Alex Honnold Answers Climbing Questions From Twitter

Hello I'm Alex Honnold and this

is climbing support with Wired.

[upbeat music]

Question from David Sandel, Sandel perhaps.

What's your favorite type of climbing hold?

Pinch, crimp, slope, slab,

heel hook, toe hook, jam, or knee drop?

Some of those aren't even climbing holds but who cares?

He just named all kinds of fancy climbing words.

And I will show you how to do all these fancy techniques,

on a climbing gym wall.

Check it out.

Pinches are as you would expect,

just pinching with your hand.

Crimps it means like an edge that you then

bring your thumb over your fingers and pull really hard.

Slopes are just anything you know,

where your hand is sort of open.

A heel hook isn't really a hold either but it's

just something you can put your heel on.

Toe hooking is something that you hook

your toe on, pretty straight forward.

Jamming is just anytime you put your hands

or your feet or even your elbow or whatever else

into a crevice and jam it into place.

Knee dropping, Brits call it an Egyptian

you know, 'cause you turn all hieroglyphic style.

You know, I like pinches, I like big limestone,

I like tufas, that's a type of limestone pinch

but I like crimps, I like sloping,

you know, I kind of like it all,

it really depends on how clean the rock is

and how aesthetic the line is and how flowy the climbing is.

Question from Glenn Holland.

Why are yellow holds always the

little crimpy suckers or the slimy slopers?

That is a fair question.

I don't know why the yellow holds always suck.

It's like always the fierce little guys.

I don't know why but somebody decided

the yellow would be hard, and it is.

Here's a question from Pho Queen Cooking.

Have you climbed cracks?

I found gloves made for crack climbing.

Interested in different opinions.

Some consider it to be cheating, you gotta have pain.

You don't have to endure pain if you don't want to.

Gloves protect against rock abrasion.

I think what she's getting at is that,

a lotta people think that it's cheating to use crack gloves

but I think I naturally have kinda thick skin

and so it's not as big as issue for me.

I do actually think for beginners it's probably better to

use crack gloves or tape or something to protect your hands

and learn good technique to begin with.

I'm gonna show you how to crack climb in the gym.

Which basically just means very carefully.

Good technique in crack climbing is

putting your hand into the crack, locking it in place

and then not having it slide or move.

Nothing like passing blood stains next to the crack,

you know, that you're doing it right.

People tear holes in their skin when their hand

slides out of the crack or if it gives,

but if you can't place it in and exert

enough pressure in the one spot, it won't cut

your skin unless you slide out the jam.

Next question from J.

Do all rock climbers live in vans #FreeSolo.

No so not all rock climbers live in vans

and I lived in a tent with a bicycle for a while before

and then didn't have a car for a while

but I think that living in a van is definitely a nice way

to live as a rock climber because it allows you

a lot of the comfort of a home but with the flexibility

of traveling non stop to get to good

climbing areas and follow good weather.

But no I mean a lot of climbers live out

of the back of trucks, some live outta,

friend of mine, who's a professional climber,

lived out of his Honda Civic for many years

which is pretty scrappy but he did just fine.

Next question from Mike Ball.

Anyone have advice on how to keep my forearms

from filing with blood and losing

my grip during #Bouldering or #RockClimbing.

What he's asking is how do you keep

from getting pumped when you climb?

The only real way to do that is just to build up more

fitness and, if you are in the middle of a climb

and you find that your arms are really, really pumped

the you kinda just have to find a hold

that's big enough for you to recover on.

So I'll show you now in a climbing gym how I would recover.

Which is basically just finding a big hold and hanging

from it one handed and sort of relax the other hand,

just let your muscles relax.

Some people find that shaking it helps,

other people find that just letting it dangle helps

or just taking deep breaths.

If you've never practiced resting, then you won't

be able to recover even on a really big hold.

Question, hey Alex, you climbed El Capita,

he forgot the N.

