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Makes me feel weird just watching him. One wrong move and you die. So you need to have extremely high confidence in each move. But how do you build that without

Makes me feel weird just watching him. One wrong move and you die. So you need to have extremely high confidence in each move. But how do you build that without falling off something? Practice in a safe environment? Ok so when is it safe to try for real?

aeonik 5y ago
He climbs all these routes with a rope dozens to hundreds of times before free soloing them. The routes that he free soloes are also considered relatively easy to intermediate in skill level, well within his skill level. The really incredible part of his free soloes is just how long his body can last. It's Olympic levels of endurance.
- salty_biscuits 5y ago
  5.12d is pretty hard. Seems beyond intermediate to me (but maybe I'm just soft).
  - pcthrowaway 5y ago
    Absolutely, it's not just pretty hard, it's pretty damn hard. Most climbers will never climb this hard (maybe ~1-5% of climbers reach this grade with lots of practice and training). Even fewer will get to a point where they might conceivably flash or onsight 5.12d (<0.5% of climbers if I had to guess) I doubt there are more than 10,000 people alive who would consider free soloing 5.12d at all, and I don't think anyone else has free soloed a 5.12d big wall route.
    - takk309 5y ago
      I agree with you for sure. I don't think 12d is unattainable to a typical fit person, it just takes a lot of training and focused desire to get to that point. It isn't a grade you can reach in a year or even five (except maybe children with their crazy power to weight ratios) but normal 2-3 days a week climbing over time will get you the strength and technique to climb a 5.12d. Style matters too. Are you good at steep overhung routes, slabby vertical routes that require lots of balance, crack climbing, or even off widths. It is all kinda relative. I am a tall guy so powerful long moves are my preferred style. I have friends a foot shorter than me that can crack climb way better than I can. It is a great sport and there are accomplishments to be made at every grade and every step of your climbing journey. Try hard and people with respect you regardless of the grade.
      - pcthrowaway 5y ago
        Speaking from experience, 2-3 days a week of just climbing isn't enough for everyone to reach 5.12d. Many people would also need focused training and deliberate nutritional support at 3 days a week. It's entirely possible younger people (teens to early 20s perhaps?) could get to 5.12d with less work, but that's not generalizable to the general population of climbers.
        takk309 5y ago
        For me, 5.13 is my life goal with climbing. I tend to agree that nutrition is a huge component. When I am more focused on training, not just climbing for fun, and eat right I make strides towards that goal. All that being said, my hardest red point outside is 12b. There is a lot of work to still be done.
  - aeonik 5y ago
    This is true, but there are only a few points on the entire route that are this hard. I don't mean to diminish Alex's accomplishments, just sharing things has said in said interviews. But 5.12d is definitely advanced
- 1_player 5y ago
  Is his free solo climb of El Capitan considered an easy to intermediate route?
  - Someone 5y ago
    https://www.coloradomountaineering.com/2012/01/guide-to-yosemite-decimal-system.html https://www.coloradomountaineering.com/2012/01/guide-to-yose...: “Requires considerable knowledge of ropework, knots, and protection to climb. Although "free-soloing", or climbing without a rope, is admired and even revered by some as the purest form of climbing, it is a rare sort of person that enjoys climbing significant class 5 pitches without a rope.” Class 5 is subdivided in 5.1 through 5.15, with ¿some/each? having a further a through d rating. The route he took is rated 5.12d, maybe 5.13a (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500208 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500208), so that’s highly elite. Free-soloing is easier than soling with safety ropes in the sense that you won’t have to haul up gear :-) but of course a lot harder mentally. I think ratings ignore length of the climb, and that matters, especially in this case, where there’s little to no time to rest. You have to be confident that you’ll be physically and mentally fit enough for the entire thing (climbing down is more difficult, so you’re committing going all the way fairly soon). For Honnold, that meant almost four hours.
  - NwtnsMthd 5y ago
    Considering what an average (casual) climber can achieve in a lifetime the hardest moves on the route would be very difficult but doable. But the route as a whole is probably out of reach, it requires a tremendous amount of endurance. For a dedicated sport climber the route would be very difficult but doable.
  - up_and_up 5y ago
