Adam Ondra and Alex Honnold talk | Sport climbing and big walls climbing

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do you remember i think maybe the first time we met in person in uh bratislava i think yeah it was like an event in the gym where we're supposed to be like meeting kids and stuff and i was like oh this is super casual just be hanging out at the gym and you did like an actual bouldering session where you were going to the death trying like these crazy hard boulders that i was like what and i just remember because you were trying something like some like 8a type boulder or something and you're like jumping to the top of the wall and they're like little kids below you and you're like screaming and i was like you're gonna kill some little kid but you were like training and i was like fully just there to like shake hands with babies you know and be like oh nice to meet people i was like what the [ __ ] i do remember it was it was a good session i enjoyed it i mean mostly i remember that you like walked around and like touched random holes and then like the first thing you climbed was like 7c boulder or something and i was like what and i couldn't even pull off the starting holes that i was like you didn't even warm up though everything about it to me was like completely mind-blowing i was like i didn't even get it it's like is this what climbing is supposed to be actually i remember also because i was so impressed that you could just sit down and be like okay i'll use this this this these holes and then you know you add these three feet and that hole then it should be fine and i was like wow it's a good vision for like root setting always when i go climbing i always want to do my best in a way it's even if i climb like relatively easy route for a warm-up i just wanted to climb it like right i want to feel good while climbing it you know if i go for a warm-up on a 7b i just want to go up and climb it with like the flow with the efficiency and that gives me the satisfaction i mean do you feel like it like sort of flow state or like relaxers then when you're giving 100 effort in most of the climb yes because all the screaming and stuff only happens in the correct move in sport climbing is really important to get there as easy as possible getting up to that point before i start streaming it's more like really this easy and then flow and then at certain point you have to like consider well now i have to start fighting like i think what's so incredible about how quickly you climb is how precisely the movements are you know like when you put your foot on it's still in the right space you know it's all moved nicely it's like i just can't you know i can't move my hands and feet at the same time and like place them well you know so i have to like think about each one like now my foot goes on now my hand it's always like playing the risk you know not risk of falling and hurting myself but risk of for example like falling in a place where i should not where it's fall not because of lack of power but fall because of just mistake because i was like just pushing the speed too much let's say i think the key is getting into that mindset is bouldering more you look at climbing very differently than me i'm like i just don't even understand i'm like what like i can't try that hard at all you know it's like i find climbing very relaxing i find it sort of meditative like i climb but i climb so much easier roots basically i don't like trying my very very hardest you know like obviously i try hard sometimes but only when i absolutely have to you're super good at giving like 100 effort all the time it's like i only like to give 75 effort you know i like giving 100 because it's fun well exactly see i don't like giving 100 because it's hard and it's painful i've been really surprised how you seemingly been going really deep into the sport climbing right last year descending 9a was i think i was surprised you think it's your limit i mean honestly the 9a i did probably ate c plus you know it's one of those things but uh i don't know i mean i i would love in my life to maybe try to calm down a plus just because uh you know an american grades common 515 is like a big step i was really thinking that for somebody who spent half of his climbing life in yosemite and still climbing sport climbing 9a is like wow this is really cool so i was just thinking that you could really climb much harder no i don't i actually i don't think i could climb much harder i mean realistically like i'm just not like naturally that strong you know like i'm i've always been good at climbing 510 like climbing 510 forever you know and like climbing harder than that is it's just hard work how much did you actually have to sacrifice for that 9a if you feel like you don't like really feel like training and giving hundred percent was it more like you just ended up sending it by a chance or did you really fix it as a goal and i want to climb that route and just worked hard for it uh so i didn't i didn't pick that route as a goal my goal was just to climb 9a and then the reality is that there are only a couple options near my home they're only a couple routes so like that's one of them and that's the one that's good in the summer but the i didn't have to sacrifice too much for it because uh i was in the middle of the movie tour for free solo so it's actually the first time in my life that i didn't have any expeditions planned i didn't have any big days i wasn't like going into the mountains or doing anything exciting so all i could do was go to the gym and train and it was kind of like the only thing that kept me sane through all the movie travel was like going to the gym every day but like seriously for for months i would like fly to a city i would land i would go straight to the climbing gym and so it was nice