Alex Honnold

Honnold began climbing in a gym at the age of five and was climbing many times a week by age 10. He competed in youth climbing championships as a teenager and graduated from Mira Loma High School in 2003 through the International Baccalaureate Programme.

He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, to study civil engineering, but increasingly skipped classes to climb and boulder. After his parents separated and his father died during his first year of college, Honnold left Berkeley and pursued climbing full-time.

After leaving college, Honnold traveled around California in his mother's old minivan and practiced routes repeatedly with ropes before attempting them without protection. In 2007 he free soloed Yosemite's Astroman and the Rostrum in one day, matching a feat previously completed by Peter Croft.

In 2008 he became the first person to free solo Zion's Moonlight Buttress and Yosemite's Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. The Half Dome ascent, which took two hours and 50 minutes, helped establish him as one of the leading free solo climbers of his generation. His achievements also included a 2012 speed record on El Capitan's Nose with Hans Florine, completed in 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 46 seconds.

On June 3, 2017, Honnold completed the first free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He climbed the 3,000-foot Freerider route, a 5.13a big-wall climb, in 3 hours and 56 minutes without ropes or other protective equipment.

The ascent was filmed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi for Free Solo. Released in 2018, the documentary followed Honnold's years of preparation and training and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the BAFTA Award for best documentary. In 2018, Honnold and Tommy Caldwell also completed the Nose in 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 7 seconds, becoming the first climbers to break the two-hour barrier on the route.

Honnold continued pursuing major climbing projects after El Capitan. In 2014, he and Tommy Caldwell became the first pair to complete Patagonia's Fitz Roy Traverse, a five-day journey across a seven-peak ridgeline. Honnold and Colin Haley later completed the Torre Traverse in Patagonia in under 21 hours.

In 2022, Honnold completed the Honnold Ultimate Red Rock Traverse in Nevada's Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The effort covered 35 miles of running, scrambling, and climbing, included 126 pitches, and involved summiting 18 of the area's 23 peaks.

Honnold also climbed with Hazel Findlay on the first ascent of Ingmikortilaq, a 3,750-foot sea cliff in eastern Greenland. The expedition gathered climate measurements and ice-cap data and became the subject of the 2024 National Geographic series Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold.

In January 2026, Honnold free soloed Taipei 101, the 508-meter, 101-story office tower in Taiwan. He reached the top of the spire in 1 hour and 36 minutes, becoming the first person to climb the building without a rope.

The ascent was streamed live on Netflix in the special Skyscraper Live. Honnold estimated the route at approximately 5.11 in climbing difficulty.

Honnold met Sanni McCandless at a book signing in November 2015. They married on September 13, 2020, and have two daughters, June, born in 2022, and Alice Summer, born in 2024.

For more than a decade, Honnold lived and traveled in a custom-outfitted van while pursuing climbing conditions around the United States. He has described himself as a vegetarian, an atheist, and a feminist, and he does not drink alcohol or use drugs.

Honnold founded the Honnold Foundation in 2012 to support solar energy projects and expand access to energy. He has also worked in film and television as an actor, cinematographer, camera operator, and producer.

His memoir, Alone on the Wall, was written with David Roberts. He also launched the climbing podcast Climbing Gold in 2021 and has appeared in projects including Free Solo, Duncanville, Billions, Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold, and The Devil's Climb.