    Background: I have climbed for 3 years. This is the route: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106261545/freerider https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106261545/freerider 30 pitches at 5.13a. That is very very difficult. Keep in mind: 1. Very few climbers can even climb one pitch of 5.13 (maybe top 1%) 2. Even fewer could attempt 30 pitches of 5.13 over several days. 3. Like maybe only dozens in the world could attempt 30 pitches of 5.13 in single day 4. Only 1 person ever in history that has attempted that without a rope.
- Fricken 5y ago
  One of Alex's most impressive feats was doing the triple crown in a day, in which he soloed El Cap, Half-dome, and Washington spire (the 3 tallest faces in Yosemite) in a single 18 hour push. Physically the feat is comparable to running an ultra marathon, but to maintain the necessary mental focus for the entire push is beyond my comprehension.
  - up_and_up 5y ago
    More like an ultramarathon where you do 100 pushups every mile.
impish19 5y ago
If you'd like something that makes you _weirder_ I recommend this: https://www.netflix.com/title/81500204 https://www.netflix.com/title/81500204 This film opens with a testimonial from Alex Honnold for Marc-André Leclerc - whom the film is about.
- robotresearcher 5y ago
  The film shows Leclerc free soloing hard routes on sight, including ice routes. The degree of difficulty is totally bananas. It's a fascinating character study.
- ejolto 5y ago
  What is the title of the film? Your netflix link 404's in my country.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - 4lun 5y ago
    404 here too (UK), but from the details I believe it's "The Alpinist" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11790780/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11790780/
  - bookofjoe 5y ago
    Yes, "The Alpinist" — on Netflix in the U.S.: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81500204?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Cca033ae48737d84d7495d2f1aa97d8ff7ac12b6e%3Ac999bd1230e115a1598f51bcd1af65454859f323%2Cca033ae48737d84d7495d2f1aa97d8ff7ac12b6e%3Ac999bd1230e115a1598f51bcd1af65454859f323%2Cunknown%2C%2C%2CtitlesResults https://www.netflix.com/watch/81500204?trackId=13752289&tctx...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
TheDong 5y ago
"how do you build that confidence without falling off?" The answer is that you do fall. Actually, you fall on the exact route you're going to free solo usually! The normal way of climbing (as opposed to "free soloing"), is with ropes. You have places on the rock where you can anchor ropes, you have someone belaying you, and at any point, if you fall, it's really not a big deal. Climbing ropes are dynamic (have a lot of stretch), so falling on them is really safe feeling. It doesn't hurt at all, it's fine to fall over and over again, and the equipment used is relatively safe. It makes it so you're able to get a really good feel for your own limits on routes, which obviously helps in figuring out if you can free solo it. So, how do you build up enough confidence to free solo? You climb the route with ropes for months. You make sure you can go up the route without ever needing the ropes reliably. You steel yourself. And then you do it. When is it safe to try for real? Depends on your risk tolerance and confidence. For most people, it's never safe enough to be worth the adrenaline. > One wrong move and you die. Not to be glib and dismissive, but one wrong move driving 70 on a highway and you die too. There's a ton of ways to die, and we accept some as very normalized, and others as not. They mostly align with danger (free soloing is really dangerous, driving somewhat dangerous), but there's some things we do so much we forget they're actually dangerous. Driving doesn't seem dangerous to most people that drive. Climbing with ropes starts to not feel dangerous really quickly. Free soloing? If you do it enough, it starts to feel not that dangerous, especially on a route that feels "easy" for your current climbing level.
- Loic 5y ago
  As a complement, Alex Honnold told that it took him several years to feel confident he could free solo El Capitan. Several years of practicing every passages. Usually the free solo without a lot of preparation are done on routes with 2 or 3 difficulty order below the capacity of the climber.
- Fricken 5y ago
  I think it's important to note that a big part of free soloing is the mental game, and no amount of rehearsal on a rope can fully prepare you for that. Alex had free soloed thousands of pitches of rock, at vary degrees of difficulty before taking on El Cap. What impresses me most about Alex and other free soloists isn't so much their ability to keep their head together while climbing, but their ability to keep their head together while lying awake in bed at night, thinking about what they just did, and what they plan to do again tomorrow.
qbasic_forever 5y ago
