Joe Rogan Experience #1189 — Alex Honnold Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Should I do headphones? It doesn't matter. It has been. Yeah, that's all right, though. One of the weirdest parts of the film is when they're showing all the guys who have died from free soloing. That's not the same, though. Like, basically, a few free solos have died it's just statistics. Um, how much, how important is it when, when you're free soloing to have that

2:49 because they need to get challenged. Like when you free solo. it was always sort of the opposite because the real challenge of free soloing is the psychological very tiring. And so I kind of realized that I was starting to get sort of deeply fatigued. You know, everything will feel like imagining what it'll like to place my foot on a hold or what you know

5:38 It has a clammy. No, not really. I mean, so with, with freestyling El Cap, I found that I needed to create enough like it in my own terms at my own time. When was the last time we talked? How many years ago was that? Just trying to hold on. can go see it right now. It's like 400 theaters all over the country right now. Yeah. like it was, Yeah, because it should be sort of meditative and relaxing and quiet.

9:44 But for a guy like you, my perception of a guy like you, who's that, that person who's doing that activity, then to sort of juxtapose that with this media tour type environment and dealing with all these people that, that, that seems to me like it would be really annoying. It was this totally outrageous experience. Like really thick. I mean, it's pretty legit.

11:05 Well, I can imagine it would be very interesting. Yeah. The Antarctica thing sounds like a trip. climb and how it looks. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, I would imagine. Those shoes that you wear on a normal So some are super soft like that. More like a mountaineering type of a boot. And so the stiffer the shoe is, the more that you can lock the shoe into place as opposed to your foot.

13:42 You honestly think that? the average path that the average person takes in life and sitting in an office all day under I don't necessarily feel like people all need to go free soloing. and the feeling of accomplishment and the euphoria and just the So that is not sitting in a cubicle. Moving on up. Why Las Vegas? That's cool. Yeah. is everyone just thinks the strip but it's like it's not really the strip it's like the mountains

17:47 i'm uh 33 do you feel any difference in the way your body responds to doing this on a regular It'll be fun, you know? No, And I mean, um, I'm just going to eat that. meat because they're actually more primitive even than vegetables they're mollusks yeah like um making sure you get the proper amount of essential fatty acids No, sometimes. Do you have those F-bombs?

21:03 Yeah, it's called F-bomb, like're great. I have a whole box of them. I'll give you some. They send them to you. Yeah, it's called F-Bomb, like fat bomb. Is there one sitting around? I would totally try those. Yeah, I eat the shit out of those things. It says Intercontinental Champion Sober October or Intergalactic Champion. We're wearing these belts that measure your heart rate,

22:42 Fantastic stuff. And you just smush them mess around with nootropics at all i don't know i've never even heard that word nootropics are I'll send a bunch of it to you. No. and wanted to find some sort of natural way to replenish his brain function. But it's really good for enhancing function. all the tests are available. Andrew. that I do, like commentary

26:00 But I mean a lot of climbers smoke a lot of weed. So I don't really know anything about it, but, um, I don't know. Everyone does the exact same course, but you just go as fast as you can so basically climbing competitors just have to do all three disciplines and And so I wouldn't be surprised if it's part of that. I don't know if the woman you're talking about is from there.

28:11 Zadeh. He's going to browse the internet yes he elite times it's it's faster for sure uh women or men both i think i don't i don't think that's And so you basically memorize the sequence, Oh, my God. Doesn't it look like he's just running on the sidewalk? Oh. You don't want to be like, He sort of pioneered that sport, as it were. that you have to be facing away from the wall when you open your parachute or else you just fly right into the wall and crash.

32:01 That's not good. But imagine if one of his footholds just broke and he started pinwheeling down the wall. croft who's like a legendary soloist and he's a childhood hero of mine. And he's, you know, I don't want to say pushing 60 because I'm not sure how old Peter is, So I had dinner with him a couple years ago, and I was like, recently but it's like a hard number but not nearly as much of an undertaking as some of the

34:42 i don't know so in in america it's by the Yosemite Decimal System. Oh, yeah. Yeah. big part of it was people from LA and the Bay area, um, who probably had some sense of classical so they had to start adding 5.10, and then they subdivided into ABCD, What's the physical limit? and there are many 15Bs in the world. And so for, you know, an elite climber, they're basically searching the world all the time trying to find that right mixture of rock.

