For some people rock climbing is a hobby, but for Alex Honnold, it is his life. Alex Honnold is a professional rock and mountain climber. Honnold, most well known for his free solo climbing of huge mountains, is the only person to ever free solo climb El Capitan. 

Free solo climbing is when you mountain climb without any ropes or harnesses to assist yourself. Honnold has free solo climbed many mountains many times. He has given up his life to do this and it is what his life revolves around. 

Honnold was living alone in his family’s van for countless years until he bought his first house in 2016. He has been climbing since he was 8 years old and ever since he has been obsessed. He currently is 34 years old and he has been training his whole life to complete the most dangerous rock climb ever: free solo climbing the great El Capitan. El Capitan is roughly a 3,200 feet high mountain located in Yosemite, California. Nobody ever has free solo climbed El Capitan until Alex Honnold. Honnold has overcome injuries and failures throughout his training to do this. In 2016, during a climb, he fell and sprained his ankle. This left him out of rock climbing for a total time of 6 weeks until he was able to completely put back on his climbing shoes and get back to full time climbing. When friends and co-workers told him that they took 6 months to heal, he didn’t let that stop him. As well, 5 total people have died while attempting to climb El Capitan but he didn’t let that stop him or hold him back. 

Honnold solo climbed El Capitan on June 3, 2017. He started climbing that morning at 5:32 a.m. and completed the climb later that day. He did this completely by himself with his camera crew filming and him working with just his bare hands. 

The climb was not the last for him though. He is also featured in a movie called, A Line Across the Sky, had his own documentary called, Free Solo. He then wrote his own book called Alone on The Wall. He continues to live his legacy and climb mountains with just his bare hands.