Practice with a rope. Part of learning to lead climb is learning to fall and trust your rope and anchors so you can really push yourself in climbs. Presumably once you have enough experience and skill at climbing as Alex then you'll start to know what climbs are trivially low risk for you. Alex makes it very clear that when he's free solo climbing he is not pushing his climbing limits or feeling scared--if he has fear then something is wrong and free soloing isn't the right thing in that moment.
eternityforest 5y ago
The craziest part is the talk where he says “I didn't want to be a lucky climber. I wanted to be a great climber.” He literally went back and did it all again after that one part when he felt like he was in danger. Almost anyone else would say "It happened once, it might be bad next time" but he wanted a run where he did everything perfect and didn't feel like luck saved him. He is not like other people.
jasonkester 5y ago
It's unfortunate that most people are first exposed to rock climbing by watching videos of free soloing. It really distorts your perception of the sport. It's no surprise, of course. Free soloing is pretty much the most riveting thing you could watch on a screen, whereas every other form of climbing is frankly quite boring to watch if you don't know the sport intimately. Mostly, it's people pushing their own personal limits, without any risk whatsoever, on things they've aren't visually all that spectacular. Here's an example of what most of us do: https://youtu.be/dp8b45CdUAc https://youtu.be/dp8b45CdUAc I defy a non-climber to make it through 3 minutes of watching me fall off the same 15 foot tall rock. Climbers, however, will notice that there are harder moves on that stone than anything you'll find in Alex's big free solo videos. They'll also know, of course, that Alex would likely be able to send this thing on his first try, because this is well within his limit. Those two facts, reconciled together with him having practiced the easy route in the solo video every bit as much as I did this little boulder problem, give you an idea of how unlikely it is that he would fall off it. Sadly, that's all lost on non-climbers, who just see a spectacular thing happening way up in the sky, stripped of all context. It's a cool sport, by the way, go give it a try some time and I bet you'll get hooked.
- glandium 5y ago
  The Free Solo movie gives enough context, IMO. (it was hard to watch for me though)
- thinkharderdev 5y ago
  I recently went down a rabbit hole of watching speed climbing on YouTube. It's really mesmerizing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4n6xfu8VDU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4n6xfu8VDU
- Fricken 5y ago
  When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I saw this[1] television segment on John Bachar. It blew my mind, and was imagination fuel for the rest of my childhood. At 45 I still love climbing. I don't think it was unfortunate at all that my first exposure to climbing was via a free soloist. [1]https://youtu.be/sLivlvAkhs0 https://youtu.be/sLivlvAkhs0
stickfigure 5y ago
Have you ever climbed up a really tall ladder, like a 3-story extension ladder? It's... kind of terrifying. You're a long ways up, you can see the ground, the ladder is flexing under your weight. But other than the fear, it's actually pretty easy; all you have to do is keep climbing and not do something stupid. To a phenomenally accomplished climber like Honnold, a 5.11 route is like climbing a ladder. That's hard to imagine as a normal flightless human who hasn't spent his/her life training the relevant muscles. But if you think of a ladder as a 5.1 route, you're already on the path. That said, "3rd classing it" is definitely not for me.
- kqr 5y ago
  You might not even have to find a really tall ladder. I know I can walk and balance just fine on a 5 cm (2 in) wide piece of wood on otherwise flat ground. But put me on a 5 cm wide bar over cold water, and I start to doubt my abilities to walk.
amelius 5y ago
Survivor bias.
vjaswal 5y ago
Maybe it was in the Free Solo movie or other interviews, but I thought he said that his route during Free Solo was a difficulty level of about 7/10 for him. So he was comfortable enough that it was not the hardest climb for him; after a ton of practice on that route, with ropes, of course. So to be statistical about it, the difficulty level for him was at the edge of 1 standard deviation of the mean of his capability. Maybe that's enough margin that he could detect when he's really in trouble.
yesenadam 5y ago
Alex apparently doesn't feel fear/anxiety in the way people with normal brains do, e.g. "In 2016, he was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging scans that revealed that, unlike other high sensation seekers, his amygdala barely activates when watching disturbing images. He however confesses feeling fear occasionally. Through imagination and practice, he has desensitized himself to most fearful situations." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber-rp-7465/ https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...

