to the summit feel a lot more rewarding.

Tommy Caldwell: Yeah, exactly. The journey added to the whole experience. Climbing the Devil’s Thumb on its own would’ve been a great adventure, but when you add the lead-up – cycling through rain, dodging trucks, sailing the inside passage, hiking through forests – becomes an epic journey. It wasn’t just about reaching the summit; it was about the entire process of getting there. The effort we put into the approach made the climb itself feel much more significant.

The film captures not only the physical challenges but also the emotional bond between the two of you. How did this shared history and friendship impact the way you approached the climb?

Alex Honnold: Tommy and I have a long history of climbing together, so we trust each other completely. That definitely impacted how we approached the expedition. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we can rely on each other in ways that you can’t always with other climbing partners. There’s a deep level of trust, and that makes everything a bit smoother. We don’t have to communicate everything because we just get it.

Tommy Caldwell: Exactly. That trust allows us to focus on the task at hand without worrying about all the little things. It’s an unspoken understanding that comes from years of climbing together. On a big expedition like this, having that level of trust makes all the difference. It wasn’t just about summiting the Devil’s Thumb – it was about doing it together, pushing ourselves, and supporting each other through the ups and downs.

National Geographic’s The Devil's Climb is available to watch now on Disney+ and Hulu in the US. UK and Australia release dates are TBC. 

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For most of us who love the outdoors, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell need no introduction. For the rest of you, they’re two of the greatest rock climbers of all time and between them are responsible for two of the best climbing films ever made: Free Solo and Dawn Wall.

So when I heard that the pair – who are also close friends – were teaming up for a joint expedition to climb another as-yet-unconquered face and make a film about it, I figured I already knew what it would be. Two climbing greats doing something that’s never been done, hopefully a moment of extreme peril where everything hangs in the balance, and perhaps a glimpse into life in the van. But the Devil’s Climb is something a bit different.

“You don’t even have to be interested in climbing, really, to appreciate this film because this is the story of two partners seeking out a big adventure and having an experience together,” Honnold tells me.

“The climbing is impressive and certainly really, really scenic, but it’s not really a climbing film, I don't think. It’s the kind of thing I could imagine my grandmother watching and really enjoying it.”

To be fair, neither of his grandmothers is with us anymore, but I get his point – there’s more to this film than nail-biting high drama, despite the sinister backdrop and the high stakes, and yet it’s subtler than their previous film projects.

“It highlights the things that we've always loved about climbing"

Directed by fellow climber Renan Ozturk, of Meru fame, the Devil’s Thumb sees the duo complete the first-ever single-day traverse of all five peaks of Alaska’s Devil’s Thumb massif. That includes the biggest alpine face in North America, which until last year had never been climbed. In fact, only a few had attempted it – including Jon Krakauer in 1977 as described in his book Eiger Dreams – and a lot of them died trying.

On paper, the Devil’s Climb hits all the usual notes. The group of striking peaks on the western edge of the Stikine Icecap provides an appropriately sensational backdrop to the action and more than enough challenge for the two climbers – but you won’t even see them get on belay until 50 minutes into the 75-minute documentary.

“It highlights the things that we've always loved about climbing, which climbers almost take for granted a little bit, so they'll be slightly less struck by the film,” says Caldwell, who thinks non-climbers will probably enjoy the film even more than climbers.

“If you're not a climber at all, you're gonna see the friendship, you’re gonna see the beauty, you’re gonna see the adventure.”

"Biking on the highway was probably the most dangerous thing we did"

If you’re hoping for knife-edge thrills akin to Honnold pulling off the crux move on a 3,000-foot-tall sheer rock wall without protective gear or Caldwell getting taken hostage in Kyrgyzstan, you’ll need to adjust your expectations a bit before you sit down to watch this film, because the two climbers now agree that the most dangerous part of this expedition was the approach.

“In a lot of ways this expedition was relatively safe. Biking on the highway the whole way was probably the scariest thing and the most dangerous thing we did,” says Honnold.

