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" Pretty much every gym I go into, I feel very comfortable. I dump my stuff, take my shoes off, do my thing. "
Alex Honnold
Off
Shoes
Feel
Related Quotes:
" We are apes - we should be climbing. "
Alex Honnold
Should
Climbing
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Me
Become
Down
" I love red bell peppers. Bell peppers in general, really. I like to eat them like apples. They're so crunchy and delicious. "
Alex Honnold
Like
Apples
Bell
" Anytime you finish a climb, there's always the next thing you can try. "
Alex Honnold
Climb
Try
Next
" Much as Africa has leapfrogged straight to mobile phones, it has the opportunity to skip the dirty, grid-tied power plants that currently operate across the developed world and go straight to clean, distributed power. "
Alex Honnold
World
Plants
Dirty
" When I was a teenager, I did a lot of pull-ups and push-ups. Every night before bed, I'd do 150 - in sets of 30 or so. Looking back on it now, I'm not totally sure that's the best way to improve as a climber. But it did make me a lot better at doing pull-ups and push-ups. "
Alex Honnold
Looking Back
Me
Night
" My sister does all this community-service type stuff in Portland that makes the world a much better place. And I make as much in a two-day commercial shoot as she does in five years, which is ridiculous. "
Alex Honnold
World
She
Place
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Walk
Me
Fear
" I've done routes where I've climbed 200 feet off the ground and just been, like, 'What am I doing?' I then just climbed back down and went home. Discretion is the better part of valor. Some days are just not your day. That's the big thing with free soloing: when to call it. "
Alex Honnold
Doing
Feet
Free
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Wood
Things
Hard
" To be clear, I normally climb with a rope and partner. Free-soloing makes up only a small percentage of my total climbing. But when I do solo, I manage the risk through careful preparation. I don't solo anything unless I'm sure I can do it. "
Alex Honnold
Climb
Partner
Preparation
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Feel
Think
Eating
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Small
Foundation
World
" People think I just walk up to a sheer cliff and climb it with no knowledge of anything, when in reality, there's tons and tons of information out there, and I'm already well tapped into it. "
Alex Honnold
Think
Climb
Knowledge
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Filmmaking
More
Me
" Anything called the Teflon Corner is not sweet for free-soloing. "
Alex Honnold
Anything
Sweet
Corner
" So many people condemn me for risk taking, but I find it sort of hypocritical because everybody takes risks. Even the absence of activity could be viewed as a risk. If you sit on the sofa for your entire life, you're running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer. "
Alex Honnold
You
Risks
Heart
" My friends like to remind me that I have relatively weak fingers. Aerobic strength and general endurance have come easy, but finger strength has always been my biggest weakness. "
Alex Honnold
Me
Friends
Endurance
" Seven years ago, when I started free soloing long, hard routes in Yosemite - climbing without a rope, gear or a partner - I did it because it seemed like the purest, most elegant way to scale big walls. Climbing, especially soloing, felt like a grand adventure, but I never dreamed it could be a profession. "
Alex Honnold
Partner
Walls
Adventure
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Free
Roots
Me
" I think part of what made the original 'Sufferfest' charming was the extremely low production value. It was all shaky handheld footage from Cedar. "
Alex Honnold
Value
Original
Think
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Shopping
People
Think
" I've never really understood the criticism that climbing is inherently selfish, since it could equally be argued about virtually any other hobby or sport. Is gardening selfish? "
Alex Honnold
Gardening
Criticism
Never
" I love the feeling of touching the rock, the feeling of my body going up the rock. "
Alex Honnold
Love
Feeling
Body
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Love
Big
Climbing
" I think it's great that so many people are enjoying climbing. I've always loved climbing; I don't see why other people wouldn't enjoy it just as much. As long as everyone does their best to respect the areas in which they're climbing, I don't see how the growth of the sport could be a bad thing. "
Alex Honnold
Growth
Great
People
" No matter the risks we take, we always consider the end to be too soon, even though in life, more than anything else, quality should be more important than quantity. "
Alex Honnold
Important
Risks
Quality
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Mom
Nice
House
" Yosemite has the most impressive and accessible granite big walls in the world. The rock is amazing. And because of that, it's been the mecca for climbing in the U.S. - and the world to a large degree - for all of climbing history. It's the place to test yourself against the historic routes of the past. "
Alex Honnold
Past
World
History
" 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. "
Alex Honnold
Blame
Mountains
Time