aeonik 5y ago

He climbs all these routes with a rope dozens to hundreds of times before free soloing them. The routes that he free soloes are also considered relatively easy to intermediate in skill level, well within his skill level. The really incredible part of his free soloes is just how long his body can last. It's Olympic levels of endurance.

salty_biscuits 5y ago
5.12d is pretty hard. Seems beyond intermediate to me (but maybe I'm just soft).
- pcthrowaway 5y ago
  Absolutely, it's not just pretty hard, it's pretty damn hard. Most climbers will never climb this hard (maybe ~1-5% of climbers reach this grade with lots of practice and training). Even fewer will get to a point where they might conceivably flash or onsight 5.12d (<0.5% of climbers if I had to guess) I doubt there are more than 10,000 people alive who would consider free soloing 5.12d at all, and I don't think anyone else has free soloed a 5.12d big wall route.
  - takk309 5y ago
    I agree with you for sure. I don't think 12d is unattainable to a typical fit person, it just takes a lot of training and focused desire to get to that point. It isn't a grade you can reach in a year or even five (except maybe children with their crazy power to weight ratios) but normal 2-3 days a week climbing over time will get you the strength and technique to climb a 5.12d. Style matters too. Are you good at steep overhung routes, slabby vertical routes that require lots of balance, crack climbing, or even off widths. It is all kinda relative. I am a tall guy so powerful long moves are my preferred style. I have friends a foot shorter than me that can crack climb way better than I can. It is a great sport and there are accomplishments to be made at every grade and every step of your climbing journey. Try hard and people with respect you regardless of the grade.
    - pcthrowaway 5y ago
      Speaking from experience, 2-3 days a week of just climbing isn't enough for everyone to reach 5.12d. Many people would also need focused training and deliberate nutritional support at 3 days a week. It's entirely possible younger people (teens to early 20s perhaps?) could get to 5.12d with less work, but that's not generalizable to the general population of climbers.
      - takk309 5y ago
        For me, 5.13 is my life goal with climbing. I tend to agree that nutrition is a huge component. When I am more focused on training, not just climbing for fun, and eat right I make strides towards that goal. All that being said, my hardest red point outside is 12b. There is a lot of work to still be done.
- aeonik 5y ago
  This is true, but there are only a few points on the entire route that are this hard. I don't mean to diminish Alex's accomplishments, just sharing things has said in said interviews. But 5.12d is definitely advanced
1_player 5y ago
Is his free solo climb of El Capitan considered an easy to intermediate route?
- Someone 5y ago
  https://www.coloradomountaineering.com/2012/01/guide-to-yosemite-decimal-system.html https://www.coloradomountaineering.com/2012/01/guide-to-yose...: “Requires considerable knowledge of ropework, knots, and protection to climb. Although "free-soloing", or climbing without a rope, is admired and even revered by some as the purest form of climbing, it is a rare sort of person that enjoys climbing significant class 5 pitches without a rope.” Class 5 is subdivided in 5.1 through 5.15, with ¿some/each? having a further a through d rating. The route he took is rated 5.12d, maybe 5.13a (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500208 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500208), so that’s highly elite. Free-soloing is easier than soling with safety ropes in the sense that you won’t have to haul up gear :-) but of course a lot harder mentally. I think ratings ignore length of the climb, and that matters, especially in this case, where there’s little to no time to rest. You have to be confident that you’ll be physically and mentally fit enough for the entire thing (climbing down is more difficult, so you’re committing going all the way fairly soon). For Honnold, that meant almost four hours.
- NwtnsMthd 5y ago
  Considering what an average (casual) climber can achieve in a lifetime the hardest moves on the route would be very difficult but doable. But the route as a whole is probably out of reach, it requires a tremendous amount of endurance. For a dedicated sport climber the route would be very difficult but doable.
- up_and_up 5y ago
  Background: I have climbed for 3 years. This is the route: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106261545/freerider https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106261545/freerider 30 pitches at 5.13a. That is very very difficult. Keep in mind: 1. Very few climbers can even climb one pitch of 5.13 (maybe top 1%) 2. Even fewer could attempt 30 pitches of 5.13 over several days. 3. Like maybe only dozens in the world could attempt 30 pitches of 5.13 in single day 4. Only 1 person ever in history that has attempted that without a rope.
Fricken 5y ago
One of Alex's most impressive feats was doing the triple crown in a day, in which he soloed El Cap, Half-dome, and Washington spire (the 3 tallest faces in Yosemite) in a single 18 hour push. Physically the feat is comparable to running an ultra marathon, but to maintain the necessary mental focus for the entire push is beyond my comprehension.
- up_and_up 5y ago
  More like an ultramarathon where you do 100 pushups every mile.

