Alex Honnold Replies to Fans on the Internet | Actually Me | GQ

everyone I'm Alex Honnold and today I'm going undercover on the Internet it's actually me but would anybody not believe it like why wouldn't it be me Twitter watching Alex Honnold free solo climber on first descent amazing but how does he get down absolutely entrancing capitalised and enthralling people frequently ask how do you get down and the answer is it depends generally I walk down sometimes I down climbs sometimes i repel I mean I have solo things where I carry the rope and then rappel back down but for the most part most things the free solar big cliffs and you can hike off the back side so you just climb up and then scramble on down the back tons on a cliff it's actually me Kimberly with a couple of hearts wonders since hashtag Alex Honnold is an amazing solo climber and at Jared Leto has been climbing with him is Jay solo climbing or sticking with the ropes that's a fair question actually actually Jared's been coming up he's 70 last weeks and uh he has been climbing with ropes I don't say he's a conservative climber but I mean you know he's careful with his body which makes sense because he's not trying to be an extreme climber you know he's he's like an a-list Hollywood celebrity he's not trying to kill himself rock climbing I've actually probably spend more time strolling with Jared than then climbing with a rope maybe I don't know basically I should ask him I don't like give away his secrets you know boom boom Wikipedia though honestly the van is kind of nice I'd like having everything within arm's reach sometimes you get put up in a really classy hotel room and it's really big and you have to walk quite a ways to the bathroom and you're like man I wish I had my PT Barnum who wants to walk all the way as the bathroom in the middle of the night when you could just lean over grab your bottle and go I probably did say this certainly the sentiment is true enough I feel like I could have said L or more eloquently it is kind of a pet peeve when you get put in really nice little rooms and it's really far between you know when you're used to living in a van you want everything within within a six foot radius it doesn't make any sense to go bumbling in the dark trying to find the bathroom boom Quorra I don't know where it is but it seems important what is it like to climb El Capitan that's a broad question I mean in the general sense is really cool but it totally depends how you're doing it because sometimes it takes five days sometimes it takes two hours it depends what you're doing so sometimes it's an incredible amount of work sometimes it's a joyous morning and you're down by brunch depends how you're doing it posted how would Alex Honnold perform on American Ninja Warrior I think the short answer is poorly I'm not a very good ninja but the longer answer is that American Ninja Warrior is all dynamic light metric e.type bouncy explosive strength that's like the opposite of what I normally do and so I'm really bad at that kind of stuff a lot of my friends are involved with that but it's not my jam which feet is technically more impressive slash difficult Alex Honnold cerisola or Tommy Caldwell's scale of the dawn wall Tommy's climb with the dawn wall is much more difficult it's rated more difficult it took a much more effort everything about it is harder he spent 19 days on the wall to successfully climb there's very very difficult route ins arguably the hardest people in the world that said the free solo is sort of this unquantifiable you know yeah it's not that technically difficult but nobody's done it for a reason because it's really kind of scary and it's dangerous in some ways they represent the two opposite ends of the spectrum but from the phrasing of this question yeah Tommy's kind of the dawn wall is much harder how big or Alex Honnold hands they're this big I mean they're not crazy I mean they're not like an NBA players but I think they're they're pretty big how does Alex Honnold control his anxiety when climbing it's weird talking about myself in the third person but how do you control an xiety I think the main reason that I stay comfortable while climbing is through preparation through training through practice whatever you want to call it but basically I spend enough time climbing that I feel very comfortable doing it the key for me has been to take small steps outside of my comfort zones so that eventually I feel comfortable in situations that I wouldn't have before so it's not so much a matter of getting into a situation where I feel really scared and then trying to control the fear it's a matter of slowly broadening to the point that I just don't feel that scared doing things that used to be scary could a good argument to be made for Alex Honnold would be the greatest sports person in history I would strongly disagree with that but that's not really my argument to make and pretty much bad at every other sport and I wound up being a climber because I'm bad at everything else so I would argue that there are many other athletes who are much more well-rounded and much better sports people but you know who knows are there any other climbers that have the technical skill and physical strength to accomplish Alex Holland's free solo climbing all capitan but for whatever reason haven't tried if so who are they this is an interesting question because there are a bunch of other climbers that have the physical strength and technical skill to freestyle all CAP I mean they're probably fewer than 10 people in the world who have climbed El Cap with ropes but haven't fallen off like haven't used the rope for assistance they have you know they've never weighted the rope so technically any of those people could have climbed it without a rope if they want to do and then of them none of them are soloists and of them are interested in free soloing so there's no real likelihood that any of them are gonna free solo cap I think that at this moment there's nobody seriously considering a potential three-syllable cap but you know certainly in the next 20 years like somebody will no question but time will tell how do I or should I start free soloing that's a question you have to sort out for yourself I think if you have to ask how to start free stalling you need to just go up on you know just climb the gym go climb I mean yeah basically it's not for me to say they should be internal it should be your own motivation you should be called to it you should be interested I mean whatever well Alex Honnold be in the 2020 Summer Olympics so I think I will be at the Olympics in Tokyo as a commentator for the Olympic Channel I think but no I will not be competing in the Olympics I'm much too old I'm much too weak the people that are going to win the Olympics are all sort of late teens maybe early 20s a couple of the world champion women right now or you know 15 to 19 type range it's kind of likely gymnastics where people are young and that young and not that strong is Alex Honnold going to stop climbing that is a hard now even if I eventually get older and lose the passion for the heart you know for pushing myself harder for the free so Liam you're not always climbing I live I mean I love climbing I love gonna doors I love scrambling in the mountains I'll always be a climber but you know I might not be pushing myself as an extreme climbing my whole life thanks for all the questions that's it for me today enjoy [Music]

Channel: GQ Sports

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Keywords: actually me, alex honnold, free solo, undercover, goes undercover, alex honnold interview, honnold, alex honnold gq, undercover celebrity, celebrity goes undercover, alex honnold 2020, alex honnold gq sports, alex honnold undercover, alex honnold goes undercover, alex honnold actually me, alex honnold twitter, alex honnold free solo, alex honnold climbing, alex honnold el capitan, alex honnold climber, alex honnold video, sports, gq sports, gq

Id: qvJIuZuApAQ

Length: 6min 12sec (372 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 21 2020