From Caldwell’s home in Colorado, it’s 2,600 miles to the Devil’s Thumb, and he envisioned the expedition as a conservation project, so he proposed making the already difficult expedition harder by cycling there on a pair of Specialized gravel bikes. That turned out to entail 50 days of pedalling, sailing and gruelling hiking across the West, which, depending on who you ask, was great training or a “total waste” of time and energy.

“For me, it was great because my climbing ability was so low after being injured for so long,” says Caldwell, who spent the last couple of years rehabbing a torn (and repeatedly re-ruptured) Achilles tendon. Just a year ago, he reported that he'd been unable to send the Heart Route in Yosemite with Honnold, but over the course of the approach, he started to feel like his old self again.

“As we were bike riding, I just got stronger and felt more robust, but my climbing ability had so far to go up at the point.”

“I didn’t recover the whole time"

Meanwhile, Honnold, who was coming off several years of climbing at the highest level, says he found the bike ride “depressing.”

“I kind of thought that we were going to be going through interior BC, like untravelled wilderness and the reality is that it’s all logged, there are trucks non-stop. It’s like heavy human impact.”

In retrospect, Caldwell admits that they didn’t plan the bike ride all that well, but that 2,600-mile bike ride shared between one friend who was severely out of shape and another at their physical peak turned out to be a great equalizer.

“I didn’t recover the whole time. I got worse and worse literally the whole trip, which was crazy because Tommy was doing great and he was thriving,” says Honnold.

By the end of the expedition, the pair just about met each other in the middle in terms of fitness and climbing ability and when they finally begin their 24-hour push, it’s all, well, pretty smooth.

"He just needs to pull hard on small holds all the time to feel right in the world"

There are no angst-ridden monologues about what happens if they fall and die during the climb like we were exposed to in Free Solo, even though touching scenes with family at the beginning remind us of what would be at stake if that were to happen. But for one quickly corrected detour and some windy conditions, there’s no exceptional circumstances that increase the risk level.

Caldwell leads the majority of the climbing – something Honnold says he was pretty happy about, because it meant he could stay in his “more comfortable” approach shoes – and at the last summit, the pair even have time to soak up the views and chat.

If all of this is sounding a little dull, trust me, it’s a pleasure to watch. Instead of wondering if the men are going to meet a grisly end, you can enjoy the quirky personalities of two climbers (mostly) in their element, and get an often-entertaining glimpse into the nature of their relationship, which is painted here by Ozturk as a Grumpy vs Happy dynamic.

We see Honnold face down with seasickness while Caldwell merrily takes the helm in choppy waters. Then there’s Caldwell cycling off up the trail after Honnold is crowded by fans who apparently have no idea they’re in the midst of not just one but two heroes. And Honnold looking unimpressed or doing pull-ups on a boat crossing while Caldwell enthusiastically watches whales jumping.

“I’m realizing he just needs to pull hard on small holds all the time to feel right in the world,” quips Caldwell.

“There’s incredible joy in the midst of adversity "

You do start to wonder if the pair is really cut out to be climbing partners, where trust and communication are as important as fitness and skill. But when I probe them on this, they insist that despite their opposing exteriors, they’re far more similar than they are different.

“I think that’s part of the reason that our climbing partnership has been so good over the years,” says Honnold, who describes them as “pretty interchangeable” on the wall.

“In general, we’re more similar to each other than any other climbers we could climb with.”

Both men likely have many more years of climbing in them and it’s even possible they’ll have more first ascents worth of documentation. But right now, they also have nothing left to prove. They’ve got four young children at home between the two of them. They’ve earned the right to just go and have a really fun expedition without raising anyone’s cortisol levels, and maybe all that’s left to tell is the story of their friendship.

“There’s incredible joy in the midst of adversity and Alex brings that out in a way that nobody else I’ve climbed with does," says Caldwell.

"We could be suffering and laughing at the same time, and that brings the magic."

The Devil's Climb premieres October 17 at 9 p.m. eastern on National Geographic and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

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World renowned rock climber and free soloist Alex Honnold brings a whole new dimension to “taking your work home with you”.

Now a dad, he clearly needs to spend more time at his Las Vegas family pad, but that’s not going to stop him climbing at every opportunity.

Because he’s installed an indoor climbing gym in the house, and we’re no talking one wall in the back garden. He’s gone big.

