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I don’t think that his capacity to garner attention depends on his pushing the envelope. The thing that brought him to the widest audience was a segment for si

I don’t think that his capacity to garner attention depends on his pushing the envelope. The thing that brought him to the widest audience was a segment for sixty minutes where they filmed him free soloing a 5.11 in Yosemite — certainly impressive but totally casual by his standards. Nowhere near the envelope. He pushes the envelope for himself because he wants to — the public has no idea the difference in difficulty between the sixty minutes piece and the “envelope”.

andrewem 8y ago
Your comment on the public not knowing the difficulty of climbs reminded me of a great piece about a juggler, which includes this: "Jugglers don’t have to perform difficult tricks to entertain people, because audiences generally don’t know what’s difficult." http://grantland.com/features/anthony-gatto-juggling-cirque-du-soleil-jason-fagone/ http://grantland.com/features/anthony-gatto-juggling-cirque-...
Fricken 8y ago
He climbed Sentinel for 60 minutes, it was a 1600 foot high 5.11, don't trivialize it, it is absolutely nothing to sneer at. When I was at peak climbing fitness 5.11 was a warm-up, but doing it for 1600 feet ropeless is an entirely different ball game.
- breatheoften 8y ago
  No I agree - that route is an impressive solo — but it is not pushing the envelope or anywhere close to it. He does routes of that grade like others take an afternoon stroll or a jog around the neighborhood. It is of epically different difficulty than his hardest solos. My point is not to trivialize but to point out that to a large degree - he could attract significant attention based off his previous deeds without the necessity to further push the envelope. He pushes the envelope because that is what he wants to do not because he thinks society will further reward him for it. I don’t think he’s opposed to society rewarding him though —- but I also think he’s aware that society deserves to know that they aren’t responsible for his actions — so he describes publicly at great length why he does what he does and it’s clear that he would do it even if society did not reward him for it (as he did for years before becoming well known)... I think he’s a pretty positive role model all things told — and there’s much more to gain from his example than there is risk of inspiring to die of soloing those who wouldn’t otherwise be so inspired...
  - Fricken 8y ago
    I agree on those points. You don't get to climb full time and travel the world without playing the sponsorship game, and he certainly has an interest in his legacy, humble is not a word I would use to describe him. But he's not a materialist, he's dedicated to the dirtbag climber lifestyle and gives most of his winnings away. Honnold is also much more than a free soloist, he's an ultra endurance athlete of the highest order, he's the hardest of hard men. Athletes who dominate other sports tend to be physiological mutants, but what makes Honnold special is what is going on in his head, and I've never seen anything quite like it. Exceptional boldness won't get you very far if it isn't paired with exceptional discipline.
- baby 8y ago
  1600foot=0.48768km

andrewem 8y ago

Your comment on the public not knowing the difficulty of climbs reminded me of a great piece about a juggler, which includes this: "Jugglers don’t have to perform difficult tricks to entertain people, because audiences generally don’t know what’s difficult." http://grantland.com/features/anthony-gatto-juggling-cirque-du-soleil-jason-fagone/ http://grantland.com/features/anthony-gatto-juggling-cirque-...

Fricken 8y ago

He climbed Sentinel for 60 minutes, it was a 1600 foot high 5.11, don't trivialize it, it is absolutely nothing to sneer at. When I was at peak climbing fitness 5.11 was a warm-up, but doing it for 1600 feet ropeless is an entirely different ball game.

breatheoften 8y ago
No I agree - that route is an impressive solo — but it is not pushing the envelope or anywhere close to it. He does routes of that grade like others take an afternoon stroll or a jog around the neighborhood. It is of epically different difficulty than his hardest solos. My point is not to trivialize but to point out that to a large degree - he could attract significant attention based off his previous deeds without the necessity to further push the envelope. He pushes the envelope because that is what he wants to do not because he thinks society will further reward him for it. I don’t think he’s opposed to society rewarding him though —- but I also think he’s aware that society deserves to know that they aren’t responsible for his actions — so he describes publicly at great length why he does what he does and it’s clear that he would do it even if society did not reward him for it (as he did for years before becoming well known)... I think he’s a pretty positive role model all things told — and there’s much more to gain from his example than there is risk of inspiring to die of soloing those who wouldn’t otherwise be so inspired...
- Fricken 8y ago
  I agree on those points. You don't get to climb full time and travel the world without playing the sponsorship game, and he certainly has an interest in his legacy, humble is not a word I would use to describe him. But he's not a materialist, he's dedicated to the dirtbag climber lifestyle and gives most of his winnings away. Honnold is also much more than a free soloist, he's an ultra endurance athlete of the highest order, he's the hardest of hard men. Athletes who dominate other sports tend to be physiological mutants, but what makes Honnold special is what is going on in his head, and I've never seen anything quite like it. Exceptional boldness won't get you very far if it isn't paired with exceptional discipline.
baby 8y ago
1600foot=0.48768km