Alex Honnold
Alex Honnold: A Soul Freed
I’d been there physically for quite a long time. Really, it was the mental side that took so many years to develop.
Alex Honnold
Professional rock climber
Setup
On June 3, 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person to climb the 3,000-vertical-foot granite face of Yosemite’s El Capitan, alone, without ropes, a feat that was chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary, Free Solo. In his New York Times op-ed column, Bret Stephens wrote that with that act, “Honnold gave an extraordinary gift to everyone who believes that the limit of human achievement is far from being reached.” The climber and journalist explore questions like: How do you manage fear? What's the line between daring and recklessness? What should we sacrifice in the pursuit of excellence? And what is the connection between freedom and happiness?
- 2019 Festival
- Society
- Health
- Full transcript
Mentality, muscles, and 3,000 feet of rock
Mentality, muscles, and 3,000 feet of rock
From dirtbagging to the cover of Nat Geo
Risking it all... But for what?
What could be next after free soloing El Cap?
1.
Mentality, muscles, and 3,000 feet of rock
Jump to idea
03:01
Free soloing, or rock climbing without any ropes or safety equipment, takes a staggering amount of physical strength. But when Alex Honnold decided to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, he was more concerned about his mental confidence:
2.
From dirtbagging to the cover of Nat Geo
Jump to idea
10:15
Before Alex Honnold became famous for his free soloing feats, he was a full-time dirtbag who admired the graceful accomplishments of other record-setting climbers. But that all changed when it was his turn to achieve the impossible.
Know the Slang
Dirtbag isn’t an insult in the climbing world — it means someone who lives semi-nomadically (usually out of a van) so that they can devote most of their time to climbing.
Honnold’s full-time hobby was now his full-time job, and he accumulated sponsorships and highlight reels. And not only that, but the filming that eventually became the documentary Free Solo took place over two years of his life. He describes what that transition was like for him:
3.
Risking it all... But for what?
Jump to idea
23:12
Alex Honnold’s personal hero, climber Tommy Caldwell, famously called Honnold out for what Caldwell saw as reckless and dangerous free solo climbs. And Caldwell isn’t the only one who thinks free soloing is wantonly risky—In 2014, Clif Bar dropped its sponsorship of Honnold and other athletes whom Clif Bar thought were putting themselves in too much danger. Honnold, obviously, thinks differently about it:
4.
What could be next after free soloing El Cap?
Jump to idea
27:11
Alex Honnold’s free solo ascent of El Capitan was called “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever” in the New York Times, and it’s left a lot of people wondering what Honnold will accomplish next. Bret Stephens asks if he’s planning anything, and that leads Honnold to explain how he thinks of these feats in his own mind:
Learn More
Additional Information
Resources
Free Solo (Film)–National Geographic
Alone on the Wall by Alex Honnold
Explore More
Society
806 ideas
Blog
Preparing for the Health Threats of Our Changing Climate
Our changing climate represents one of the greatest challenges to health for the 21st century. Though all of humankind is at risk, communities with weak health and public heal...
Article
Blog
Why the Next Biomedical Revolution Starts with New Imaging Tools
Soon, we may be able to visualize any biological process in the human body, at any scale, in real time. Here’s what it will take to get there. Presented by Chan Zuckerberg Ini...
Article
Q&A
How the Courts Are Shaping Health Care as We Know It
Katie Keith is director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at Georgetown University Law Center, where she is adjunct professor of law. Keith’s analysis focuses on way...
Article
2022 Health
Best Friends: How Animals Bolster Human Health
Video — 50m 6s
Blog
How to Tune-In to Aspen Ideas: Health 2022!
Watch select daily livestreams and join the virtual #AspenIdeasHealth conversation from June 22-25!
Article
Q&A
The Dangers of Our Bias Towards Beauty
Neurologist Anjan Chatterjee explains why humans evolved to enjoy beauty, how sociocultural contexts shape our aesthetic preferences, and the "beauty is good" stereotype.
Article
Collection
How Supreme Court Decisions Impact Our Lives
The highest court often seems distanced from our day-to-day lives, but the rulings that come out of the Supreme Court are woven into the fabric of the nation. Though it aims t...
11 items
Blog
Research Equity is the Foundation of Health Equity
Race, ethnicity, age, sex, environment, and other social determinants of health can all impact how different people respond to the same medicine or vaccine. This is why divers...
Article
Essay
Supporting Reproductive Autonomy Post-Roe
"My organization in Tulsa is making pregnancy tests, emergency contraception, and condoms available, but these solutions need to be scaled and distributed more broadly." Laura...
Article
Essay
The Lack of Diversity in Health Care is a Public Health Crisis
"As long as my existence as a Black physician is noteworthy, communities of underrepresented minorities’ health will suffer." Jabraan Pasha, a 2022 Aspen Healthy Communities F...
Article
Q&A
Health Fellow Spotlight: Lea Masamo, Africa Sickle Cell Organisation
Meet Lea Masamo, a 2022 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who's building a movement of people living with sickle cell disease to advocate for programs and policies needed to improve...
Article
Q&A
Health Fellow Spotlight: Kistein Monkhouse, Patient Orator
Meet Kistein Monkhouse, a 2022 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who's bridging gaps in patient/provider communication with a storytelling app that empowers people to own the narrati...
Article
Q&A
Health Fellow Spotlight: Neale Batra, Applied Epi
Meet Neale Batra, a 2022 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who's on a mission make the field of epidemiology more efficient, collaborative, and equitable through open-source software...
Article
Q&A
Health Fellow Spotlight: Lucy He, Aspen Tech Policy Hub
Meet Lucy He, a 2022 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who's using technology and policy change to address critical delays in patient care caused by the "prior authorization" process...
Article
Blog
Searching the World Around Us for Clues About Our Health
Can the data collected through smartphones, wearable sensors, and passive monitoring devices be turned into actionable knowledge about the environmental impacts on our health?...
Article
Announcement
Announcing the 2022 Aspen Challenge Winners
We're proud to announce the 2022 winners of The Aspen Challenge, four amazing teams of young people designing solutions to some of the most critical problems facing their comm...
Article
May 17, 2022
Digital Surveillance and the Fight for Reproductive Rights
Podcast — 1h
Blog
Making an Investment in Health Equity
Hospitals and health systems have a critical role to play in turning health equity talk into action. Learn how the field is using strategic investments to drive innovative sol...
Article
Collection
Aspen Ideas 2021: A Playlist
From blockchain to back to school and virus-hunting to bridging divides, speakers at the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival addressed issues in a new kind of world—one touched, and cha...
11 items
Mar 29, 2022
Remembering Madeleine Albright
Podcast — 55m
Sorry, we couldn't find any results
Clear filters