The video shows off an adjustable 16ft by 12ft Kilter Board; a 12ft by 12ft Tension Board 2; a huge spray wall with a variety of wall angles and hold types; a campus board; a few hang boards; and some more mundane exercise equipment such as dumbbells, weight plates and a ping pong table (we bet he climbs on that too, though he claims table tennis is his warm up routine).

It’s not quite the same as clambering up El Capitan, but there’s only so many time you can watch Arctic Ascent With Alex Honnold on the National Geographic channel before the itch to get climbing again takes over.

However, as Gripped points out, Honnold’s impressive setup is pretty much dwarfed by Japanese comp climbing star Tomoa Narasaki’s personal training facility that's he’s has specially built in his garden. That includes three commercial gym-sized bouldering walls (with both comp-style and spray wall sets), a 60ft / 18m lead wall with eight bolt lines, a full-sized speed wall, a truck with a platform lift to make setting easier and a spacious training room with weights and exercise equipment. You can check it out below...

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Unless you were living in a cave through 2017 and 2018, you’re probably aware of the term free solo. Alex Honnold’s incredible climb of the Freerider route on El Capitan without protective aids or ropes on 3rd June 2017 brought mainstream attention to the pursuit. The subsequent 2018 documentary film Free Solo gripped the world, bringing yet more attention to Honnold’s incredible feat and the world of free soloing – as well as winning an Oscar.

So, just what is this incredibly bold approach to rock climbing? Here, our mountaineering expert looks into free soloing, including its history, dangers and what it is that sets it apart from free climbing.

What is free soloing?

Free soloing is a style of climbing involving no rope and no protection. In many ways, it’s the purest form of climbing. Just the climber, a chalk bag, climbing shoes and the crag. No need for a partner. No hauling a rope to the base of the crag. No hanging around at a belay stance waiting for your second to come up. No faffing around with protection.

However, it’s an incredibly dangerous approach to climbing and only properly practised by a small minority. It's not something we'd encourage or advocate.

While solo implies that free soloing is done alone, it actually alludes to the fact that you don’t need a partner, as there’s no need for a belayer. Often, free soloists do climb alone and it can be a very personal experience, though climbers can also take the free solo approach and enjoy a route together.

The popularized image of free soloing, perhaps unsurprisingly given the success of the eponymous film, is of plucky souls climbing nerve-janglingly high cliffs, like the giants in Yosemite Valley and other big wall climbs. However, free soloing can apply to any rock route, even relatively straightforward single pitch climbs on smaller crags. It can also apply to mountaineering, ice climbing and mixed winter (rock, snow and ice) routes, as long as they are done without protection, as seen in the acclaimed 2021 film, the Alpinist (which is included, along with Free Solo, in our selection of the 10 best climbing films).

The boldest solo climbing I’ve ever done was probably Bristly Ridge, a Grade II/III winter climb on Glyder Fach in Wales’ Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park. Tellingly, it was the day before I bought my first climbing harness…

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The history of free soloing

• The first recorded free solo was Walter Parry Heskett-Smith’s ascent of Napes Needle in 1886
• Free soloing really took off in Yosemite in the 1970s
• The greatest achievement in free soloing was Alex Honnold's El Cap climb in 2017

Often cited as the birth of the sport of rock climbing, Walter Parry Heskett-Smith’s 1886 ascent of a rock pinnacle named Napes Needle on Great Gable in the English Lake District is perhaps the birth of free soloing. It's considered so, as Heskett-Smith climbed the prominent pillar alone and without protection.

Where Yosemite is concerned, it was the 1970s when the pursuit started making waves. 1973 saw 19-year-old Henry Barber take on the 1500-foot Steck-Salathé route on Sentinel Rock in around two-and-a-half hours. Incredibly, he climbed the route on-sight, meaning it was his first time on it. Consider the nerve needed to launch into a climb without ropes having never practised it before. The mind boggles.

Barber was prolific, soloing hundreds of routes across the US, the UK, Europe and even in Kyrgyzstan. Others soloing in Yosemite during the 70s include the legendary John Bachar, who famously free soloed the three routes on the 450-foot Nabisco Wall in 1979. In the 1980s, characters like Peter Croft continued to pull off daring solos, such as Croft’s efforts on the Astroman and Rostrum routes.

