Recently Jeff Lodas, one of our trainers, and I interviewed Alex Honnold to get his take on mental training. Perhaps no other part of climbing requires the mental discipline and focus that’s needed to free solo, which is what Alex excels at. Except perhaps, free soloing El Capitan in Yosemite Valley California, which Alex did on June 3 of this year (2017).
How did he pull of such an ascent?
- What did he do to prepare, to make the decision to free solo, and to commit completely to action?
- What was his motivation?
- Did he experience fear?
- Did his ego drive his decision to solo?
- And what about other disciplines in climbing, like sport climbing. Can Alex translate the mental focus he has in free soloing to sport climbing? Or, does rope climbing challenge his ability to focus?
- And, something you may be wondering: Is Alex an anomaly, different than the rest of us, or is he similar to us? We dig into the FMRi studies he participated in.
Enjoy the listen.
This Post Has One Comment
What a great interview and a wonderful openness coming from Alex about his experience, his feelings and his style of climbing. I will have to listen to it again. Thank you Jeff and Arno for the interview and Alex for accepting the interview.