I want to know how you just remain focused

rather than being afraid of the height.

I mean is he really wants to know how I climbed El Capitan,

he should just watch the film Free Solo

'cause it's a pretty good coverage of the two years of

practice and preparation and training

that I put in to actually climbing it.

I don't know, there's a lot to unpack in that question

but I mean, I think in general,

it's easy to remain focused when your life is on the line.

Question from Nicole van den Broek.

Once you got to the top question mark,

how did you get down question mark.

Another easier path or abseiling?

And how did the whole crew get there so fast?

And no water drinks on the whole climb of Free Solo?

Basically she wants to know about

the logistics of free soloing El Cap.

To get down from the top of El Cap,

you can walk down the side and then you do

a little bit of rappelling at the end of it.

So the whole crew, hiked up that way.

Yeah it's funny, how did the crew get there so fast?

They would probably argue that it took them a long time.

I mean it takes a couple hours to walk up there

and it's very hard work and they have heavy backpacks on,

it feels like a lot of toil.

And there were water drinks on the climb.

I stashed water and food in two places on the route.

Both big natural ledges.

One a thousand feet off the ground

and the other one about two thousand feet off the ground.

So it kind of broke the route into thirds.

So I was able to relax in a couple places.

It's just not shown in the film

'cause it's a 90 minute documentary,

that covers two years of my life so,

it's hard to show everything.

Question from Dominick.

Alex, if you can remember I'd love to know

the mystery meal you cooked in Free Solo.

I know it consisted of eggs, spicy canned chili,

spinach and some crunchy vegetable.

I can't be the only one who wants to try it.

Best documentary #MysteryMeal.

I think the meal that he's referring to

was sort of an egg scramble.

I think I did sweet potatoes and maybe an onion,

sort of grilled them up and then added eggs

and then probably, well apparently canned chili

and maybe spinach on top as well.

But basically it's just me mixing all the vegetables in my

van together and adding some eggs and making it delicious.

Question from Dave Barker.

How do rock climbers get their ropes back when coming down.

Must cost 'em a fortune.

I don't totally even know where to start with that.

So normally you climb up to an anchor.

It's a fixed anchor on the wall, there are carabiners

or chains or something attached to the wall permanently

and then you just lower back down from there.

So when you get down to the ground,

you just untie your knot, you pull the rope

back down, everything comes down, it's no problem.

Your ropes don't really cost a fortune.

It typically, your rope will last for years

and you use it over and over.

From beachchicken.etsy.

I am going indoor rock climbing today,

it should be very interesting.

What does one wear rock climbing?

Need advice.

I think you can wear anything.

Wear exercise clothes, wear yoga clothes,

wear pajamas, you know whatever's comfortable.

If you wear tight jeans you might not

be able to put your feet where you need to.

I'm joining a rock climbing gym.

Any advice on equipment to get?

Just basics.

I think you basically need shoes, harness

and chalk bag and a belay device

and then eventually maybe a rope.

Or depending on the gym, even just shoes

and a chalk bag would be enough.

Or if you're feeling really cheap, just shoes

and then borrow other people's chalk.

Climbing shoes affect your performance as a climber

more than any other piece of equipment.

There is a question from YourGirlKatie.

How does one get over the fear of falling when bouldering?

I fell once and almost busted my leg so now I'm afraid

to boulder without being worried about falling.

Tips?

I think that

to feel comfortable falling you have to trust

that you're not gonna get hurt when you fall.

And I think that that trust needs to be built up over time.

And now I'm gonna show how I fall in a bouldering gym

which honestly I don't know if it's the best way

but I have been falling this way for 20 years

and you know, I generally don't get hurt so, we'll see.

There are a few basics in how to fall well while bouldering.

Landing on your feet ideally and then

sort of rolling backward, dispersing the force,

not putting your hands behind you,

not landing too crooked or anything.