Of course, it wasn’t all about Yosemite. There were many notable free solo ascents – too many to name here – on difficult crags, big walls and in the great mountains ranges across the world. The Millenium came and went but daring free solo ascents continued. The renowned Dean Potter’s soloing résumé included solos on the iconic duo of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre in Patagonia in 2002, as well as an ascent of the North Face of the Eiger wearing a BASE parachute in 2008.

Of course, the greatest achievement in free soloing came in 2017, with Honnold’s much-documented climb of the Freerider route on El Capitan. The incredible achievements of Canadian solo alpinist Marc-André Leclerc, including an astonishing winter climb of Patagonia’s Torre Egger, became the subject of another critically acclaimed documentary, the Alpinist in 2021. Leclerc tragically died in 2018, killed in an avalanche on Alaska’s Mendenhall Towers.

Leclerc’s then girlfriend Brette Harrington is one of the leading female free soloists and notably free-soloed Patagonia’s Chiaro de Luna route in 2015. Other legendary female characters include Steph Davis, who has free-soloed a number of routes throughout the Western States, including four successes on the Diamond Face of Longs Peak.

How dangerous is free soloing?

• Free soloing can be very, very dangerous
• This is because there's no protection against a fall
• Many notable free soloists have died while soloing

I was lucky enough to attend a Q&A screening of Free Solo at Waterloo’s IMAX in London. One of the kids in the audience asked Alex Honnold something along the lines of: “How would you recommend getting into free soloing?” The audience laughed, fully aware of the awkward position in which this put Honnold, who also laughed before gathering his thoughts. I don’t remember his exact response, but it was something along the lines of “I wouldn’t necessarily recommend getting into free soloing”.

This is because free soloing is dangerous, very dangerous. In Free Solo, elite climber Tommy Caldwell points out: “Everyone who has made free soloing a big part of their life is dead now.” With the protection stripped away, all it takes is a lapse in concentration, a loose hold, a falling rock, a startled animal or a sudden change in the weather to land the climber in serious trouble.

Many notable free soloists have perished while practising the pursuit, including the superstar John Bachar, who died at Dike Wall near Mammoth Lakes in California on 5th July 2009, and Derek Hersey who, in 1993, fell from the same Steck-Salathé route that Henry Barber originally soloed in 1973.

What's the difference between free climbing and free soloing?

• Free climbing is any form of climbing where only the rock is used to make upward progress, rather than mechanical aids
• Trad and sport climbing are still free climbing as the protective gear is only used for safety, not to enable progression up the rock
• Free soloing is simply free climbing taken to its most stripped back extreme

We’ve already dealt with the definition of free soloing, so what sets it apart from free climbing?

Free climbing is any form of climbing where the climber makes upward progress using only the rock, without the use of mechanical aids or steps attached to the crag. Free soloing is therefore a form of free climbing, along with both sport climbing and trad climbing climbing. Sport and trad are examples of free climbing because, despite the use of items like bolts, quickdraws, nuts, hexes and cams, these devices are used to protect against a fall, rather than to assist upward progress. Bouldering is another form of free climbing.

The alternative to free climbing is aid climbing, where climbers have the option of using devices and/or etriers (ladders made of webbing) to ascend. Aid climbing often makes use of ascenders, often called jumars, which are mechanical devices that are used to ascend a rope. They’re commonplace in big wall climbing and are also often used to bypass technical or steep sections on big Himalayan expeditions.

Another good example of a climbing approach that doesn't qualify as free climbing is via ferrata. When tackling a via ferrata route, you'll likely make use of metal steps, bridges and other artificial aids that support your progress.

This all means that free soloing is simply free climbing taken to its most stripped back, pure and dangerous extreme, with the protection removed and the stakes ramped up to eleven!

Perhaps more than any other athlete in recent history, people have been wondering: what will Alex Honnold do next? He can probably hang up his climbing shoes any time he wants to – scaling a 2,000-foot vertical hunk of rock in under four hours without any protection is more than most rock climbers will achieve in one lifetime.  

