Alex Honnold Shares His WORST Climbing Experience

best or worst big wall pooping stories vastness of Jordan Cannon and Tommy Caldwell not to put you on not to put pressure on you but they both had great stories I have better for sure perfect yeah no I'm curious oh well I mean it depends let me hear some competition I'll frame my uh like what was Tommy I'm trying to remember I remember he was like he was doing uh he's pooped on a wall so many times totally yeah he was doing something I can't remember exactly what he was climbing maybe it was when he did his double and he was doing um the Free Rider afternoon magic mushroom or something but he uh he didn't know that Dean Potter was doing some like link up variation that hadn't been done yet so he like went over to the other side of this ledge and like pooped off this ledge thinking it was totally out of the way of everything and ended up being like right where Dean Potter like had to climb through on this like link up or whatever new Rudy was doing or new variation yeah that would be the round table that's on the Free Runner that's classic that's like his poop that's classic yeah that's funny yeah no I have a bunch of uh pooping while free soloing stories okay because nothing nothing loosens you up like like uh I really sort of you know you're like oh I kind of poop you're like this is really scary uh I'm like which I don't even know which one to start with they're a bunch of like extreme there's a recent one that's maybe always too embarrassing not embarrassing but it's like a bit much I'm like is it for public consumption I've told all my friends I think it is insane you think it is I think it is okay so here's here's the story uh so this last fall I was uh working on the hurt the Big Red Rock Traverse Hans ultimate red director verse which actually um I think real rock is releasing a film of it in like next week or something but so there should be a little like 30 minute film online of like doing this Traverse but the but the Traverse is me doing all the peaks in Red Rock I did like 14 class agree with blah blah blahs whatever so like giant day but on this specific day I was uh just going up to do uh Crimson Christmas actually I was going to do the entire uh entire entire Rainbow Mountain massive through the night so that's like Crimson Christmas over to the rainbow wall up the bird Hunter buttress across and down solar so that was like three classic Roots up and over this mountain summoning a couple different things big hiking I thought it would take me about five hours of soloing into the dark and I thought that when I did the whole Traverse I would get there at night time so I'd intentionally hike it in from the exit of Red Rock uh sort of near dark intending to do it all in the dark uh so it'd be more realistic for the ultimate Traverse that I was working on anyway uh some context I think I'd give myself Giardia earlier that season in Red Rock uh drinking untreated puddle water because it was really hot and there were a couple days where I wound up doing much more than I expected and you're hiking on these Canyons there's a heavy Monsoon last summer so there was still some water in the canyons and places and some of the puddles look good anyway doesn't matter but I had some things going on with my bowels which whatever then more contacts because there was a lot of water there were there was crazy mosquito here so like at dawn and dusk there were like crazy dense mosquitoes out which which I didn't know existed in Red Rock I've never experienced it before but so all that to say so I ate dinner with my wife hiked into the Canyons at like sunset-ish it was hot I was like felt kind of gross because you're hiking uphill really quickly in extreme heat September in Vegas I was dying I got to Crimson it was like oh I feel like I'm dying it started selling this root which is a I don't know like an eight or ten pitch eight plus but it's like really hard actually and it's like a blank face with no relief like there are no Ledges there's no anything I was getting swarmed by mosquitoes the whole time getting eaten alive and basically two pitches from the summer I was like my pants I was like oh no it's like very dire no ledge you're not standing on a legend no no they're no like there aren't even Legends to pop your shoes or anything it's like you're just on a blank face yeah and uh and really like Smooth varnish rocks small holes usually like it's like a really blank face and I was like and it was getting dark dark to the point where I needed a headline soon and I was like basically I'm racing for the summit getting eaten alive by mosquitoes about my pants and I was like I hope I make it to the top before I have to pull on my headlamp I mean it's fine I had a backpack on I could pull out my headlight up and do all that stuff but you would just be hanging there one-handed while you fish for your light and whatever I wanted to get to the top anyway maybe the last