to see all that come together at the end and actually be able to climb a hard route but you know i wouldn't want to live my whole life that way it's like because i i like going mountain biking and like you know soloing big easy routes and things like that the thing is uh i don't know and i'm curious how you think feel about this but i had in my mind i'd always thought if i could climb 9a then i would be like a strong climber and so i was hoping that by climbing 9a it would mean that other climbing would be easy you know that i would like be stronger but the reality is that i'm just not that much stronger like maybe i'm a little bit stronger but like having climbed one hard route like doesn't make me a much better climber you know what i mean at that moment i had a nice peak i climbed very well i felt very strong but overall my level is like maybe a grade you know maybe a half a grade better and you're sort of like man that's a lot of work for a half a grade you know how do you choose which parts of the year just for training you know are you structured around competitions or outdoor projects or what so at the moment for the last two years i'm more structured about the competitions or even outdoor projects for example i decide to go for one month to us and spend my time in yosemite smith rock indian creek but for example for that trip i didn't even specifically like get prepared i went there straight from sport climbing so obviously i knew i wasn't in my best possible shape but it was good enough to like have some fun it's kind of possible for me to like be super motivated and at the same time super psyched and entertained for the training i love the training i love the hard work how do you stay motivated for that kind of thing like how does anybody train that hard the harder i was climbing the more i was discovering within the sport climbing 9b is more interesting in than 9a 9a is more interesting than a b it's not just like holding smaller holes it's like the moves are getting more complex and you have to know like even more tricks how to get to the top of it maybe like the difference seems vague but for me it's enough to like keep me psyched like silence is the most ridiculous example of the route that is hard and it's like the most awkward weird kind of moves you can imagine what what have you been doing the last couple months have you been bouldering at home like training at home or i have a home wall at home and so i was not wasn't only bouldering there but also doing lots of circuits with with no competitions this year now like what are you training for long term it's olympics so still working pretty hard on on the speed climbing and modern bouldering the coordination surprisingly it's quite symbiotic some of the factors that are slowing me down in speed are actually helping me so much in a bouldering as well or like in the modern bouldering the comp bouldering yeah like the jumpiness yeah let's say theoretically the most efficient way how to be as good as possible next year for the olympics would be only climbing on plastic from now on all the way but i wouldn't be able to like remain sane so the good way is now like pretty much change the cycles between three or four weeks of more or less plastic training and then maybe one or two weeks of rock climbing yeah actually do you do you find speed clown entire it's tiring in a very different way especially if you don't know how to do it it's very tiring you you're speeding up and you're climbing faster and the faster you're climbing the more tiring it is like every time you're just trying to like grab the hand holes as fast as possible you're just scratching with your fingernails at the wall and then you make a split in between the the skin and the nail and it's heinous how many uh how many sessions of speed can you train per week maybe up to five oh wow certain days i would do speed morning maybe three hours break and then another session after concession can be even better i'm like what the [ __ ] do you do in three hours of rest that you feel stronger for the next session you have a lunch you have a yoga nidra oh like man like my philosophy also with pachi we have like it's better instead of like training four hours in one session it's better to train four sessions a day one hour each i did uh one like short video for this this thing like i've basically never done the speed wall and i did it for this video for some company in the us where they're like oh speed climbing you know and uh and i was i learned the same thing basically i was shocked by how tired i was and how do you manage the the travel with all the competitions you know like how many days ahead of time do you try to show up like do you try to change your sleep schedule or do you just not worry about it and like you know eating local food like if you show up in china and you're eating lots of spicy noodles and then all of a sudden you're like oh my stomach feels like not so good so one way is to like really travel the day before the competition starts and that way you don't even like try to get used to the time zone i am unable to like start already one week before at home going to bed earlier and trying to adapt it doesn't work for me i just can't fall asleep and it just breaks me up the way it works that you arrive right before the competition works quite well usually the competition takes two days and for me from my experience the third night is always the worst so the third night is already the night after the comp or if it's the other way around i would like come one week or ten days before the competition to like get completely used to the time zone like some years ago i would be like i would get into the at the airport and just drive straight into the gym and do like five hour sessions straight away but i thought like it wasn't very efficient it's