Alex Honnold Back Free-Soloing in Yosemite
"Psyched to be back!!" Honnold said after free-soloing routes on El Capitan and Middle Cathedral
Last week Alex Honnold was MCing a bouldering world cup event in Salt Lake City and this week he’s back in Yosemite. And unlike some climbers who choose not to talk about their free-soloing, Honnold is often quick to share about his most recent rope-less climbs.
“I’m back in the Valley!!” Honnold said on Instagram. “I had a fun first day soloing the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral and then the East Buttress of El Cap. I heard someone call it the half pipe because you climb the two sides of the Valley across from each other.”
The climbs that Honnold did have been free-soloed countless times over the past few decades, with the East Buttress being the easiest free route up El Capitan – read about it here. “Surprisingly, I’m pretty sure that I’d never done that particular link up before,” said Honnold. “It was a perfect reintroduction to Yosemite granite.”
Honnold’s first news-making Yosemite free-solo was in 2007 when he became the second climber to free-soloe Astroman and The Rostrum in a day after Peter Croft did it in 1987. “I did 1.5 hours bike-to-bike on Middle and 2:20-ish bike-to-bike on El Cap,” Honnold said about his recent Yosemite solos.
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