UKC

We speak directly to Alex Honnold about his speed solo of 'The Triple'; the three biggest faces in Yosemite Valley, in a single day.

This ascent is, to put it bluntly, mind-boggling.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=4714

In reply to UKC Articles:

1:16 - foot slip... GULP.

In reply to UKC Articles:

E11...How refreshing to see someone who's not afraid of overgrading :P

In reply to UKC Articles:

"Try to get strong again"

Haha, yeah I'm sure with such an easy project like this, he must've really let his fitness slide.

In reply to UKC Articles:

He really doesn't like media does he. That's the second interview in which you get the impression he's not really much for talking to people for interviews.

Incredibly impressive. I really hope he doesn't feel pressured to try and top this with another mad soloing thing.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Damned impressive...

In reply to mattrm: Im not surprised his answers were somewhat terse, straightforward questions get straightforward answers.

In reply to UKC Articles: This is all going to end badly.

In reply to UKC Articles: That is gob-smacking. I think I'm right in syaing that the first ascents of these routes took a total of 57 days!! How things move on!

In reply to UKC Articles: Mental! As if he just brushed that foot slip off as if it was nothing.

In reply to UKC Articles: The only thing more outrageous than Honnold's Triple Solo was Geldard's attempt to get him to compare it with hard grit!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Incredible effort. Hard to even comprehend!

In reply to Jiduvah:

I'm not so sure - see the little "phew" at 1:30

In reply to Removed User:

Quite! Though not as daft as it sounds. I think Jack is trying to get at the mind set, what's required mentally, what's ticking etc.

However, for me, this did get my vote for L.O.L !!! moment of the year:

Jack: When you came over to
the UK a few years ago, you did some Hard Grit, and soloed London Wall. Spell it out, how does this 'Triple'
compare to that?

Alex: The triple is incomparable to anything in England [at least anything I know]. ..7000ft of
climbing is an awful lot.

Ha ha!

Great interview though.

Dave.

In reply to DAVETHOMAS90:

That did make me giggle too, "So Mr Wiggins you finally won the Tour de France, The World Championship and the Giro d'Italia - how does that compare to coming seventh in the Eddy Soens road Race in 2001?"

And the obvious question not asked:

" So Alex, do you think pitches like The Great Roof and The Changing Corners will be free soloed in the near future and are you the man to do it?"

E

In reply to Enty:

Yeah, that's the elephant in the room all right. But I rather applaud Jack for not asking it.

Looking at that video, let's hope AH isn't planning on soloing any GG sport routes in the near future.

jcm

In Reply To JCM:

Noone is going to be free soloing The Nose in anything even resembling the forseeable future (I'd suggest not even in 100 years barring genetic enhancements for climbing!). Changing Corners and Great Roof pitches Alex (like everyone else) would struggle to redpoint let alone solo. They might be "given" 8b+, but are totally insecure and supposed to be utterly utterly nails for anyone with even slightly big fingers. Alex hasn't even freed the Nose yet - it's still only been freed by two people - Lynn Hill and Tommy Caldwell (Scott Burke got very close after an epic siege). There's a good reason for that...

But what is probably going to happen at some point not too far away is the first free solo of El Cap (ie the main section of El Cap - the West Face has obviously already happened). But it will almost certainly be Freerider when it happens (Dean has already free soloed sections of it.) Lets hope Dean or Alex don't get any pressure to do it though. The thought of it is pretty horrific to be honest (as Alex himself has said.)

In reply to Nemo: I thought Scott Burke had freed the Great roof, but on his last attempt he slipped off it due to wetness in the crack and accepted it as as close as he could be arsed to get? But obviously this means he'd climbed the individual pitches, just not strung together...

I forget the details (depends on how you define free ascent I suppose). And thinking about it, I forgot Beth Rodden too. But the point is it's desperate and hasn't had many free ascents at all...

In reply to UKC Articles: inSANE

In reply to Nemo:

Probably - be nice to hear what Alex has to say about it though.

Having said that - if you could have asked Harding in 1958 "how long do you think it will be before someone climbs The Nose in two and a half hours" The answer would probably have been "Not for a thousand years!"

E

In reply to Nemo:
>But it will almost certainly be Freerider when it happens...

I was having this conversation at High Tor yesterday with two folks much better informed than I, and they reckoned Golden Gate. Harder but more secure climbing apparently. Yikes...

In reply to Adam Long and Nemo:

Yes, agreed, I was stupidly eliding 'soloing The Nose' and 'soloing El Cap'.

I have an idea - gleaned possibly from a supertopo thread on this subject - that Honnold himself has said he doesn't fancy soloing Freerider for the reason AL gives.

But anyway my main point was to applaud Jack for not raising it - I don't think we need any level of media pressure/expectation about it. History isn't kind to climbers with a big reputation as soloists.

jcm

In reply to UKC Articles: You have to laugh at the American word "Fall" at the end of the video.

In reply to JJL: I was referring to the interview, it certainly looked worried on the video