13/02/2026

LYFE FRIDAY | FEB 13, 2026

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Elite climber Alex Honnold on finding joy beyond fear

I N front of a live audience, rock climber Alex Honnold completed the first-ever ropeless ascent of Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper. One wrong move would have certainly resulted in grave injury or instant death. For Honnold, whose decades-long career includes scaling some of the world’s tallest heights – including his ropeless ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan in the Oscar-winning film Free Solo – it was just another climb. Speaking from Los Angeles a week after Netflix’s Skyscraper Live broadcast, Honnold reflects on the pressures of performing for a live audience, climbing’s rising standards and how long he plans to keep pushing the limits of what is possible. You recently ascended Taipei 101 without safety gear in one hour and 31 minutes. A week on, what has stayed with you most about the experience? I need more time, more perspective. In a way – and this is sort of classic of all climbing experiences – I remember all the prep, all the time with my friends ahead of time, being up on the wall, the scouting, the stress around the weather, basically the whole expedition component of it. The actual 90 minutes or so that I was on the wall climbing, I do not totally – I mean, I remember that a bit. I remember appreciating the view and being really surprised by the number of people down on the ground. Seeing all those spectators live was an experience for me. But in general, it is the whole experience surrounding the climb and not so much the climb itself that I remember. I remember I was very struck by the weather. It was just so perfect that day. All the other days were socked in and rainy and then that day was perfect, blue, crisp and beautiful. It made the whole thing feel way better. The decision to postpone the climb because of the weather reminded me of a similar call you made in Free Solo , to turn back early in a free solo attempt. How did you weigh the decision, given the expectations around the live broadcast? Obviously, rain on steel and glass is going to be really slippery. We were kind of like, “Well, how slippery is it?” but then one of the prep days, it was raining and I tried to climb – it was impossible. But in a way, it was helpful because it gave a very clear answer. There was not a gray area where maybe if it is only raining a little bit that it is safe. It was out of the question. That simplified the decision-making and made it easier. attracted 6.2 million viewers, according to Netflix. Whose idea was it to broadcast the climb in real time? Did the presence of a live audience change how you prepared for or experienced it? This whole project had almost come together in 2013, for a different live TV event that had never quite materialised. The idea of climbing a skyscraper had always been this live climbing because if you are going to do a live free soloing event, it is almost better on a building because it is really hard to do live things in the wilderness. There is no service, there is no fiber lines and all that kind of stuff. To me, it does not make any Skyscraper Live

o 40-year-old speaks on ascending Taiwan’s tallest building difference (whether it is live or not) because the actual experience of climbing the building is the same whether people watch it two months from now or if they watch it live in the moment. In a lot of ways, it is actually better live because normally when you do a climbing documentary, you do the climb, then you go back, you film close–ups and tights and take pictures – you do all this other work afterward. With a live event, you just do the climb and then you go home. It is way better, it is easier, it is faster. The actual experience for me is basically, the same where I am climbing on a wall with my friends next to me filming. Do you see live, high-stakes ascents becoming a bigger part of climbing culture? Would you take on something like this again? I mean, I had a great time. I would totally do something like this again, if given the opportunity or if somebody asked me to. That said, I really doubt that this will become a bigger part of climbing culture – partially because climbing is typically in the remote outdoors. In the 80s and 90s, a couple of different climbers did things like this – even on buildings and various sorts of climbing spectacles. I do not think it is unprecedented but I doubt it is going to be the next big thing. I think it is a cool thing that happens every decade or two. You have a new travel series Get a Little Out There with Alex Honnold premiering this month. How different is it from the intensity of projects such as Free Solo and Skyscraper Live ? It is so different. A travel show is all about exploration, adventure and meeting interesting people. It was a project that for me, was super fun to do. The through–line through these things is that it is a project that I get to work on where I am like, this is so cool, it is different, I am learning something, it is interesting. It is in my home state (of Nevada) but I got to see all these cool things that I do not normally see, have good climbing adventures and meet interesting people around the state. Watching Free Solo and Skyscraper Live , you realise just how easy it is for viewers to fixate on their own fears of the risk that you are taking on, rather than necessarily focusing on the craft and joy of climbing. Do you feel that shapes how people relate to your work? Totally. A big part of the whole experience around skyscrapers is that it is so far removed from people’s normal experience. It is totally normal to watch an elite performer do the thing that they have trained

An onlooker waves at Honnold as he climbs Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper.

climbers whose work excites you? The physical ability of climbers is way higher than it was in the past. The standard is rising really quickly and that allows people to do things that I could not imagine. Two days ago, I was climbing (a rock-climbing cliff) near my house and saw this young climber named Tyler Thompson. He had a couple of days of climbing at the cliff that was literally like nothing I have ever seen. It was like totally next level. I was like, “Wow, is this the way that people climb nowadays? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?” It is like a completely different standard. So, I think the big story in climbing right now is seeing this next–level physical performance. How and when that will translate into big adventures – such as climbing skyscrapers, climbing big walls, soloing, speed climbing, all these other sorts of things that I have always been kind of into – we will see when those things start to follow. What is at the top of your climbing bucket list? I have tons of things that I would like to climb personally. I actually have a separate bucket list of places that I want to go with my family, once the kids are just a little bit older because right now I have two small girls. Once they are a few years older, can actually remember things and are slightly less challenging to travel with, there are a lot of places that I would love to take them. There is a lot of climbing in Southeast Asia that I have never climbed in that I think would be an amazing family experience, a great opportunity for the kids to see a totally different part of the world. So now, I have this bucket list of climbing destinations where I want to travel with the family and then specific climbs that I would like to do as an individual, to like do something that challenges me. None of them are

that important, you know? None of them really matter. They just matter to me because I want to challenge myself. You have spoken before about how your approach has evolved as you have gotten older. At 40, how do you think about longevity in free soloing – and what does sustainable risk look like for you now? I suspect that I will lose the fire for it at some point. I just would not want to push that hard. I mean, there is a huge spectrum between easy free soloing and cutting–edge free soloing. Easy free soloing is sort of like, scrambling mountain ridges and just climbing easy routes and I am sure I will be doing that deep into old age. I doubt that I will be trying elite, cutting–edge free solos forever. Already I have lost a little bit of the fire just because I have been touring around western North America for 20 years as a professional climber and I have done most of the things that I am really excited about. So, there is just a little bit less inspiration for that kind of stuff. Beyond the risk and the stakes, what part of these climbs feels the most meaningful to you? I mean, it is pretty freaking fun. Questions are always centered around risk, consequences and the extremeness of it. That totally makes sense. It is also tremendously fun to climb up the side of a building. In some ways, it is like the little kid in me getting to live his dream. You spend your life as a little kid looking up at things and being like, “That would be so amazing!” and then to actually get to do some of that as an adult, that is so cool. I think there is some real joy there that sometimes gets overlooked with all the extreme, life or death, whatever. When you put all that aside, it is so cool. – Reuters

their whole life for. Yet, for whatever reason, nobody ever sees that in climbing. So they are like, “That’s crazy! Why would you do that?” and you are kind of like, well, dude, you watch boxing every weekend. It is the same thing where someone who is trained their whole life is doing something that kind of seems hardcore if you do not know much about it. Or like, football – if you never knew anything about it, you would be like, “Oh my God, that poor guy just got hit so hard! That’s insane!” What most excites you about the trajectory climbing has taken as a sport? Are there any young Honnold says the physical ability of climbers is way higher than it was in the past. – ALL PICS FROM REUTERS