Lauded, examined, written about - I agree.
Taught - Not so sure. Alex Honnold is an extreme outlier. We mortals may marvel but Im not sure his feat can be replicated so easily. I may be wrong.
The guy is simply rad. I couldn't stop laughing at this:
A lighter moment came later, Honnold said, when he passed some climbers who had spent the night on a ledge. He did his best not to wake them.
"I woke up one guy and he sort of said, 'Oh, hey.' Then when I went by, I think he discreetly woke up his buddies because when I looked down they were all three standing there like 'What the f?'*
Imagine yourself and your buddies 3/4 up the mountain and you see a guy coming down solo. It must take a minute to process the thought that he must have climbed up.
wtf did I just see? Oh shit!!
I was reading a another article about this ascent yesterday and they brought up a great point. Prior to Roger Bannister running the 1st sub 4 minute mile it was thought to be impossible and beyond a humans capabilities. Once that barrier fell many more quickly pushed through it. There is something to someone moving the bar of what is possible. As a species we are incredible in our abilities and resolve to continually push ourselves.
In the case of the 4 minute mile, I assume lots of runners were training and were reasonably close, and of course someone has to be the first. I don't know if it can be shown that the first 4 minute mile inspired a bunch of other people to follow suit so quickly.
Of course it should be taught -- that doesn't mean everyone ought to try ridiculously dangerous feats like Alex did. But the practices that allowed him to do so are worthwhile nonetheless.
Maybe we're operating under two different definitions of "taught" here. You're using "taught", I think, in the sense of giving someone an "impressive feats in the history of climbing" lecture. Which, sure, why not.
The parent seems to be using "taught" in more the sense that a master teaches an apprentice: giving you the skills, yes, but also putting you in that same situation, or encouraging you to participate in such a climb. Like, picture a skydiving instructor, only they're a "free-solo this particular mountain" instructor. They're giving you instruction and practice with the implicit goal of doing this dangerous thing at the end, and with the implicit suggestion that the course will be all you need to be fully prepared to do the thing at the end, with little risk.
Such "teaching" would be very unlikely to succeed; it would more-often-than-not just kill people.
Alex is famous because he does "free soloing" - which doesn't use any ropes or safety at all. More people do "free climbing" which uses ropes just in case of fall.
Anyone have any idea how often free climbers end up falling and needing their ropes? Could many good free climbers do what Honnold did, but just like the added bits of safety?
I climb but not at anywhere near the level of Honnold. That being said, free climbers fall quite a bit. Sport climbing, that is using bolts that are pre-placed as protection, often involves pushing to one's limit which of course means falling. Traditional climbing, using special gear and features in the rock for protection, does not involve as much falling since there is a higher risk of your gear popping out of its placement.
Honnold has climbed this route with ropes many times and no doubt fell while doing it. He was well aware that he was capable of completing the climb without a fall.
Any idea of how many people have free climbed this route? I'm really curious to know if Honnold is a one-of-a-kind climber or there are similar skill level climbers who just aren't willing to risk it without ropes?
Either way he's amazing, but I'm curious to know how amazing.
This route, called the Freerider, has been free climbed by a lot of people. It is arguably the easiest free climb on El Cap. That being said it is out of the range of most climbers. I will assume you are not familiar with climbing grades, here is an overview:
It's worth noting that a route's difficulty is based on the hardest section. So the rest of the route is generally less, and in some places a lot less.
This is not to diminish in anyway the difficulty of a 5.12d, but might be good background for those not familiar with climbing.
As a fairly experienced climber, this is a very difficult route; one that only the most elite climbers can free climb. But, free climbing it isn't necessarily rare and even as Honnold did this free solo, other parties were camping on the wall.
There's little data on this sort of topic, but I'd estimate that less than 0.25% of climbers achieve the level of physical skill and technical expertise required to free climb Freerider.
Agreed, the other replies to this question seem to understate the difficulty of the route. It's a lifetime achievement for almost any climber. I'd ballpark that it's been free climbed by 100-300 people?
People are referring to free climbing this particular route, Freerider, which is 5.12d/5.13a. It gets done, but it is hard enough there are usually blurbs about it in magazines and in the climbing media when someone completes it without aid.
1) When using gear (unlike Alex), you have to repeatedly stop and insert it, referred to as "protection." This slows progress and your partner has to then stop and remove that protection as you ascend. After each pitch (think a rope length), you then have to set up an anchor and organize/sort the gear before progressing. So, using and managing gear takes considerable time.
