Top Climber’s Thoughts on How Alex Honnold Free-Soloed El Capitan
Pete Whittaker gives his take on how the first free-solo of Yosemite's biggest wall went down
Photo by: Wikimedia Commons
In June 2017, American Alex Honnold made the first free-solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite. Honnold, known as one of the world’s most accomplished climbers, soloed Freerider 5.12d/13a in three hours and 56 minutes after starting at 5:32 a.m.
Honnold’s first major free-solo came in 2008 with Moonlight Buttress in Moab, a popular nine-pitch 5.12+. “The grade doesn’t reflect the difficulty because it’s pure endurance 5.12c,” said Honnold. “It’s a matter of having the fitness for a general, sustained pump.” In 2014, Honnold visited Canada and made the first free ascent of University Wall to the top of The Chief via the Roman Chimneys in two hours car to car. University Wall has a series of difficult 5.12 friction moves and both routes together adds up to 12 long pitches. “It’s always represented that burly crack climbing style to me. It’s like the hard-man version of Astroman,” said Honnold.
In this video, top U.K. climber Pete Whittaker breaks down how he thinks Honnold free-soloed El Capitan. Whittaker is a well-known rope-soloist who who made history on El Cap with the first-ever one-day rope-solo of Freerider, a route that he flased in 2014.
A brief theory of how Alex Honnold free soloed El Capitan, from the perspective of a climber who has free soloed on big walls well within their comfort zone, on secure styles of climbing. Plus soloed on much smaller cliffs closer to their physical limit, on insecure styles of climbing (the Gritstone). From Pete – It must be noted that this is only an opinion/theory from applying my own experiences to things I’ve seen and heard on film, I haven’t directly spoken to Alex about this topic, and don’t have the true answer.
Honnold on El Cap Theory
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