The 400ft Fall That Almost Killed Alex Honnold

Alex Honnold is the most famous rock climber ever. Known for completing the deadliest free solos in human existence, Alex has cheated death many times. And while many people think that Alex Honnold is only alive because he hasn't fallen yet, that's actually not true, because he has fallen multiple times. From severe injuries to miraculous landings, today we're going to be taking a look at the anxiety-inducing career of Alex Honnold. Alex Honnold's story begins the same way as many professional climbers, as a comp kid. Alex would go to the gym multiple times a week to climb, and when he wasn't climbing at the gym, he was climbing at the playground. And this is where Alex Honnold's free solo journey truly began. In two separate occasions at the playground, Alex fell while free soloing the playground equipment, and broke his wrist. Now Alex doesn't specify, but in his description of these events, it sounds like he broke the same wrist both times. Which he would break again, falling off a boulder problem in the gym. At what point as a parent are you not just like, maybe try falling on the other hand? I feel like this is how the guy from Scary Movie 2 ended up the way he did. But when Alex wasn't falling off playground equipment, he was competing in rock climbing competitions, where he would fall again and break his arm. Well, at least he changed it up this time. Over the years, as Alex continued to climb and compete, he eventually got so good at climbing that he made the US national team at 18 years old. The comp kid had become a comp man, and now that Alex was 18, it was time for him to go to college, where his climbing career would change forever. Alex spent his freshman year at UC Berkeley studying civil engineering, but it didn't take Alex long to realize that he hated college. Living alone and having no friends to hang out with, Alex spent his free time doing what he did best, rock climbing. And in 2004, after dropping out of college, Alex upped the ante and decided to free solo Mount Tallag. College is so shitty that it drove this man to free solo a mountain. I think a lot of people can relate to this. Like, yeah, sophomore year of college, I just got really into Russian roulette. I'm not sure why. Anyway, Mount Tallag is a mountain outside of Lake Tahoe that's about 10,000 feet tall, and Alex set off underequipped and underprepared as he began his ascent. But as Alex climbed higher and higher, things began to go badly. Rock turned to snow, snow turned to ice, and ice turned to regret. Eventually, after reaching a point where Alex felt he could go no further, he decided to climb back down. But little did he know, he was about to break the Mount Tallag downclimb record. Slipping on the ice, Alex lost his footing and fell. Tumbling 400 feet down the mountain, Alex got a concussion, broke multiple ribs, punctured his sinus, and broke both hands. What is with him in the hands? At this point, I feel like even if Alex had fallen while free soloing El Capito, it would have been like, oh my god, it was terrible. He fell 4,000 feet and broke his hands. Alex Honnold is like Achilles, except instead of being dipped in the river sticks by his ankle, he was dipped in by his hands. After his 400-foot fall, Alex laid on the side of the mountain, and as the rescue chopper approached, he had plenty of time to think about his decisions. Having fallen many times throughout his rock climbing career, broken many a bone, and now nearly lost his life, Alex decided to start free soloing. But before Alex could climb at his fullest potential, he had to make sure that he was fitted in the highest quality climbing apparel. Now, I don't know what Alex personally chose, but he should have gone with Rumna. Rumna is the Milky Way Galaxy's high-rated climbing apparel company, outfit, or whatever you want to call it. And guess what? They have the Church of Dynamo LGT back in stock. Get them while you can. But that's not it. They got harness pants back in stock. They got chalk buckets. They got chalk. They got all kinds of different stuff. They got the blue shirt, whatever this one's called, and the new soft-shell jacket. Are you kidding me? I didn't even plan this out. Look how well these two pair together. You see the Rumna logo right in the middle, jacket on either side. It's like wine and cheese. They go together perfectly. And if you haven't already, you should definitely try out the harness pants. Those things are light. They're durable. They don't get all wet when you get wet. They're water-resistant, okay? And they're just amazing. Try them out if you haven't already. Get a Church of Dynamo LGT. Maybe get a jacket, right? Soft-shell jacket. It's getting a little chilly outside, right? That's why I put the jacket on. Best jacket I've ever