funny actually so i i uh i used to also have a rule that anytime i come home from a trip i would go straight to the climbing gym on the way home and it was because my first session always sucked after travel like basically my first time in the gym i would always suck so i figured i may as well get the sucky session out of the way with first and then go home go to bed and then my next session will feel kind of normal again you climb with your girlfriend much what did she do like how often do you guys like go climbing together like normal days out or anything a few times a week yeah cool she's working now for the mountaineering association like organization of the training camps and stuff and she does uh comps and things as well right yeah she made semi-finals last year on the world championships is that uh is that good or bad for you guys to like travel to competitions together because isn't it like kind of weird in some ways if it's like intense for both of you guys and there's like pressure on both and you know it's like weird that i don't know it's like i think it'd be weird to go to the same event both being stressed and like both trying your hardest it's like it's hard to support each other that way you know um sometimes it's difficult sometimes it's helpful like for example if we both make semi-finals it's great it kind of lowers down the pressure i think like my first world championships title in lead she also made semi-finals and for me like it mentally helped me so much because for her it was like a big achievement she was so happy and for me it was already like all right we have a one big achievement already so let's make another one you know what would be interesting it's like uh tapui's in venezuela you know like you know angel falls and stuff like big overhanging walls it's like trad climbing and it's kind of hard and i think it would be challenging for both of us you know i mean like i think that maybe the trad climbing might be a little bit weird for you just because it's like a crazy overhanging quartzite wall and maybe less obvious to protect yeah exactly that's where i would be struggling yeah like weird double ropes with like stuff all over the wall with like plants hanging but then still actually like sort of hard i think i think some of those roots are like still a day you know so it's not like it's not like trivial trad climbing you know i think the factor that where we could really be really good is the speed of the climbing where i don't know like even places like in patagonia where the weather windows are really short have you uh have you ever tried speedcom and stuff nope because actually i mean if you wanted to try some speedcoming i would i would definitely climb some stuff in yosemite with you or or really anywhere but yosemite is kind of the only place that people keep track of records and like care about it that much when i was younger i mean i did the speed record on on pretty much every major formation in yosemite so like you know leaning tower washington's column half dome melcap watkins like pretty much all of them you are filming a lot in these days right no no i think you're probably filming more than me i mean uh because i did the movie and then since then you know the movie tour was like crazy events but i haven't uh i haven't like done any film projects basically since then because uh i mean so like the last two days we shot photos with black diamond up at this new cliff which uh you should see pictures of it's like say used but in nevada it's really cool and anyway so i shot photos of the last two days it's the first time i've done any kind of shooting or filming in like i don't know like months or a year or something like i don't know cool but you didn't you didn't stop being famous right how do you deal with that yeah no i didn't sell i don't know but it feels like i stopped being famous because i haven't done you know because of coronavirus i haven't done an event in so long that uh you know i've only been going to my local wall with only my girlfriend or jonathan basically like just a couple partners and i'm like oh it feels pretty casual you know like i don't know i mean how is it for you i mean like in your hometown do you actually feel you know do people know you and stuff yeah most of them like it's weird for sure you know being on an event for me which is like this is work and the work is like yeah be nice to the people taking pictures and and making signatures that's fine for me but if it's like my time i'm here in the gym i need to train and i don't want to be distracted it's it's difficult yeah i would like to go back into this fame and how do you deal with that maybe going back to when you got famous all of the sudden was it like after the real rock was released of you free soloing the regular northwest on the house dome uh you know people would recognize me from real rock and then i had like a couple commercials and then like maybe some people like basically i never really had a sudden experience of fame but it was like over 10 years i was just more and more well-known like i remember the very first time somebody recognized me in public it was like in this restaurant outside of sacramento and i was just like some random kid climbing in the gym and he was like oh i saw this thing in a film festival and you know it's like are you that guy and i was like what the heck you know like that's crazy but now it's like you know now anytime i go through an airport there will be like at least several people that you know asked to take a picture or something so free solo was definitely the biggest change in my life what's crazy about that is that even that by the time i got to the oscars people are wearing like it's incredibly uh fancy you know in a way that like when you live in a van you're like wow these people look really