Alex Honnold: Free Solo Ascents, Speed Records, Films, and the Climber Behind El Capitan

Alex Honnold is an American rock climber from California and the most famous free solo climber in history. On June 3, 2017, he made the first free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, going up the Freerider line without a rope in 3 hours and 56 minutes. That climb became the subject of Free Solo, the award winning documentary by Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi. But his career goes far beyond one route: a speed record with Tommy Caldwell, first ascents in Patagonia and Greenland, a live Netflix climb of Taipei 101, and a foundation that funds solar energy access worldwide. This profile covers his life, his biggest achievements, the films about him, and what any athlete can learn from the way he prepares.

Alex Honnold at a glance

• Born: August 17, 1985, in Sacramento, California.
• Known for: ropeless big wall ascents, speed records, and the film Free Solo.
• Most famous ascent: the first free solo of Freerider (5.13a) on El Capitan, June 3, 2017.
• Speed record: The Nose of El Cap in 1 hour 58 minutes with Tommy Caldwell, June 6, 2018.
• Highest grades: 5.14d (9a) redpoint, V12 bouldering, and 5.13a without a rope.
• Honors: a Piolet d'Or in 2015 for the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia.
• Family: married to Sanni McCandless since September 2020, with two daughters.
• Home base: the Las Vegas area, an ideal location for desert sandstone and a location close to big desert walls.

Early life in California

Alex grew up in Sacramento, California. He started climbing at age 5 in a California gym and by age 10 was training many times a week. He graduated from Mira Loma High School in 2003 and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, to study civil engineering. During his first year his parents divorced, and he left school to follow his love of the vertical world.

For more than a decade, he lived out of a van, first his mother's minivan and then, from 2007, a Ford Econoline that he drove between the High Sierra, the California desert, and the best crags in the American West. He has said he loved being in the Valley and "basically wherever the weather is good." His original van became part of his legend, a symbol of the dirtbag life that so many American athletes share. In 2017 he bought a home in the Las Vegas area, although for a while he kept sleeping in the van parked in the driveway. The location gives him quick access to long sandstone routes, and the granite of California remains close to his heart.

If you are just starting out, our introduction to rock climbing and our indoor gym guide explain how a gym kid like the young Alex makes the jump to real stone.

The rise of a free solo climber

He first drew wide attention in 2008 with two bold ropeless ascents. In Zion National Park, Utah, he climbed the Moonlight Buttress route, about 1,200 feet of 5.12d, in 83 minutes. A few months later he soloed the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, about 2,000 feet at 5.12a, in 2 hours and 50 minutes. The Half Dome climb was featured in the original Alone on the Wall documentary, and a 60 Minutes interview soon brought the young athlete to a mainstream American audience. Climbing magazine, Outside magazine, and National Geographic magazine have followed his career ever since, and The New York Times has covered him many times.

In 2012, he completed the Yosemite Triple Crown alone, linking Mount Watkins, El Cap, and Half Dome in 18 hours and 50 minutes, using aid on some sections. In 2014 he soloed El Sendero Luminoso, about 1,750 feet of 5.12d limestone in El Potrero Chico, Mexico, in just over three hours.

To understand the vocabulary behind these ascents, from onsight to redpoint, read our climbing terms glossary and our guide to redpointing a project.

Freerider: the free solo ascent of El Capitan

For years he dreamed of a ropeless ascent of El Capitan, the 3,000 foot granite monolith at the heart of Yosemite National Park, California. He chose a 5.13a route freed by the Huber brothers in 1998 in Yosemite National Park, and spent two seasons rehearsing it on a rope. His original plan changed more than once: in the fall of 2016 he sprained his ankle on the Freeblast slabs and later abandoned a first attempt. On June 3, 2017, he returned and reached the summit of El Capitan in 3 hours and 56 minutes, early in the day.

It was the first free solo ascent of a full big wall route at that level of difficulty. The New York Times described it as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." The crux, called the Boulder Problem, forced him to trust tiny holds before a wide "karate kick" move to a corner. Our guide to the documentary and the practice covers the route and its history in detail, and our guides to El Capitan and Yosemite's big walls explain how ordinary teams approach the same summit with ropes.

Free Solo and his other films

Documentary filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi and photographer Jimmy Chin spent two years following him. Their National Geographic documentary, Free Solo, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2018, opened in theaters in September 2018, and won the People's Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto festival that same September. In February 2019 it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, along with a BAFTA, and later several Emmys. Jimmy Chin, who had photographed Alex for years, shot many of the key scenes himself. Chin also had to manage a crew of camera operators on the wall, and Chin and his team rehearsed their own positions as carefully as Alex rehearsed his moves, while Chai Vasarhelyi shaped the story around his relationship with Sanni McCandless and his friendship with Caldwell. Today it streams on Disney+ in most countries, as part of the Disney catalog of Nat Geo titles, and Disney+ subscribers can also find his Greenland series there.

The team behind the film did not stop there. Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi went on to make other award winning films, and Jimmy Chin remains one of the top adventure photographers of his generation, and his films often follow athletes over many seasons. Alex has also appeared in many other climbing films and adventure films. Besides Alone on the Wall, he is part of the history told in Valley Uprising, he led the original National Geographic series Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold in 2024, and in 2026 he starred in Skyscraper Live on Netflix. The journalist Mark Synnott also told the story of the El Cap climb in his 2019 book The Impossible Climb.

