Honnold’s Squamish record you didn’t know about

Alex Honnold is one of the most well-known names in climbing. In 2014, he set a new speed record for Squamish’s Grand Wall.

Not only has Honnold has climbed Sonnie Trotter’s testpiece, Cobra Crack 5.14, linked Free Grand 5.13b, Northern Lights 5.12a, Freeway 5.11 and University Wall 5.12b in 13.5 hours with Will Stanhope and made the first free solo of University Wall 5.12b in 2014, he has also broken the Grand Wall speed record, twice.

In 2013, Marc-Andre Leclerc broke Honnold’s existing record by a few minutes, bringing it down from 59 to 57 minutes.

In 2014, as rumour spread that Leclerc is the next Honnold, Alex took back his Grand Wall record. Cedar Wright said, “Honnold does so much bad ass stuff, he has to choose which to report, he’s just that bad ass.”

Honnold’s new speed record for the Grand Wall is 38 minutes, including the Roman Chimneys. “(Leclerc) had broken a speed record I’d set… so I planned to retake a couple of things,” Honnold said. 

“That was one of the things I wanted to do. But it’s not a huge deal, or anything. I did it in 38 minutes. I went by myself and I was free-soloing the majority of it, but I didn’t technically free climb all of it… I just did everything I could to do it fast, basically.”

Also this fall, Honnold free soloed Romantic Warrior 5.12 in the Needles. The route is featured on the cover of the book Fifty Favourite Routes with Michael Reardon soloing it. Honnold also sent El Cap’s The Muir Wall 5.13b/c in only 13 hours this fall.