impish19 5y ago

If you'd like something that makes you _weirder_ I recommend this: https://www.netflix.com/title/81500204 https://www.netflix.com/title/81500204 This film opens with a testimonial from Alex Honnold for Marc-André Leclerc - whom the film is about.

robotresearcher 5y ago
The film shows Leclerc free soloing hard routes on sight, including ice routes. The degree of difficulty is totally bananas. It's a fascinating character study.
ejolto 5y ago
What is the title of the film? Your netflix link 404's in my country.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- 4lun 5y ago
  404 here too (UK), but from the details I believe it's "The Alpinist" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11790780/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11790780/
- bookofjoe 5y ago
  Yes, "The Alpinist" — on Netflix in the U.S.: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81500204?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Cca033ae48737d84d7495d2f1aa97d8ff7ac12b6e%3Ac999bd1230e115a1598f51bcd1af65454859f323%2Cca033ae48737d84d7495d2f1aa97d8ff7ac12b6e%3Ac999bd1230e115a1598f51bcd1af65454859f323%2Cunknown%2C%2C%2CtitlesResults https://www.netflix.com/watch/81500204?trackId=13752289&tctx...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

TheDong 5y ago

"how do you build that confidence without falling off?" The answer is that you do fall. Actually, you fall on the exact route you're going to free solo usually! The normal way of climbing (as opposed to "free soloing"), is with ropes. You have places on the rock where you can anchor ropes, you have someone belaying you, and at any point, if you fall, it's really not a big deal. Climbing ropes are dynamic (have a lot of stretch), so falling on them is really safe feeling. It doesn't hurt at all, it's fine to fall over and over again, and the equipment used is relatively safe. It makes it so you're able to get a really good feel for your own limits on routes, which obviously helps in figuring out if you can free solo it. So, how do you build up enough confidence to free solo? You climb the route with ropes for months. You make sure you can go up the route without ever needing the ropes reliably. You steel yourself. And then you do it. When is it safe to try for real? Depends on your risk tolerance and confidence. For most people, it's never safe enough to be worth the adrenaline. > One wrong move and you die. Not to be glib and dismissive, but one wrong move driving 70 on a highway and you die too. There's a ton of ways to die, and we accept some as very normalized, and others as not. They mostly align with danger (free soloing is really dangerous, driving somewhat dangerous), but there's some things we do so much we forget they're actually dangerous. Driving doesn't seem dangerous to most people that drive. Climbing with ropes starts to not feel dangerous really quickly. Free soloing? If you do it enough, it starts to feel not that dangerous, especially on a route that feels "easy" for your current climbing level.

Loic 5y ago
As a complement, Alex Honnold told that it took him several years to feel confident he could free solo El Capitan. Several years of practicing every passages. Usually the free solo without a lot of preparation are done on routes with 2 or 3 difficulty order below the capacity of the climber.
Fricken 5y ago
I think it's important to note that a big part of free soloing is the mental game, and no amount of rehearsal on a rope can fully prepare you for that. Alex had free soloed thousands of pitches of rock, at vary degrees of difficulty before taking on El Cap. What impresses me most about Alex and other free soloists isn't so much their ability to keep their head together while climbing, but their ability to keep their head together while lying awake in bed at night, thinking about what they just did, and what they plan to do again tomorrow.