owned. So if you want to get any of this cool stuff, use code DYNO at checkout and get 15% off your entire order. So financially, it makes sense to spend at least $100,000 on apparel because then you save the most money. That's how smart people spend their money. Now let's get back to Alex Honnold and the most miraculous fall in free solo history. Due to his injuries, Alex had to take it easy. So naturally, he decided to start free soloing. Despite this, due to his injuries, Alex couldn't climb very hard. So he mostly stuck to the 5'3 to 5'6 range. I would imagine it's difficult to climb with two broken hands. It's just an educated guess. But this still didn't stop Alex from falling as he fell two more times that year while free soloing. He fell at the start of a 5'9 called Pippi the Zen Head and fell again down climbing an unknown 5'10. And while no one knows how many times Alex actually fell over the next three years or how he managed to survive while doing so, Alex finally stepped up in 2007 when he free soloed Astro Man. This climb was over 3,000 feet high and up to 5'11 in difficulty. And while this wasn't the most difficult free solo anyone had ever done, it was still enough to gain Alex some well-deserved street cred. But before anyone had time to understand what was happening, Alex struck again. In 2008, Alex free soloed Moonlight Buttress and Half Dome, neither of which had been free soloed before. To put into perspective how crazy these free solos were, Alex only spent four days on Moonlight Buttress before free soloing it and one day on Half Dome. Now some of you might be saying that one day of prep for a free solo is not enough. And you'd be right. Because somewhere along the way up Half Dome, Alex got lost. On one of the most iconic rock faces on planet Earth, Alex was lost. Desperately trying to find his way back on course, Alex found himself getting stuck in a precarious situation where the only way to continue up the wall was to commit to a massive dino 750 feet off the ground. And as Alex himself put it, I didn't want my life to come down to one move. Despite being stuck in this life or death situation, Alex managed to find a small crimp to pull on and safely topped Half Dome. And although he managed to succeed, Alex realized how dangerous this move really was. In an article in alpinist.com, Alex recounts the situation. I think in retrospect, I should have given it another couple of days of contemplation, Alex said. Maybe actually done the whole thing once. Whatever. But I mean, it worked out fine. In the immediate aftermath, he didn't mention that the experience had shaken him so much, he swore off free soloing. I just decided I didn't need to do that anymore. But Alex Honnold's time away from free soloing was shorter than Ayamori. Because only three years later, he free soloed Heaven 512d in Cosmic Debris 513b. Now, it's unclear exactly when this happened, but somewhere during this time frame, Alex had the craziest fall of all time. In the middle of a snowstorm, Alex was attempting to free solo Shun's Buttress, a 511 plus. And near the top, Alex looked down to what he described as a 2000 foot chasm of doom when the unthinkable happened. A hold broke. As Alex was sent careening down into the abyss, time stood still. Until something even more unlikely happened. He stopped. Suspended in midair, now 1,991 feet above the chasm, Alex found himself perched on a tree branch. He landed in a tree. Having only fallen a few feet, Alex was completely unharmed. He took a moment to collect himself, realizing that he had just cheated death once again. And then, he got back on the wall and did the rational thing. He completed the sin. God does not want this man to die. Alex Honnold is the type of guy that if you threw a frag grenade in a room with him, all of the shrapnel would miss him. Except maybe his hands. Anyway, at this point, Alex Honnold was a rock climbing legend. And now that he was a superstar, the only thing he could do was push the limit even further. Now that Alex Honnold was a professional rock climber, he could do anything he wanted. He secured multiple brand sponsorships like Cliff Bar, North Face, and Black Diamond, and he set out to prove himself in the rock climbing world outside of free soloing. In 2012, Alex and Hans Florian would set the speed record on The Nose in Yosemite. That same year, he returned to Half Dome and set the speed record there as well. But it wasn't until 2014 that he and Tommy Caldwell would perform one of the most impressive feats in climbing history. In southern Patagonia, on the Fitz Roy Mountain, lay one of the most challenging climbs in the world. The Fitz Traverse is a route that is 5 kilometers long with around 4 kilometers of cumulative elevation gain. And while many had tried, no one had ever completed it. Now to give