But I think that if you have some kind of an accident,

it takes time to build confidence back up after that

so I think that an obvious way would be to

sort of start small, take very small falls,

fall with a lot of control and then build back up.

But know that the gym is made for you to be safe.

So you should be okay.

That said I have broke my arm in a gym.

How do rock climbers get the ropes tied

to the top so they can use

the ropes to climb #ThingsIPonder.

I'm curious what other things they ponder.

So most rock climbers don't get the rope tied to the top.

Most climbers climb from the bottom and they

clip the rope in the protection as they go.

So sometimes they carry equipment with them

and place it in the cracks.

Sometimes the equipment's already in situ

and they just have to clip it.

But one way or another,

people normally start from the bottom and then climb upward

and clip in as they go and so it's kind of up to them

to make sure that they stay safe.

Alex Honnold is a god and psychopath all in one,

he's on some transcendental level type

shizzle, I'll just edit that, how does he do that?

What happens if he sneezes on the cliff?

I don't even know where to go with that.

So if I sneeze on the cliff, I fall to my death you know,

so I just make sure that my sinuses

are totally clear before I climb every time.

No, that's not, no.

I mean if you sneeze, you sneeze.

I don't know, it's like when you're driving on the highway,

if you sneeze are you instantly gonna die?

It's like probably not, you just stay straight and sneeze.

I don't think I'm on any transcendental level stuff,

I don't think he quite gets it.

Here's a question from a dude who's name I can't read

but he asks, how many pull ups

can an elite rock climber bang out?

I think that's a very wide range.

I think that most climbers can probably do,

at least 20 pull ups maybe.

But I know a few professional climbers that can't

do that many pull ups, like can only do a handful.

But they have freakishly strong fingers

and that's kind of enough to hang on to the rock

and then they also have really good technique.

I'll do a few pull ups on a bouldering wall

just to show that I can do them.

So I'm gonna bet that I can do, at least 10.

Go five.

Really the number of pull ups you can do,

doesn't necessarily correlate to how well you can climb.

But I'm definitely not maxing out because I'd rather

save my energy for actual climbing.

Question from Dan.

What's a good beginnner guide to hangboard training?

Do you still use them?

#rockclimbing.

I think as a beginner, you probably

shouldn't worry about hangboarding that much.

If you just started climbing.

Having really strong arms and strong fingers

isn't really the most important thing,

you wanna focus on your footwork,

you wanna work on technique.

You wanna learn how to move your body well.

And I think that hangboarding becomes more of a useful

training tool as you get more advanced in climbing.

But I think if you're a beginner

and you really wanna train on the hangboard then

you should focus on body weight hangs and start very gently.

Question from The Atheist Officiant.

Alex Honnold any chance you will be

in Tokyo for the 2020 games?

Wife and I having a great conversation

about the different types of climbing.

How gym is different than rock,

we wanna hear your thoughts on Olympic climbing.

So there is a chance that I'll be in

Tokyo for the 2020 games, not competing however.

Maybe doing some commentating or

talking about it.

'Cause I really wanna watch.

But it is true that gym climbing and Olympic style climbing

is fundamentally different than rock climbing.

Particularly on big walls like in Yosemite.

So the people who are currently qualifying for the Olympics

and will be competing in the Olympics

are, for the most part, teenagers.

In the way that Olympic level gymnasts are mostly

from the age of say 15 to maybe 21 or something.

So by that standard I'm way over the hill

and yeah I'm way past my prime climbing wise.

The people who are gonna be winning the Olympics

are focused on training in the gym.

But to climb something like El Capitan,

you spend all your time outside adventuring and hiking.

It's just totally different arenas.

Here's one, Elon Musk, have you reached out

to Alex Honnold about a climbing trip to Mars?

And so, just in case Elon's listening to this,

I would love to go, you just say the word.

[upbeat music]

This is climbing support with Wired.

I hope you learned something and thanks for watching.