38:19 that comes from climbing something, right? Yeah, totally. I mean, there's a certain, It's a short online. Like physical? this is uh the world's first 15c so slightly easier he did this several years ago but it's Well, so he, have you heard of the Donwall on El Cap? It's this thing. And he put like a month of work into it and repeated it and you're just like whoa he's really really strong wow so when

40:55 Oh, my heart. Yeah, he's got a rope right there. certainly the he has a certain ferocity he has an intensity where he can try with like 115 percent remotely close to 115% effort or else you will die for sure. You know, because you're so close Caldwell, like I've, I've climbed with Tommy a lot over the years. He's, he's a great climber. yeah that's that's kind of what is he doing there he's uh he's counter pressuring his leg into this

43:55 Yeah, that's a really efficient way to rest, to rest your arms. Honestly, I don't know what he's doing. It's pretty difficult. super ripped. I bet if you tried a bit. You should be driving with your legs. stuff with your legs do you do anything to cross train like not really no i mean i do other mountain Now, is that something you talk to a physical therapist about or no that's just I

46:55 Because I think really it just shows that I've been really fortunate for 20 years It was like totally horrible, like these jagged boulders. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I was asking you about your age. How old is Floyd Mayweather? Yeah, he's not a boxer. does that mean like to, how does that work? he's just a genius boxer probably one of the best defense, probably if not the best, definitely top two or three defensive boxers of all time.

50:44 Yeah. about that with climbing it's like oh it's such a dangerous sport but the thing about rock climbing I think things like football and fighting, they creep up on you. And when I was there, I had a really hard time watching it because everybody's cheering. He goes, really? How many do they do in a week? like, this is messed up. I mean, and I'm, I'm not like huge animal rights guy, but I'm vegetarian,

53:50 like you just want to i mean if you're from small town wyoming and you're like oh i'm good at Because he just didn't. And, you know, the crowd's all like, yeah. That's where we draw a line. And you're like, dude, I'm pretty sure they'd rather be roaming the open plains like inseminating cows, you know? surgeries and they tried to screw it back together and tighten things down but it was just destroyed

56:13 But even landing the damage to a certain extent, you're like, oh, you're hurting somebody else but part of you is looking down at that guy that's just got flatlined, not well yeah no i mean i know that but but it's possible and it's like definitely you know and it You're not just getting battered against the ropes. They're also nowadays much better at stopping a fight when a fighter is clearly compromised,

57:42 That's the thing about climbing is there's this real elemental appeal to just you and the mountain and its nature and it's beautiful and it's very peaceful and calm. it became chaos because a fight erupted outside of the parameters of the fight. This is lovely. You're like, he's a professional fighter. time you get hurt training jiu-jitsu is accidental for the most part especially when you train with

59:35 He's like, I thought we were just grappling, and then his arm came out, No, I'm saying I'm the strong beginner. You don't want two beginners going out and trying to like climb a mountain together. So bolts and things are put in by the first ascensionist, And of those 112, only 15 or so of them can be free climbed, which is different than free soloing.

1:01:44 So then, so then there, yeah, something like 10 or 15 free climbing routes where you can climb the film and everything it's it's uh and nobody's ever even thought about it you know nobody's How many are there? So he's sort of starting out? You know, I mean, I think almost all climbers only dabble in free-sailing as well. I mean, mostly I'm climbing with my friends, doing other things. You know, I mean, I think most, almost all climbers only dabble in free-sailing. I mean,

1:03:57 it's like engineering yeah but i do that because sometimes that's what it requires to get up big climbing or even free soloing is that you have nothing on you now how secure is that stuff that Well, yeah, I mean, it's all well-founded. goes you're cheating as much as you can it's just trying He was climbing something that's really, really easy, 15 seconds?

1:06:11 Normally, I would have a belay device on. would have gotten pulled like 50 feet across the wall and it was all messed up so when he's falling your equipment and everything it it can be okay to take big falls like that. fall and you break something and you're halfway up well dude so okay same route the the nose of He had a rope, he had gear, everything worked exactly the way it's supposed to.

