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Alex Honnold’s Sister Started Climbing at Same Time

Stasia Honnold started climbing on the same day as her brother, Alex, but moved into other sports over the years. “Stasia climbs, too,” noted her and Alex’s mom Dierdre Wolownick.

“Although climbing will always take a backseat to biking or running in her life. What drives Stasia on her hard-core bicycle trips around the country has become less elusive to me, too, as I learn more about tenacity and courage.” She’s been known to explore the country on 2,500-kilometre bike rides, camping as she goes, and is also a long-distance runner.

Sometimes Alex and Stasia team up, as they did twice during Alex and Cedar Wright’s SufferFest trips.

Alex, Cedar and Stasia during SufferFest Photo Sam Crossley

Honnold once wrote about Stasia joining them on the trip: “My sister Stasia lives in Portland, Oregon, practically the cycling capital of America, and has never owned a car. She not only bikes more than 100 miles a week as a commuter, but she does big bike tours on weekends and vacations just for fun. She is, in a word, a biker.

“And by happy coincidence, she planned on vacationing in California the same time we were wrapping up our bike tour, so she joined us for the last few peaks.

“It was perfect timing, too, because our morale was on a steady decline. The combined aches and pains in all our joints and the general fatigue conspired to make the scenery a little less beautiful and the climbing a lot less fun. Stasia biked in circles around us, snapping pictures and marveling at the amazing mountains of the eastern Sierra. She biked up to Mount Whitney with us, and then hiked the third-class Mountaineers Route while we soloed more technical terrain.

“We met back up with her at the trailhead at the end of the day and all biked back down into town together. Enthusiastic by nature, she was stoked to have gone up into the mountains. What for Cedar and me was another grueling day at the office was a beautiful adventure for her.”

Stasia joined them again as they climbed desert towers in Utah during SufferFest 2.

“It freaks me out,” said Stasia about Alex’s soloing back in 2014. “He doesn’t tell me he’s going to do stuff until after he’s done it and that’s fine. It does worry me for sure.” Maybe that’s why we didn’t see Stasia in the award-winning film Free Solo.

Be sure to follow along on Stasia’s road adventures on her up-to-date blog here.

Alex Honnold and sister Stasia back in the day

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