Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
All Quotes by author - Alex Honnold
" A hangboard is a little piece of wood with edges, holes, and slopes. There's different strategies for different things - hanging, varying grips, adding weight. If I do a hard finger workout, I'm definitely sore. "
Wood
Things
Hard
" Anything called the Teflon Corner is not sweet for free-soloing. "
Anything
Sweet
Corner
" Anytime you finish a climb, there's always the next thing you can try. "
Climb
Try
Next
" At the crux of Half Dome, at the very top of the wall, imagine, like, a smooth wall of rock - a nearly vertical granite slap with tiny ripples for your hands and feet. And so you're really trusting the rubber on your shoes to stick to these ripples. "
Rock
Feet
Top
" Big climbs energize me. It's all the other aspects of being a pro-climber that wear me down. The travel and expeditions and training can become pretty tiring. But the actual big climbs - that's what I live for. "
Me
Become
Down
" Climbing is definitely very much strength-to-weight ratio. At the same time, I've never dieted or restricted calories. You're just sort of mindful about not getting plump. "
Just
Climbing
Same
" 'Dirtbag' is just the term we use, like a 'gnarly dude' in surfing. Within the climbing culture, it means being a committed lifer: someone who has embraced a minimalist ethic in order to rock climb. It basically means you're a homeless person by choice. "
Climb
Choice
Rock
" Filming typically takes a bit away from the climbing experience, since you have to stop all the time and shoot. "
Climbing
Stop
Time
" For sure, Potrero Chico is a super nice winter vacation climbing area. It's really convenient to fly into Monterrey, one of the nicer cities in Mex, and get a taxi to Potero. Then you can just live in the camping area and walk everywhere. It's muy tranquilo, as they say there. "
Live
Fly
Nice
" Free soloing is almost as old as climbing itself, with roots in the 19th century. Climbers are continuing to push the boundaries. There are certainly better technical climbers than me. But if I have a particular gift, it's a mental one - the ability to keep it together where others might freak out. "
Free
Roots
Me
" How I'm portrayed in films has more to do with the filmmaking and what they need in the story than anything else. I'm the same person I've always been, I just get used in different ways according to the filmmakers' needs - which is fine with me; it makes for great films. "
Filmmaking
More
Me
" I am a vegetarian, and I sort of aspire to vegan-hood. So far I've noticed no difference at all in my climbing, but I feel a bit healthier overall. Though that's only because I'm eating more fruits and vegetables. I think the whole protein thing is overhyped. Most Americans eat far more than we need. "
Feel
Think
Eating
" I crushed high school. I was a huge dork. "
School
Dork
High
" I feel that a lot of human spirituality stems from the belief that we are unique and special in the universe, but maybe we are just what happens when there is proper temperature and proper distance from the right type of star. "
Distance
Universe
Special
" If you're climbing big routes that'll take you 16 hours, or, like, El Capitan, you have to take something like a big, robust sandwich. Climbing isn't like running or triathlons, where you have to constantly be eating blocks, gels, and pure sugar. Climbing is relatively slow, so you can pretty much eat anything and digest it as you climb. "
Climb
You
Eat
" I generally don't climb something if it makes me feel fear. The beauty of soloing is that there's no pressure - no one's telling me to do it. So if something seems scary, I don't have any obligation to do it. I can prepare further or just walk away entirely. "
Walk
Me
Fear
" I have a journal of everything I've ever climbed since 2005. For the entry about free soloing Half Dome, I put a frowny face and added some little notes about what I should have done better, and then underlined it. Turns out that is one of my biggest climbing achievements. "
Free
Face
Done
" I know that when I'm standing alone below a thousand-foot wall, looking up and considering a climb, my sponsors are the furthest thing from my mind. If I'm going to take risks, they are going to be for myself - not for any company. "
Alone
Climb
Know
" I like the simplicity of soloing. You've got no gear, no partner. You never climb better than when you free-solo. "
Partner
Climb
Better
" I live out of my van, which gives me a first-hand appreciation for power and lighting. A few years ago, I rebuilt the interior of my van to include solar panels and a battery that powers LEDs for lighting and allows me to charge my phone and laptop. "
Live
Me
Appreciation
" I love my climbing shoes. Virtually all of my big solos have been in the TC Pros. They are the most important thing when I'm soloing. "
Love
Big
Climbing
" I love red bell peppers. Bell peppers in general, really. I like to eat them like apples. They're so crunchy and delicious. "
Like
Apples
Bell
" I love the feeling of touching the rock, the feeling of my body going up the rock. "
Love
Feeling
Body
" I make a fair amount of my food choices for environmental-type reasons than nutrition or taste. I'm trying to minimize impact, which is something most people don't necessarily think about when they're shopping. "
Shopping
People
Think
" I'm not nostalgic for my glory days in college. It was lame for me. Probably because I had no friends. "
Me
Glory
Friends
" I'm not thinking about anything when I'm climbing, which is part of the appeal. I'm focused on executing what's in front of me. "
Me
Front
Thinking
" I'm sponsored by the solar company Goal Zero, and they were gracious enough to install panels on my van and a nice battery system for the inside. I have lights and a fridge inside the van. And of course I had panels installed on my mom's house. "
Mom
Nice
House
" In a general sense, I think it's bad to bring too much money into climbing, since it takes away a little from the beauty of the mountains. But at the same time, I can't blame the Nepali government - or the Indian, Pakistani or Chinese, depending on where you're climbing - from wanting to capitalize on foreign climbers. "
Blame
Mountains
Time
" In climbing, sponsors typically support an athlete but provide very little direction, giving the climber free rein to follow his or her passion toward whatever is inspiring. It's a wonderful freedom, in many ways similar to that of an artist who simply lives his life and creates whatever moves him. "
Support
Freedom
Passion
" In the years after the expedition to Chad, I started the Honnold Foundation, a small nonprofit that was my attempt to do something positive in the world. I sought out projects that both helped the environment and improved peoples' standards of living. The more I researched, the more I gravitated toward solar. "
Small
Foundation
World
Check our other websites:
BookDark
MusicDark