Alex Honnold Free-Solos Over 30 Pitches up to 5.12 in Red Rock
He continues to be one of the world's top rock climbers, pushing standards in world-class areas
Alex Honnold isn’t resting on his laurels, instead he’s continuing to push speedy free-solos and establish big wall routes. His latest one-day mission was a link-up of three of Red Rock’s most famous multi-pitch climbs.
Honnold said, “It was something like an 11-hour total adventure to climb the three most classic hard multi pitches in Red Rock. The crux was definitely climbing Levitation at noon on an extremely hot day. My feet cooked.”
Cedar Wright said on social media, “Congrats to to this goofball Honnold who just soloed three of Red Rock’s best multi-pitches, Levitation 29 5.11+, Cloud Tower 5.11+/12-, and Rainbow Wall, 5.12a, in a casual half day out. After our big moderate solo linkup, which honnold declared light-duty because the climbing was “too easy,” we climbed The Rainbow Wall together, so he could refresh his memory a bit on the crux, and I could enjoy an onsight attempt on one of the best multi-pitches in America.”
Cloud Tower is an 11-pitch 5.12a, Levitation 29 is a 10-pitch 5.11c, and Rainbow Wall is a 14-pitch 5.12a. Many climbers make it their annual goal to free one of the three, let alone to link them all sans rope in a day.
The solo day that Wright was referring to took place at the end of March where the two Sufferfest starts Dark Shadows 5.8, 10 pitches, then down Cat in the Hat 5.6 six pitches, up Community Pillar 5.9, eight pitches, then down Olive Oil 5.7, five pitches, up The Aquarium 5.8, 10 pitches, up Armatron 5.8+, six pitches, and finally down Myster Z 5.7, seven pitches.”
Last October, Honnold, who lives in Las Vegas, got the speed record on the classic Epinephrine, a 13-pitch 5.9 in Red Rock, in 34 minutes and 51 seconds. Read more about his climb here. Honnold, who is the only climber to free-solo the biggest wall on El Capitan via Freerider 5.13a, recently returned from South America where he established a new big wall route in Guyana. Honnold is also part of a new podcast cast Climbing Gold which was trending at number one on Spotify last week.
In the below video, Honnold talks with Adam Ondra about grades, big walls and training. Check it out.
Honnold and Ondra
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