2) Two climbers are usually taking turns, with one belaying while the other climbs.
3) Alex has a level of competence on rock unmatched by us other climbers; his mastery allows him to swiftly glide through sections where most climbers would need more time to think about the moves, analyze the options, etc.
4) Alex was very familiar with the route, with many sequences memorized. Doing the route with less familiarity is like a puzzle, resulting in slower progress as you figure out how to get through various sections.
5) Alex has better stamina with less need for rest.
6) This is a hard route, and many climbers might fall or rest on their gear repeatedly while working through difficult sections.
I'm sure I'm leaving out a few reasons but in a nutshell, keeping it simple (no gear, no partner, no unknown moves, etc.) increases efficiency.
Additionally, once you are going to spend more than a day on a wall you have to also bring along camping gear and additional food, especially water. This means erecting elaborate haul systems after every pitch and slows things down dramatically.
While free climbing, you also need to wait for your partner to climb the same section. Which effectively almost doubles the time.
You don't have that limitation while going solo.
The difference in skill between Alex Honnold and the majority of other climbers can't be overstated. But I think the main difference in speed has to do with familiarity. Alex didn't just go up to this wall and start climbing it. He's done it over and over and over and over again. He know what moves he needs to make and how to do them. You climb much quicker when you don't have to do any route finding.
Honnold climbed it incredibly quickly. Most people take three or four days, this is a very long and very difficult route. If you've ever been to an indoor top rope gym, imagine picking the hardest route and doing it about 80 times.
Honnold and Tommy Caldwell climbed it as a traditional roped team in around six hours while rehearsing for the solo. It comes down to the competence of the team and how well they know the route. I can promise you that Honnold knew every single foot placement off by heart by the time he hiked up to solo it.
3,300 feet of climbing is a lot of climbing. Most non-pro climbers will be winded and in need of a rest after a couple hundred feet of climbing. Also, it is easier to move without ropes since you never have to sort gear or re-coil your rope.
A lot have free climbed it, but it is a major project for most who do. Here is a great account from James Lucas of what it takes for a more normal human (who is still a pro climber) to climb the freerider:
http://eveningsends.com/the-day-i-sent-freerider-in-a-day/
Climbing has many different disciplines, lets not confuse marathon runners with sprinters. Honnold is the best big wall speed climber out there, hands down. Of course, to set speed records these days you not only need to be in top physical condition, you've got to compromise or abandon altogether your reliance on safety gear.
> Any idea of how many people have free climbed this route? I'm really curious to know if Honnold is a one-of-a-kind climber or there are similar skill level climbers who just aren't willing to risk it without ropes?
I don't know how many people have freed that particular route (called "Freerider"), but SuperTopo says it's one of the easier routes on El Cap to free climb[0] (though it's still not any "easy" route by any stretch).
But I think it's safe to say that Honnold is a one of a kind climber because free-soloing something takes a significantly higher level of self-control and self-confidence than freeing the same route does. So he's one of a kind precisely because he's willing to risk it without ropes.
Even if free climbing this route without falling once is well within someone's skill, free soloing it is likely not. It'd require serious mental preparation.
> Could many good free climbers do what Honnold did, but just like the added bits of safety?
"Many" people climb that route with protection.
However, to better put this in perspective, it is plausible this feat will not be repeated for decades, if ever. I would qualify this as the greatest sports achievement of all time.
Successfully free climbing the freerider is a lifetime achievement even for professional climbers, often requiring up to a week on the wall. To do it in under 24 hours is the realm of the most elite climbers only.
To be able to approach it as "four hours of light exercise" as Honnold did is an incredible feat in its own right, even before the whole certain-death-for-one-mistake bit gets factored in.
When people push difficult sport routes, they may fall fairly frequently. When doing an easier route, or if you are trad climbing, you really shouldn't fall.
Should, or shouldn't, is all theory, though.
Last year, a friend of mine who introduced me to climbing fell to his death on a trad climb. I don't know what happened, but I assume his protection equipment slipped out of where he placed it.
When working moves, you fall constantly. I was out on Saturday working on my latest project and I probably fell twenty times. Honnold worked Freerider extensively and no doubt fell a lot while getting it all dialed in.
and DEATH.
In all seriousness, Alex's mental and physical conditioning to achieve this goal should be lauded, examined, written about, and taught.