Alex Honnold Strips Down for ESPN Body Issue

Alex Honnold recently stripped down for the ESPN body issue shoot where climber and photographer Cory Richards got to be behind the lens. The 11th annual issue celebrates the achievements of athletes from around the world. Watch a behind-the-scenes video below.

Honnold was the subject of an Oscar-winning 2018 documentary about his life called Free Solo and he runs Honnold Foundation. In this body issue, Honnold poses in a number of positions for the camera, including laying on rock and extending chalked up hands.

In an article in the Daily Mail, a story notes that Honnold is a father to an infant son, but when asked about it on Instagram, Honnold’s partner Sanni McCandless said, “I just looked it up! Who knew?!”

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Shout out to my dear friend and victim (for the shoot), @alexhonnold for putting up with me for the @espn body issue, out today. And a massive thanks to @espn for trusting me with this. // The first time I photographed Alex Honnold was over a decade ago when our respective cars were our castles, means of transport, and kitchens. I remember the drive from Canada to Yosemite as a jittery sprint fueled by caffeine and gas station cashews. The pictures I took of Alex back then left me wanting, as if there were a depth to his character that was expressed through his action but escaped my ability as a photographer. He struck me as an athlete more sculpted by his medium than any other I’d met. I wondered if his physical form was a necessary response to repeated stimuli or if he represented something entirely unique. Photographing him all these years later was an opportunity to celebrate him as form born of the stone he surrounds himself with, seeing him as wholly human but somehow simultaneously transcendent of that definition. Plus, it’s not everyday you get to tell your friend to get naked and curl into a ball and NOT have that abruptly make your friendship forever awkward… // Check back for more images from this incredible shoot.

A post shared by Cory Richards (@coryrichards) on Sep 4, 2019 at 9:49am PDT

Alex Honnold for ESPN