Yet if you watched the determination and focus with which he tackled El Capitan back in 2017, you’ll have found it hard to imagine that he’s just going to sit back and revel in his success. And obviously, you’d be right.

Though it’s true that Honnold has made some moves since Free Solo that could hint at a trend some might describe as “settling down” – he bought a house near Vegas, married his partner Sanni McCandless and became a dad – it will come as no surprise to you that the 39-year-old hasn’t stopped eyeing up big walls or taking big risks. 

In August 2022, six months after the birth of his daughter, he pulled off the first ascent of one of the world’s tallest monoliths along with climbers Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schaefer (cinematographer for Free Solo) and a small team of guides and scientists including glaciologist Dr. Heïdi Sevestre. The project, which was chronicled for a three-part National Geographic docu series named Arctic Ascent, is part rock climbing porn and part scientific discovery, something Honnold describes as the right combination of team, destination, and objectives all coming together.

“In some ways it kind of harkens back to classical mountaineering where every expedition back in the day always included a geologist and a botanist and a lot of classical mountaineers were also sort of amateurs in those things,” he laughs.

“You know, the sort of Victorian-era approach of dabbling in all the sciences and everyone's taking pressings of flowers and stuffing species of exotic animals that they find along the way.”

There isn’t any stuffing of animals or even much in the way of flowers, however, because the climb takes place in eastern Greenland, a land of rock and ice. The monolith in question is called Ingmikortilaq (which means “the separate one” in Greenlandic) and is 3,750-foot seacliff – that’s three times the height of the Empire State Building and another thousand feet taller than El Cap. And while it’s true that “to Honnold” something has become common usage to describe facing the most menacing feats without fear (he even underwent MRI imaging in 2016 that revealed his amygdala barely activates when he’s exposed to disturbing images), he admits that this particular wall was “very daunting.”

“I don’t want to say we were terrified, but we were pretty concerned when we first saw the wall because we only had two weeks left on the trip, it was raining a lot and it was this huge wall with no obvious way up it.”

Being Honnold, he finds a way up, advancing on this previously untouched route risky move by risky move, projecting as he leads. Once again, he brings us along in a televised event that showcases the awe-inspiring natural beauty of his surroundings and highlights Honnold’s unique brand of tenacity, but in almost every other way, the project couldn’t be more different to the one that put him on the map.

This time, instead of hopping in his van before sunrise and driving up to the wall to pull off a single push to the summit before lunch, it’s a six-week expedition. The approach itself takes three weeks and fills the series’ first two episodes as the team makes a first ascent of a 1,500-foot-high pool wall before completing the first-ever crossing of the Renland Ice Cap which is littered with crevasses before traveling up an iceberg-filled fjord.

Instead of quiet, spacious drone footage of one man against nature in charged solitude, it’s a dialogue-filled journey as the team navigates how to work together, and even if they should. The final episode, which documents the ascent of Ingmikortilaq, sees the crew at odds over whether it’s safe to continue with the mission, though today, Honnold has nothing but praise for his team.

“They’re not all experienced climbers but they are incredibly fit and they made it up no problem. It was a great experience for everybody.”

Episode three sees the scientists remaining behind to complete field work as Honnold, Findlay and Schaefer tackle the big wall. Findlay, who describes herself as “more risk-averse” than Honnold, is frequently seen being subjected to a barrage of rock fall that breaks off the chossy face while Honnold leads. At one point, she directs the camera to zoom in on a mark left in the cliff just moments before by a falling rock that narrowly missed her head.

And when the climbers aren’t being pummeled by rocks, they’re being battered by snow, wind and rain which at one point sees their tent tumbling off down the mountain. This isn’t blubird day after bluebird day like you'll usually find climbing in Yosemite, a place where Honnold admits he loves going whenever the weather is nice. Here, they’re battling serious elements including whiteout conditions which see them abandoning their sleds and gear, not knowing if and when they’ll see them again, and the California-born climber admits this was the greatest challenge on the trip.