1:08:57 already fallen 20 feet broke both his ankles and then it was kind of horrible i was actually up called search and rescue. And so, or rescue is already mobilized, but search and rescue that sucks, if there was anything I could do to help. or something and then eventually they managed to haul him up to the summit and then i think you're sitting there if you're sitting there hanging off a ledge like that with two broken

1:11:12 Yeah. it's like, who's still free soloing and doing difficult paths? least right now i can't really imagine anything more inspiring to me uh in terms of free-souling Yeah, but that's the thing is that it's not even. again i mean we'll see now you're still relatively young in terms of life itself do you do you think i mean that's something that's satisfying in a way that climbing sort of isn't because it actually

1:14:17 And then I was like, there's no real point in supporting environmental projects carbon emissions it's just it's good for the planet you're slowly greening the the earth, it's dark for 12 hours a day. I mean, imagine if when the sun goes down, your productive It is crazy. it's every, like, 10 or 15 minutes basically to power that drives me insane is that there's so much resistance to it from utilities, from, from, you know, consumer ignorance, from whatever

1:17:40 Yeah, it's like one of those things where you're sort of like, if it's going to happen eventually, business people that have thousands and thousands of employees and millions if not billions of money But it's, it is, but it's inevitable. Well, I think they slowly are, but things like that take time. That's like a lot less energy. And they realized, wait, wait, wait, wait wait you can't get your things drenched in water like when

1:19:56 I was just actually reading this business management book. I don't think you can power a car with solar panels completely. August of 2016. No other vehicle sold in the U.S. has ever offered this capability. But the numbers totally don't work. And then he uses that charger to charge And so they were filming, so there were a bunch of cameras, a bunch of batteries, laptops, backing up drives.

1:22:44 because you put your laptops and stuff into coolers, like into ice chests to keep them insulated enough to stay warm as opposed to cold. the car that runs you over. Well, you know, no, but you still do though, because, uh, something So, I mean, if you think about that with a car, if it's just like a glass dome over you, one like that yeah yeah that's pretty that's pretty straightforward though that's a small

1:24:43 to have nearly as much money as, as real philanthropic organization, you know, like the Bill and Melinda years ago and so there's an advance from that and like the film um has made a little money um the you know random little So they just look at you as like sort of an inspiration to mix things up for the company. of input that gets to the, the, the employees, like give them something that's kind of spectacular and interesting. And yeah.

1:27:10 I mean, I'm still trying to be a better climber. So when you're doing all these climbs, you have a lot of time. you know, if I have a family someday, I want to be able to take my kids to these same places and have them appreciate the land in the same way. I mean, yeah. So like Yosemite, the last five years, because all the pine trees have died so many Valley all burst into flames. So it makes sense. But at the same time, I mean, you know,

1:29:25 die through the winter like they would freeze um but you know basically they're not freezing to just it's too much, you know, and I just would love for my kids someday to be able to appreciate the park the way I have for so long. And I just don't want to see it all burn. just no stopping it no i mean that's yeah no that's messed i mean that's so like yeah this

1:31:08 for an expedition, Um, are in that sort of situation where you're filming these things like is it difficult to be i was talking about earlier when i was asking like the difference between you when you're i mean your the nuance, like not perverting it in any way. Well, it's impossible to be anything but spectacular, Yeah, totally. Well, a podcast would be easy

1:34:37 Well, I think you'd have a significant impact too, especially if you have such a large platform now. to talk people into podcasts, Well, people get mad at me. notes from the phone and you can make a podcast off that and it's really easy to upload but just seeing things no I'm like put it on twitter let people yeah we'll see if uh if i ever actually do anything like that

1:36:11 this very specific Hoping to freaking make the world a better place. Yeah, exactly. I feel like it could be douchey, you know, but it'd have to be well done. When you're like, I'm just going to record monologues of me rambling about ideas. Yeah, no, I feel stronger about it. it just needs to happen. You've got a very significant voice right now. I mean it doesn't you don't have to have the beautiful thing is to it doesn't

1:38:54 Like little rambles for sure. Yeah. Yeah, but people are getting it. You don't have directors. That's one of the things that people really, really enjoy about something like a podcast is that they know there's no one telling you what to say or what to do. There's tons of people. the show it was uh it was a full experience for me it's one of the first times i've done anything

1:41:17 Thank you.