you some perspective on how iconic this route truly is, the logo for Patagonia the apparel brand is literally this route. Meaning that more people have seen this route than any other route in the world. And Alex wanted to send it. Over 5 days, Alex and Tommy tackled some of the toughest alpine climbing in the world. Patagonia sponsored the climb and released the footage in their movie, A Line Across the Sky. Honestly, my favorite part of this entire thing isn't even the climbing. It's the fact that Patagonia sponsored this entire film and Alex Honnold is wearing a North Face jacket the entire time. It's literally the first ascent in human history of the route that they modeled their entire company after. And he's wearing a jacket from their main competitor. Nevertheless, on February 16th, 2014, Alex and Tommy completed the first ascent of the Fitz Traverse. This proved that Alex could do anything if he set his mind to it. But on the corporate side of climbing, trouble was brewing. Later that year, in November of 2014, one of Alex's biggest sponsors, Cliff Bar, decided to let him go. In an article from Outside Online, they say, last week, Cliff Bar, the California organic food company, dropped five climbers from its athlete team, including the sport's biggest name, Alex Honnold, the 29-year-old best known for his daring, unroped ascents of huge walls. The news, first reported by Rockin' Ice, came as a surprise within the climbing community. After all, Cliff's logo is a climber hanging off a rock wall. Probably one of the most ironic things I've ever seen. Their entire brand is built around the idea of outdoor adventures and their logo is literally a climber dangling from a cliff, but they didn't feel comfortable sponsoring the most famous rock climber of all time. It reminds me of when Papa John's fired Papa John. Papa's in the house every day because he's unemployed. Now, to give Cliff Bar a little bit of credit, they do have a climber as their logo, but in their defense, he does have a rope. And not wanting to sponsor somebody who free-souls for a living is pretty reasonable, if I'm being honest. Anyway, two years after being dropped by Cliff Bar, Alex was asked to participate in a brain scan. Due to the nature of Alex's career and his seeming lack of understanding of danger, people were beginning to think he might be autistic. Which he probably is. In 2016, he was subjected to a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan that revealed that, unlike other high-sensation seekers, his amygdala barely activates when watching disturbing images. This sounds like a horrible study to be a part of, just having to watch disturbing images for an hour straight. What do they show you? KSI's Thick of It music video? But with Alex's career seeming like there was nowhere left to go, he would shock the world with what is considered to be one of the most impressive athletic feats in human history. In 2017, Alex Honnold free-souled El Capitan, marking the pinnacle of his career. Alex was no longer a famous rock climber. He was a celebrity. People who knew nothing about rock climbing knew who Alex Honnold was and what he did. Now, I'm just going to assume that all of you have already seen Free Solo, so we don't have to talk about that. But it was during the events of this film that Alex had yet another nasty fall. In 2016, while climbing a route named Godzilla, Alex was being lowered down by his belayer when the rope ran out. Having nothing to support him, Alex once again found himself falling. As I was lowering, we ran out of rope a few meters above the ground, and my belayer accidentally let the end of the rope run through her brake hand and belay device. I dropped a few meters onto pretty gnarly rocks, landing on my butt and side and injuring my back a bit. Compression fracture of two vertebrae. Now, I personally wouldn't consider a compression fracture of two vertebrae injuring my back a bit. I would consider that devastating. But Alex seems like the kind of guy that if he got shot in the shoulder, he'd be like, oh man, I injured my shoulder a little bit. Nevertheless, this injury didn't stop him from free soloing El Capitan. Well, the rest is history. I hope you all learned something from this video. And while Alex Honnold might be invincible, you are not. So don't free solo. I'm going to pull a cliff bar here and say I do not endorse free soloing. You should not do it ever under any circumstances. I mean, is it cool? Yeah. Will you be the baddest mofo on the block if you do it? Absolutely. But I don't endorse it. Thank you all so much for watching. Remember, if you want to pick up some high quality top tier climbing apparel or the new head to the Rungny store. Hit code dino. Enter code dino at checkout and get 15% off your entire order. I'll see you guys next time.