Speed records with Tommy Caldwell

He is not only a soloist. He is also one of the fastest athletes in history on long routes, and his best known record comes from his partnership with Caldwell.

• The Nose, 2012: with Hans Florine, he set a record of 2 hours 23 minutes 46 seconds.
• The Nose, 2018: on June 6, 2018, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell went up The Nose of El Capitan in 1 hour 58 minutes 7 seconds, the first time anyone broke the two hour mark, beating the original target they had set. That record still defines the modern standard on El Cap.
• The Fitz Traverse, 2014: the pair made the first complete traverse of the Fitz Roy skyline in Patagonia over five days, earning a Piolet d'Or in 2015.

Fast ascents depend on efficient rope systems, simul climbing, and smooth movement on cracks. Our guides to competition speed, jamming technique, and trad protection explain the skills behind each record, while our Fitz Roy guide and our article on Patagonia mountaineering describe the range he traversed.

Expeditions and new challenges

Greenland sea cliffs

In 2022, he sailed to eastern Greenland with a team that included Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schaefer. They made first ascents of two huge sea cliffs: the Pool Wall, about 1,500 feet at 5.12c, and Ingmikortilaq, about 3,750 feet. The expedition became the National Geographic series Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold, released in 2024. If you are curious about routes above the ocean, read our guide to sea cliff adventures.

The HURT near Las Vegas

In October 2022, he completed the Honnold Ultimate Red Rock Traverse, nicknamed the HURT, a long link-up of peaks near his Las Vegas home, in 32 hours and 6 minutes.

Taipei 101

On January 25, 2026, he climbed Taipei 101, the 508 meter skyscraper in Taiwan, without a rope in about an hour and a half. Netflix streamed the climb as Skyscraper Live, bringing ropeless climbing to a global audience as it happened.

How hard does Alex Honnold climb?

He is best known for ropeless ascents, but his roped performance is also strong. His hardest redpoint is 5.14d (9a), his hardest boulder is V12, and his hardest free solo is Freerider at 5.13a. For comparison, top sport athletes such as Adam Ondra and Chris Sharma have redpointed far harder single pitches, and boulderers like Daniel Woods push the V scale much higher. His genius lies elsewhere: in managing fear, in endurance, and in moving with total precision for thousands of feet.

To compare these grades yourself, see our guides to bouldering grades and the Darth Grader calculator.

The Honnold Foundation

In 2012, he committed to giving a third of his income to support solar energy projects, and the Honnold Foundation grew out of that original pledge. The foundation follows a trust-based approach to philanthropy and focuses on solar energy access worldwide, funding community groups that bring clean power to people who lack it. Year after year, the foundation has become as much a part of his story as any ascent.

Personal life

He married Sanni McCandless in September 2020. They have two daughters, born in 2022 and 2024. He is vegetarian and does not drink alcohol. He wrote the memoir Alone on the Wall with David Roberts in 2015 and launched the podcast Climbing Gold in 2021. If you want to fuel your own sessions on a plant-based diet, our climbing nutrition guide covers the basics.

What climbers can learn from Alex Honnold

You do not need to go ropeless to follow his example. His real method is preparation, and that method works for any original goal, from your first lead to a long-term project.

Rehearse and visualize

He rehearsed the route for many days on a rope and kept detailed notes on every sequence. Break your own project into sections, rehearse each one, and visualize the whole line from the ground to the summit before you try to send it. Love the process, not just the result. Many top athletes follow the same original approach, one day at a time.

Build finger strength and endurance

Every major route in his career demanded strong fingers and the endurance to keep them working for hours. A structured hangboard training plan is the most efficient way to build that base. Start with our hangboard protocols, choose the right fingerboard, and train at home on the Unlevel Edge hangboard. Add our climbing endurance methods and a complete training plan, and protect your tendons by learning the signs of an A2 pulley injury.

Master footwork and technique

The Freeblast slabs and long cracks on El Cap reward precise feet more than raw power. Work on your technique with our guides to slab footwork and bouldering technique, and never skip a proper climbing warm-up.

Conclusion

Alex Honnold changed what people believe is possible on rock. His free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park is one of the defining moments in the history of the sport, and the film Free Solo by Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi carried that story far beyond the climbing world. Yet his record also includes a speed record with Tommy Caldwell, a Piolet d'Or in Patagonia, first ascents in Greenland, a live ascent of Taipei 101, and a foundation that supports solar energy access worldwide. For most of us, the lesson is not to drop the rope. It is to prepare with the same patience, train your fingers and endurance, and climb with intention.

FAQ

How old is Alex Honnold?

Alex Honnold was born on August 17, 1985, in Sacramento, California, which makes him 41 years old in 2026.

What did Alex Honnold free solo?

His most famous ropeless ascent is Freerider (5.13a) on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park on June 3, 2017. He has also climbed Moonlight Buttress, the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome, El Sendero Luminoso, and, in 2026, Taipei 101 without a rope.

Who is Alex Honnold married to?

He married Sanni McCandless in 2020. Sanni McCandless appears in the film Free Solo, and the couple has two daughters.

Where does Alex Honnold live?

He bought a home in the Las Vegas area in 2017, but he still spends much of the year traveling in his van, often back to California.

What is the Honnold Foundation?

The Honnold Foundation grew from his 2012 pledge to give a third of his income to solar energy projects. It funds groups working on solar energy access worldwide.