1. Alex Honnold was born on August 17,1985 and is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls.
19 Facts About Alex Honnold
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Alex Honnold is the author of the memoir Alone on the Wall and the subject of the 2018 biographical documentary Free Solo, which won a BAFTA and an Academy Award.
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Alex Honnold started climbing in a climbing gym at the age of 5 and was climbing "many times a week" by age 10.
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Alex Honnold participated in many national and international youth climbing championships as a teenager.
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Alex Honnold dropped out of Berkeley and spent time living at home and driving around California to go climbing.
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In 2007 he free soloed Yosemite's Astroman and the Rostrum in a day, matching Peter Croft's legendary 1987 feat, and suddenly Alex Honnold was pretty well-known.
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Five months afterward, Alex Honnold took the unprecedented step of free soloing the 2,000-foot, glacially bulldozed Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome.
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Alex Honnold gained mainstream recognition after his 2008 free solo of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome was featured in the film Alone on the Wall and a subsequent 60 Minutes interview.
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On June 6,2018, Alex Honnold teamed up with Tommy Caldwell to break the Nose on El Capitan speed record in Yosemite.
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Also in 2021, Alex Honnold started a podcast about climbing called Climbing Gold.
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On October 12,2022, Alex Honnold completed the "Alex Honnold Ultimate Red Rock Traverse", or HURT, in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
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In total, the endeavor took 32 hours and 6 minutes, with Alex Honnold covering 35 miles of running, scrambling, and climbing, logging 24,000' of elevation gain, and summitting 18 out of the 23 peaks in Red Rock Canyon.
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In 2017, Alex Honnold bought a home in the Las Vegas area.
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Alex Honnold met Sanni McCandless at a book signing in November 2015; they became a couple soon after.
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On December 25,2019, Alex Honnold announced, via social media, that he and McCandless were engaged.
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On September 13,2020, Alex Honnold announced via Instagram that he and McCandless had married.
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Alex Honnold's and McCandless daughter, June, was born on February 17,2022.
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Dierdre Wolownick, Alex Honnold's mother, started climbing at age 60 and is the oldest woman to climb El Capitan.
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In 2012, Alex Honnold began giving away one-third of his income to solar projects that increased energy access worldwide.