pitch I was like I'm not making a stop I'm my pants right now I basically climbed the last pitch climbing a few moves basically like clamping to nausea so and then being like if I move unless I'm like this is all disaster anyway I wound up making like two or three emergency moves off route to this like kind of one-handed jug pulled my pants down took on like the side of the route off Route and thankfully kind of fine all very watery very disastrous very Giardia total all bad news and you know eaten alive by mosquitoes it's dark I'm just hanging one-handed took this disaster poop and then couldn't really do any cleanup because I mean I had TP in my backpack but you're kind of like uh so I wound up climbing the rest of the route with my pants around my ankles it just like and then made it to the top of the tower uh still with my pants off and then did my cleanup and like dealt with things and you know it all wound up kind of fun I was like oh it's not like the one-handed like literally just hanging on the side of a clip one hand on a jug like taking a dump and you're like it was all it's all been much oh I was very it's very embarrassing I was all sort of like this is really sad and so I almost bailed for the day because I was like this is not it was like because you go out so long hoping to have this heroic experience where like I feel like a boss and I was like I feel like a little kid that just shoot his pants I was like this is really sad so I almost bailed and went home but then I was like well that's kind of even worse and so I wound up finishing the whole outing and it wound up fine but yeah I was sad thank you for sharing that yeah I just had to get off my chest you know you know I've had a bunch of uh like you know hanging on poops plus I learned because there are a lot of places where you're like there's no ledge for three pitches or something and you're just kind of like well like it's time yeah yeah um Jordan wanted me to ask you about pudding and where you stop to poop on your solo of El Cap well share pudding is just when you poop on a rock and then you hurl The Rock off yeah which is pretty you know it's like a shot put but a put I've done that all over the world I mean in general that's a much better way because it leaves no impact for other climbers and it's cleaner and it's it's fine you know especially if you're in like the middle of nowhere and um you know it's fine yeah don't do it don't do this off your local popular pitch yeah or don't do this like at a normal sport Cliff or you know it's like the point is it's better to hurl it into somewhere that no one will ever go if it's possible now yeah and then when I sold it all Capia I took an emergency dump sort of Midway also you did yeah yeah it's uh they didn't include it in the movie surprisingly but that was sort of poor form that I wound up just going down a chimney uh uh behind the Spire which is like not though I did go in a much better way because people do that occasionally when they're busy there which is kind of poor form but it's because typically if you're roped up and you're doing that you kind of stop at a certain spot and it winds up like Landing I went like way lower and like way further in there and basically pooped into a spot where it's like gone okay um because you know because I was soloing anyway so it was just kind of like I think you get a password yeah and that was kind of the thing I was like it's way better to just go if you like if you feel like you even might need to you should definitely go because you know when you have the Crux of El Cap above you you're sort of like you know this is the time yeah aside from cutting out stopping to take a poop in the middle of your solo were there any amazing scenes or moments that got cut out from that film oh I don't know I mean it was two years of my life like there's so much so much but um anything that you wish had gotten in there no no I mean I would say that the movie Far exceeded any hopes or dreams I had for really oh yeah it's so crazy I got to watch it on IMAX and you're like dude it's a movie about me sending the route that I'm most proud of my life probably on IMAX you're like that's cool it's insane yeah like the footage of all cap is insane it like looks amazing everything about it you're like this is so cool yeah [Music] thank you

Channel: The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Views: 46,660

Keywords: Adam Ondra, Aidan Roberts, Alex Megos, Bouldering, Climbers Crag, Climbing, Emil Abrahamsson, Hannah Morris Bouldering, Hooper’s Beta, Lattice Training, Magnus Midtbø, Outdoor Climbing, Pete Whittaker, Rockclimbing, Tom Randall, Tommy Caldwell, Wedge Climbing, WideBoyz, adam ondra, alex honnold, alex honnold interview, alex megos, climbers crag, emil abrahamsson, free solo, lattice training, magnus midtbø, outdoor climbing, rock climbing, tom randall, tommy caldwell

Id: j7_5NTW1Suo

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2023