Alex Honnold, writing for La Sportiva about his solo of three walls in Zion in a day back in March:
I could write several different essays about the day; it’s given me a ton to think about. One would be how funny it is that climbing media didn’t even touch the story and that no one seems to care about it. Soloing Astroman and the Rostrum in 2007 generated all kinds of news and video bits. This Zion link up, which is infinitely harder and more cutting edge, doesn’t get mentioned. That’s what I get for soloing too much.
I guess I’ll forgive him for not seeing my post about the day. Or Climbing’s article about it. But yeah, other than that he might actually have a point considering how much publicity most of his scrambling garners these days? But then again, isn’t he usually the first one to say all of this is “no big deal”?
To be honest, I feel completely unqualified to appreciate how impressive this climbing is. I have never climbed big walls; heck, I still feel uncomfortable on anything harder than 5.11 sport. It’s a world so above and beyond what I can identify with that going from outrageous to outrageous+10 doesn’t even register. I wonder if this same feeling has impacted the news coverage of his ascents.
Hopefully one day I’ll have the chance to climb some of these routes (with a rope, and certainly at a more leisurely pace) and get more of a glimpse into how awesome/crazy/ground breaking Honnold is.
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I climb, obviously nowhere near Honnolds level, but i have a feeling that noone out there has the “how many climbs I can do in one day look at me” attitude. Sure its impressive, but the article written by Honnold almost feels a little like “waaaah, no one is looking at me waaaa”. I think most climbers are actually not so interested in boasting or looking for the spotlight, the most fun climbers to watch and read about are completely humble and you get a feeling watching them, that actually being reported on and being in the spotlight is something they ‘unfortunately’ have to deal with, instead of something they are looking for. Ex. Sharma got five times as much hype for his 2nd ascent of dura dura then ondra got for finishing it, and you never read Ondra writing about how no one cared about what he did. . .
Maybe if Honnold wants real praise go find new walls to do, new cutting edge climbs and for the right reasons, to push yourself, get some amazing FAs and im sure the media will be all over you again dude 🙂
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I like what Alex is saying there, actually. He is pointing out that there is no strong relationship in the climbing media between the actual magnitude of the accomplishment, and the magnitude of the coverage/sponsorship dollars, etc. generated from said accomplishment. This probably doesn’t mean much to the average climber, but think about it’s impact on the guys who “go pro”. Who gets to “go pro”? Clearly you need to be a top tier climber, but you also need media “strategy” of some kind. This can be something you hatch up, or more likely you are “marketable” so someone else promotes your image for you. But what is “marketable”? It may, and often does, mean that they can make money off of you for reasons that have little or nothing to do with your actual climbing ability. Given that sponsorship is generally viewed as something that is given based on objective measurements of climbing ability, herein lies the problem.
In this example, were the climbing media to be objective about coverage based on the magnitude of the accomplishment, Alex would have gotten a bunch of coverage (based on the coverage he has received in the past). So this is a clear example that points to the nonobjective nature of the climbing media, and that is what I hear Alex saying. I don’t at all hear him whining “look at me, look at me”. That’s what I have heard him saying all along, saying his accomplishments are no big deal. OFTEN he is overly humble in this regard, but the point still sticks with me, and I always admire his class for saying it.
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Funny ive heard the humility thing tons of times, but i dont see that in him. I see a very self satisfied person feigning humility to make his feats even cooler. Thats ok, lots of people do this. But the annoying part is starting a climbing article by mentioning that no one cares. If you are really into your climbs and psyched about what you do, you dont really care who is looking. Let me state clearly ” I DO THINK HONNOLD IS BADASS AND REALLY A GREAT CLIMBER” but climbing a soul sport, not a ‘look at what i can do’ sport. If honnold hadnt just trippled a few months ago, maybe it would be impressive, but personally i still dont see how doing a triple solo is some sort of bench mark, i mean progression is about pushing the envelope. Sport climbers sometimes come off onsights destroyed and cant even get back on rock that day, and we are talking super negative 5.14+ cllimbs. Honnold is obviously not pushing the envelope for himself if he can do three climbs in a row. i dont want to egg on some sort of suicidal climb, but i think people will be impressed when you do something that really pushes you to your limits. once you do something a number of times, its really not going to be yoru limit anymore. if i consistently climb 5.10, people arent going to be that psyched about it, but when i move up to 5.11 its noteworthy…
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Perhaps what you are failing to see is that, when Honnold doesn’t push the envelope for himself, he REALLY harps on the “this is no big deal” thing, but when he pushes the envelope, he might even be so bold as to say he thinks he did something special (can’t remember the incident, but this did actually happen once, I think it was a Yosemite triple solo of some sort. So yes, according to Alex what he just did is more impressive than one of the lone incidents that he felt the coverage was in proper proportion to the accomplishment.), or more likely just not go on about how it wasn’t a big deal.
I would agree with you that a strong element of Alex’s marketability as a climber comes from his humble attitude toward rock climbing, but if what your hearing is him saying “my climbs are not that impressive” as a way to play down his accomplishments in order to be more marketable, I think you are misreading it. I think the truth is that he really believes that sometimes they are covering him because he really did something rad, and sometimes they are covering him because he is Alex Honnold, and he has the class to point this out. That’s way more of a soul climber kind of thing to do than a “wow look at me” kind of thing to do. Also, you can choose to hear either message here, that Honnold is just being faux humble, or that Alex really thinks that sometimes he is being covered for being rad and other times it is just because he is who he is and that he points this out. Keep in mind that your interpretation of this message is what really determines what message effectively gets sent.
Your point about these sport climbers is a perfect example of exactly what I think Alex is talking about when he says his climbs are no big deal. His argument is that people in other places are doing more impressive rock climbing, and that should have been covered instead. You seem to kind of agree with his argument. I also think those climbers would get more coverage if you could convince people that real soul climbing was happening by folks who were also pushing the limits in sport climbing, but somehow in too many peoples eyes climbing at ones limit necessarily infringes upon spiritual fulfillment from climbing. I would like to see that attitude change, and I feel Alex helps nudge things in the right direction by being a real soul climber who pushes his limits.
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Maybe, I just feel he can do more. Not only in soloing but also for climbing as a sport. Maybe I read to much into that one sentence in his article. But something about it seemed just out of place.
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Alex said it himself: the hardest part was the descent/logistics. Since all descents are lame, it’s difficult to care.
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Lol Derek. He also said “It was the hardest free soloing effort I’ve put in.” which I would interpret as him saying the sum total of the routes was more difficult here than any other combination of big wall solos he has done. So the truth could be found by comparing the difficulty of the these routes with the difficulty of other routes he has soloed in a day. Anyone know the answer? Is it in fact very likely that, pitch for pitch, this linkup is harder than other things he or any other big wall soloist has done? It seems to me that answering this would answer the question of whether this is Alex whining, or if it is him just doing his usual thing of trying to say definitively if his accomplishment was rewarded with the appropriate amount of attention. Personally I think the guy has a pretty good (but not flawless, no one does) track record in terms of integrity, so I am fine to assume it’s just Alex doing his usual thing. I also agree that Alex Honnold whining feels definitively out of place.
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