“It’s just chilly. It rained a lot, it snowed a lot and then we also just covered a lot of terrain, so it was a lot of hard work with the hiking and the pulling sleds and all that, you know, it's just far. But that's exactly the challenge we signed up for. That's not surprising, but it's still hard work.”

The biggest difference between Arctic Ascent and Free Solo, however, is the purpose behind the project. This isn’t just about one man’s mission to conquer a fearsome cliff face, even if that also happens – it’s part of a larger research project to monitor a rarely studied section of Greenland’s ice cap and better understand the effects of global warming.

“I might just be a random dude having an adventure and taking people along but what I aspire to do is help get many people excited about something that's important for the world,” says Honnold, who’s become known as a climate change activist in recent years.

Greenland might seem a long way off, but as Sevestre explains in the show’s final episode, the future of places much closer to home – New York and LA – depends on this ice wall. Though her initial findings are that it remains much more stable than other parts of the Arctic, she soberly predicts that this won’t last long and now is the time to act to prevent further, irreversible global warming.

Honnold’s contribution is in part technical – he’s arguably one of the few people on the planet that could lead this type of expedition – but his celebrity is something he hopes will inspire his audience to wake up and pay attention to what’s happening in the world beyond our shores.

“I think my dream is that they come out of it inspired and interested, that they learn about the importance of the Greenland ice sheet to global climate and to sea level rise and basically that they learn the importance of the Arctic in general and how quickly it’s warming and what that means for humanity.”

He notes that while there’s always an appetite for “big adventures and big excitement” in sports entertainment television, there’s less of one for science entertainment, and this is an area where he thinks climbers can play a role.

“I think the idea of using climbing as a vehicle for discovery or education still makes a lot of sense and is maybe something that's worth coming back to a little bit.”

The risks of this project may not be as immediate as the possibility of one man falling to a certain death before the viewer's eyes, but they’re easily more far-reaching and provoke a similar sensation in your gut. 

Ultimately, however, Arctic Ascent is a dream for anyone who lives for the outdoors. It beckons us closer to the harsh realities of climate change, but it also guides us through a stunning wilderness most of us will never experience firsthand, and that’s okay. For Honnold, the remoteness of Greenland isn’t a problem to be solved; it’s the point he’s trying to make.

“As a climber, you wind up seeing a lot of the most empty places in the world,” he says, likening the trip to his previous expeditions in Antarctica and Alaska. 

“A lot of places on earth are really barren and bereft of humans, and I think the point of telling the story is to remind people that we should try to keep it that way as much as possible. The relatively few wild places that are left can hopefully stay as wild as possible for as long as possible.”

Arctic Ascent premieres February 4 on Disney+.

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Celebrated US mountaineer Alex Honnold may have just lost his El Capitan speed record, but we doubt he’s too worried. The man who was the subject of the acclaimed documentary movie Free Solo has been taking on a spectacular new challenge in Greenland, and National Geographic went along with him to film it all for a new documentary, Arctic Ascent With Alex Honnold. 

The first trailer has just been released and you can watch it below. It looks pretty awesome.

National Geographic will premier Arctic Ascent on 4 February 2024 on Disney+. In the three-part documentary Honnold and his team head to Greenland to climb Ingmikortilaq in hopes of a first ascent.

The series shows Honnold fulfilling a lifelong ambition to climb the most remote and toughest walls of Greenland while also showcasing how climate change is affecting the region. Joining Honnold on his quest are world-class climbers Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schaefer, Dr Heïdi Sevestre, Greenlandic guide Adam Kjeldsen, and renowned adventurer Aldo Kane.

One of Earth's tallest unclimbed natural monoliths, the 3,750ft Ingmikortilaq (pronounced Ing-mick-ort-till-lack) is a three-million-year-old granite and gneiss cliff located on a remote peninsula in Greenland's eastern coast. Its name means “the separate one” in Greenlandic and it is situated in an area considered “at ground zero” of the climate crisis.

Born in 1985, in Sacramento, California, Honnold is best known for his death-defying free solo climbs, climbing ruthless rock walls without any safety ropes or equipment. He is the founder of the Honnold Foundation, an environmental nonprofit devoted to fighting climate change by promoting solar energy for a more equitable world. 

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