well dressed i think the most annoying fan things are when people sort of invade personals not personal space but like i've had people like peering through the windows in the van or like uh you know like i once in squamish had some people like standing on the back of my van like taking pictures as they're like they knew that i was in the van because i was like cooking dinner and they were like taking pictures on the van and then they later posted on social media with like look i'm on honolulu's van while honnold is inside cooking you know and you're like what you're like this is my home i go away you know it's like weird like if you have people just like looking through your windows through the house i have the same experience that people don't really see the van the same way as the house they don't have a problem of like banging down the door on in the van when while having dinner like is it possible to get a selfie that's that's kind of something i can't really imagine myself doing that but i know i know it is funny you know i try to always think of like all the people that i've gotten inspiration from you know i think of like you know tommy is like a childhood hero or like kris sharma as a kid you know and i think of like how much of my own effort has been based upon what i sort of took from them you know and i'm like i'm happy to be able to contribute that to somebody in some way you know what i mean it's like i'm sure you have the saying what actually who uh who were your like big heroes growing up in europe you know like you know did you look up like alex huber or like you know wolfgang gulick or yeah gillig was the idol for me the young generation should know about the history much more and i've always like tried to know the history and like getting to the new crack that i didn't know and tried to respect it i think you did the same i don't know how much growth climbing is seeing in europe but like in the us it's crazy with gyms like things just exploding and and so the average climber in the u.s now started climbing in the gym like two years ago basically maybe three years ago and you ask one of them like who chris sharma is and they'll be like oh isn't he some spanish guy or something you know spanish guy that smokes a lot of weed you know stuff like that where you're kind of like oh man like that's crazy you know like don't you know any kind of history and i mean that's a big part of why we're trying to work on on this project because you're kind of like i do feel like there's a risk of certain traditions just disappearing like certain styles you know things like that i mean i i actually kind of think that i think that being a public figure doesn't really give you any more or less right than anybody else to talk about politics talk about you know issues that matter to society i think that you know the size of the platform that you're speaking to actually i think that your only real obligation when you have a big platform is to make sure that you're spreading truths you know basically i think that if you're speaking to many many people then you kind of have an obligation to make sure that what you're saying is correct because many people will take it as as true you know uh whether you intended or not you know basically i think that if you're like a normal person just having a dinner conversation you can like make things up i mean you shouldn't be making things up but like you can throw out statistics that are slightly off and you know like it's fine because you're chatting with your family and if you're a little bit wrong like it's okay but if you have a huge platform i feel like it's important that you're at least correct about what you're saying but i think that anybody should be able to share their opinions freely and just because you have a big platform doesn't mean you should censor your opinions i mean you know i mean we're all citizens of the same world like obviously we should care about the way the world is run and and what happens to it no i mean i think it's important to speak out about things that matter but that when you do do it well you know make sure that you're that you're correct in what you're saying yeah but some stuff is not about being true or or lie some stuff is more about like your own opinion and obviously your opinion is much stronger than some regular joe do you think you should use this influence this possible influence i think that you should be able to engage in a conversation with people it's like if you know like i have a certain set of beliefs about about the world about climate change about you know environmental issues things like that and i'm happy to engage with any of anybody about those kinds of things and i think that most of my positions are justifiable with data you know like basically i could talk you through the arguments for them i could you know i can i can rationalize them you said that at at the moment you kind of feel you climbed everything that you were dreaming about when you were a kid what what's next then is it more like alpine climbing places like patagonia well no that's kind of i mean that's i don't know i honestly don't totally know i mean this year i was planning on climbing uh some bigger mountains and things uh like right now i was supposed to be finishing uh a supperfest three like a big bike adventure with with cedar we were gonna go uh ski mountaineering in the cascades like basically the northwest of the us and go bicycle and ski a bunch of peaks and it was going to be like a a change from climbing to something fun something you know for us very adventurous because we don't know how to ski very well but then because of covid you know everything has changed trips are all done and so i don't know if i've just been at home sport climbing but um and things i love sport climbing i mean i love just