Black Diamond Presents: Big Walls to Low Balls with Alex Honnold

Big walls to low balls. How's that for your progression? Big walls to low balls. I think that's an ungenerous way of framing my climbing. I came here once and there was a V7 Sistar that I just could not do, just full stop, couldn't get off the ground. So, uh, you know, give it another, give it another try today, see what the deal is. I should have brought my shovel so I could dig out the base more. It's like, I just come too far this way and I need to find a way to stay more this way. Yeah, so I just did an expedition to Guyana, spent a month in the jungle climbing a new wall on a tepui. It was a National Geographic Explorer TV show. Every time I did a hangboard session while I was in the jungle, I thought about that little low ball V7 that I still can't manage to get off the ground on. And I was like, I need stronger fingers. Like, I don't want this knee to drop because I need to like be straight when I catch it. My life project continues to elude me. I was unable to do the first or the second move of the two move problem, but you know, it's, uh, not too far from where I live. And so I'll just keep working it for the rest of my life. You know, eventually I may be able to do the two move V7 sit. It's so, and it's, I don't even get it. Like, but that's kind of the whole point of bouldering is that it forces you to try uncomfortable, unpleasant moves and sort of learn different types of movement. I'm like, well, it's all, it's all just good practice for the real rock climbing. Now, the thing I love about bouldering is that it forces you to do such a variety of movement and it forces you to do all these uncomfortable things you would never really do normally. And so I feel like bouldering broadens your, your climbing, you know, repertoire much more than any other aspect of the sport. Really. It's like when I go out in solar five, eight to five 10 all day, it's not like I'm doing crazy moves where I lead with my feet and double toe hook and do a bicycle. Like basically the creative side of climbing is mostly found in bouldering. I love big adventures. I love climbing big walls. I like scrambling. I like, you know, adventuring at climbing doesn't count unless you get the chance promise. If you adventure all the time, you wind up very weak and you basically can't climb that well. And so if you want to be able to do hard moves, but you also want to be able to go solo five, 10 all day long, you kind of need something to keep some degree of real strength. And that's basically either training in the gym, like hang boarding, things like that, or bouldering. Well, yeah, it may look dabby, but I'm just going to have to engage that core, you know, really stay tight for training time. Five-star proj. This is just another, another, uh, no-star random V7 in Red Rock. What does this boulder compare to like, say, free solo on El Cap? I would say that this is greater physical intensity than soloing El Cap. Actually, that's not, that's not true. But it is close. It is technically the same grade. That's the way to look at it. This is the same grade of climbing as soloing El Cap. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was thinking. It felt similar. El Cap's a little more endurance-y, but really once you get past the V7 and get on El Cap, it's all exit climbing. Just another thousand feet of exit climbing to the summit. Yeah, I gotta say, it's disappointingly normal of a problem that way. I gotta say, leading with the toe hooks is a more visionary solution, but perhaps less effective. No, uh, you know, low balls, low ball bouldering is uninspiring, but very useful. It's safe. It's a great way to practice. And honestly, I enjoy it more than fingerboarding, like, you know, hangboarding at home.