qbasic_forever 5y ago

Practice with a rope. Part of learning to lead climb is learning to fall and trust your rope and anchors so you can really push yourself in climbs. Presumably once you have enough experience and skill at climbing as Alex then you'll start to know what climbs are trivially low risk for you. Alex makes it very clear that when he's free solo climbing he is not pushing his climbing limits or feeling scared--if he has fear then something is wrong and free soloing isn't the right thing in that moment.

eternityforest 5y ago

The craziest part is the talk where he says “I didn't want to be a lucky climber. I wanted to be a great climber.” He literally went back and did it all again after that one part when he felt like he was in danger. Almost anyone else would say "It happened once, it might be bad next time" but he wanted a run where he did everything perfect and didn't feel like luck saved him. He is not like other people.

jasonkester 5y ago

It's unfortunate that most people are first exposed to rock climbing by watching videos of free soloing. It really distorts your perception of the sport. It's no surprise, of course. Free soloing is pretty much the most riveting thing you could watch on a screen, whereas every other form of climbing is frankly quite boring to watch if you don't know the sport intimately. Mostly, it's people pushing their own personal limits, without any risk whatsoever, on things they've aren't visually all that spectacular. Here's an example of what most of us do: https://youtu.be/dp8b45CdUAc https://youtu.be/dp8b45CdUAc I defy a non-climber to make it through 3 minutes of watching me fall off the same 15 foot tall rock. Climbers, however, will notice that there are harder moves on that stone than anything you'll find in Alex's big free solo videos. They'll also know, of course, that Alex would likely be able to send this thing on his first try, because this is well within his limit. Those two facts, reconciled together with him having practiced the easy route in the solo video every bit as much as I did this little boulder problem, give you an idea of how unlikely it is that he would fall off it. Sadly, that's all lost on non-climbers, who just see a spectacular thing happening way up in the sky, stripped of all context. It's a cool sport, by the way, go give it a try some time and I bet you'll get hooked.

glandium 5y ago
The Free Solo movie gives enough context, IMO. (it was hard to watch for me though)
thinkharderdev 5y ago
I recently went down a rabbit hole of watching speed climbing on YouTube. It's really mesmerizing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4n6xfu8VDU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4n6xfu8VDU
Fricken 5y ago
When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I saw this[1] television segment on John Bachar. It blew my mind, and was imagination fuel for the rest of my childhood. At 45 I still love climbing. I don't think it was unfortunate at all that my first exposure to climbing was via a free soloist. [1]https://youtu.be/sLivlvAkhs0 https://youtu.be/sLivlvAkhs0

stickfigure 5y ago

Have you ever climbed up a really tall ladder, like a 3-story extension ladder? It's... kind of terrifying. You're a long ways up, you can see the ground, the ladder is flexing under your weight. But other than the fear, it's actually pretty easy; all you have to do is keep climbing and not do something stupid. To a phenomenally accomplished climber like Honnold, a 5.11 route is like climbing a ladder. That's hard to imagine as a normal flightless human who hasn't spent his/her life training the relevant muscles. But if you think of a ladder as a 5.1 route, you're already on the path. That said, "3rd classing it" is definitely not for me.

kqr 5y ago
You might not even have to find a really tall ladder. I know I can walk and balance just fine on a 5 cm (2 in) wide piece of wood on otherwise flat ground. But put me on a 5 cm wide bar over cold water, and I start to doubt my abilities to walk.

amelius 5y ago

Survivor bias.

vjaswal 5y ago

Maybe it was in the Free Solo movie or other interviews, but I thought he said that his route during Free Solo was a difficulty level of about 7/10 for him. So he was comfortable enough that it was not the hardest climb for him; after a ton of practice on that route, with ropes, of course. So to be statistical about it, the difficulty level for him was at the edge of 1 standard deviation of the mean of his capability. Maybe that's enough margin that he could detect when he's really in trouble.

yesenadam 5y ago

Alex apparently doesn't feel fear/anxiety in the way people with normal brains do, e.g. "In 2016, he was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging scans that revealed that, unlike other high sensation seekers, his amygdala barely activates when watching disturbing images. He however confesses feeling fear occasionally. Through imagination and practice, he has desensitized himself to most fearful situations." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber-rp-7465/ https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...