going out climbing every day and like being outside and you know what's your relationship with more like alpine stuff in patagonia is it like something you you kind of do because you know you have the ability or you really like the challenge you really like the suffering of it you find it fun uh it's it's a little bit of everything i mean i i enjoy alpine climbing maybe once a year you know or maybe twice a year i think that in some ways i enjoy alpine climbing specifically because it makes me appreciate all the other types of climbing so much more you know you get like i mean i find i find the mountains very beautiful very inspiring it's like nice to go into the mountains but realistically uh you know i'm i'm kind of good after after one trip climbing on el cap it just looks and it is like so much fun zero approach you start climbing and the climbing is perfect climbing in patagonia for sure there will be some fun but only a few hours and then so many other hours of just suffering and gruel work this year in patagonia we climbed a big traverse and you know it was all good and then we got a weather forecast that was supposed to be crazy windy and so we're like oh we should retreat off the side of this mountain and then hike back to town and it was a 12 hour walk back to town and you're sort of like oh 12 hours of walking for like you know with heavy bags and all the equipment for just like a you know a bit of climbing you're just like i don't know i should just stay in yosemite you know i mean i think i think in some ways it's it's bad that i grew up right next to yosemite because for me that's like my home area and it sets a very very high bar you know to be able to like from where i normally camp in yosemite i ride my bicycle to el cap and then i go climb for the day and i run down i ride my bicycle back to the van i camp it's like all so easy and relaxing and then to like go somewhere like patagonia where you have to hike for 12 hours to even get to the rock you're just like oh i think i'd rather ride my bike dale cap you know i think the climbing in europe is almost too civilized you know it's like too nice and so normally if i'm going to travel i go somewhere a little more exotic a little more adventurous i've done i don't know seven or eight expeditions in africa and you know they're they're like more meaningful life experiences but obviously the climbing is like way worse than just going to switzerland or something and like you know climbing beautiful limestone you've also been to czech sandstone right yeah i've come to check sandstone twice i don't really like it it's really run out between the rings and it's hard to get protection and you know looking at big falls and then especially with no chalk it's like hard to even tell where the roots are and whether or not holds will break and it's just like but it's like pretty scary just looking at a blank wall with like no protection no chalk and just being like okay this is a real adventure yeah most people would still find the czech sandstone roots much safer than free soloing but freesoling is normally on like granite cracks which are like perfect rock you know czech sandstone it's like it's nice rock but it's like not perfect didn't i watch a video of you like whipping off some 9a with the drill and stuff on check sansa i actually find the the ethics of like bolting the ground up like really really important and interesting that's the only route that i opened on the czech sandstone but it's like such an adventure it's so cool i would love to open much more have you actually bolted sport clamp ever a couple a couple actually it's funny the first one that i bolted uh i didn't really get the whole sport climb anything i basically bolted it the way i would a wall because i've done a lot of bolting on like big walls and things like that yeah yeah but there it's like because you're hand drilling like you only place the minimum bolts you only place them exactly where you need them and so i bolted the sport route kind of like that and then i was like oh it turns into a pretty scary sport route you know because it only has like exactly the bolts you need and so then uh so then i bolted another one that was a little easier too and that one i actually made an effort to like make it a sport climb where it's like oh your feet are about at level the bolt you clip the next bolt it all feels like nice and safe you know and now i think i'm getting better at it but we'll see i think this weekend i'm going to actually go bolt a couple more bolting and flattening here must be super hard though now in the cave like it's just so big like you know is it a lot of work to like aid climb in between stuff it's not as bad because at least it's relatively clean like the the most work you have to do in like places like spain is actually cleaning it so in flatanga you bolt a day and then you climb in spain or like rodeo will be bolting for a day and then cleaning for another two days so it's actually quite nice actually where where we've been developing is is like perfect rock it's like amazing it's actually well one of the sectors we've uh given them all french names because it's just like say used as like perfect blue limestone with like it's seriously like nothing like it in america it's it's pretty cool so far thanks thanks for making the time to chat tonight sorry i was a little late but yeah yeah pleasure chatting and if you think up a good uh a good idea for an adventure you let me know yeah absolutely cool cool well thanks thanks guys you

Channel: Adam Ondra

Views: 1,554,575

Keywords: Adam Ondra, Climbing, Bouldering, Rock climbing, El Cap, El Capitan, Dawn wall, rock climber, big walls climbing, climbers, Alex Honnold, Black Diamond

Id: 3DcEhqMWPdM

Length: 27min 50sec (1670 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021