Joe Rogan Experience #1626 — Alex Honnold Transcript

Transcript

0:00 the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, you have an interesting perspective and you have a fascinating life. And so the podcast was supposed to be sort of a primer leading up to the Olympics. So you, did you record them all in advance? people who win the olympics this summer most of them are super young and they're basically like

2:22 and it's like you know it changes the sport and And so a big part of the podcast that we started was basically to see how it changes the sport. So in the World Cup circuit for climbing, like they're already established climbing competitions in the world, So the first one is how high you can climb before you fall off yeah yeah basically really you're climbing with a rope and you're climbing say a 15 meter well say up to like a 50 foot wall

3:53 who understands the difficulty levels yeah how does it yeah so they're professional route setters But it's interesting because in a given competition, the root setters are aware of who the competitors are going to be so like if one of the women is much taller than the rest they kind of have to bear that in mind a little Like what would they do then?

5:10 and then eventually at your cumulative points, basically. and he won he's like yeah because he's the best climber in the world. I mean it's not like he's taking steroids. Well, and a couple of Spanish competitors had like a medal taken away for, You know, it's like, that's recreational, like on the side of his training. like you wind up with like damage to connective tissue what it does generally at least i'm not

7:59 Cause like if you're an 18 year old man who gets into climbing in the gym, Like, I know you're not like really training climbers, but if you were, how would you hold a young person back? Yeah, there are there. There's several. several i mean that's an interesting thing about climbing going to the sort of competitions it's so people are watching technique

10:10 watch people do it too. Yeah, you want to see It'd be like watching ballet or something where you're like, oh, this is an incredible movement. who's really good specifically too would probably be inspiring, right? That's stupid. Like it's got a primal appeal. And they, apparently squirrels only, the females only come into estrus for like six and down trees and, you know, vertical cliffs sometimes, but not like massively overhanging

12:54 It made it about 20 feet further, and then it fell. But like we're just standing there like, did anybody see that? And then we're like, look, those bighorns are so graceful. though it is sad for the bighorn sad for the mountain lion yeah it's sad for the driver who's like holy shit it's like two I think it's in California. Man, that's wild. Yeah. Yeah.

16:19 Not small dog size, like, you know, 50, 60 pounds. And like big fresh in the snow Yeah I wish. I i wish how often are you natural graphic tv thing so we were there with a biologist we're like studying these endemic species of the tapuis there's like this and it wound up being totally insane climbing, But also, it's incredible exposure because it's really steep.

19:14 it actually probably in terms of risk it probably was the final 20 or 30 feet of like getting onto wow yeah but i'm like what do you do in february you know like that's that's my february so these dark and uh we're in our own little hammock so i was just in my cocoon like reading books every day Yeah, so you know that's all modeled on like where they fly to the big rock things with the waterfalls those are tapuis which are like real things in south

21:40 on these things called the pooey's which are like these big quartzitic sandstone walls that stick out of the jungle. And so if you imagine a huge raised area of land that because it's in the jungle has been massively eroded by the constant rain over the last 40 million years. Dude, that's a rhino. Isn't that crazy? the marker to separate those three countries. And so we were climbing this sort of little

22:58 Like it's so square and flat Oh, actually, so again – so actually you see on the left side of that, So we were there in the dry season, and it rained like eight hours a day, and we were in the clouds nonstop. Like, really, if I stumbled upon upon that i would think someone built that yeah no it's totally incredible like one of the mega continents you know, fit together at the the horn

24:53 that they more closely resemble where they came from in Africa They don't exactly know what they did or what their culture was all about. But, you know, when you're looking at stone, it's hard because they carbon date the stuff that's around the stone as they It's like ancient, ancient. uh just the eroded remnants of what was once like a giant you know elevated plateau oh yeah

27:30 a stone surface that's getting rained on so much that it washes all the soil away. Oh, wow. So for if you'd pan the photo a bit to the side there'd be like big expanses of bare rock because the elevational transect of of the river basin that we were in. And then no one had ever been to this wall before. But it was pretty, it took me a while to sort of dial in my scene.

29:57 clothing and synthetic sleeping bags so i was warm enough but then you're just laying in a puddle Yeah, it maintains all the insulation without, even when it's wet. When it comes to mountaineering, hiking trips. used to living out of a van so you kind of know but a little bit but a van is like a small little But so the logistical sort of operator in country had you know provided rations

31:51 We just didn't have, you know. were taking care of ourselves more yeah but so then we were eating trail mix for basically breakfast the hot shower yeah yeah dude the the camping off cliff thing, that is the one that freaks me out the most Oh, how dare you. don't freak out in the middle of the night and just think oh my god i'm dangling off the side

34:01 the chunks of the cliff that have fallen off over the years and then that steep talus gets overgrown with like bushes and shrubs and like roots and things and Oh, boy. hanging off the side of a cliff of a Peruvian mountain I'm not into that to uh just to say they were there what is iceland so i mean isn't the whole society made of ice i shouldn't say that i might say yeah totally totally on the one hand i'm like that's dumb on

36:36 Camping in snow is amazing because if you have to pee, you just pee. and you're like, it just goes forever. I think you're right. just to see if he could. good. I would totally encourage you to watch it. like the same kind of like made me yeah exactly i'm like come on man what are we doing here exactly the whole thing with the ice pick is people assume there must be a trick to it but you actually just

39:21 there was one point in time where after we did it, he was concerned that maybe blood was pooling up in a weird way, you know real or magic whatever it's it's really good but in one of them like he puts the ice pick day for putting swords through his Do you remember, Jamie? Video? a beating and just keep going or they can get one small look they're going right to this right to

41:57 Oh, so now he's going into an x-ray machine to make sure that... pierced my ear too afraid that's hilarious you're too afraid to pierce your ear is painful. I've never pierced my ear. I'm too afraid. It's all Jamie one-handed Googling. They had mimes back then, though, no? To be fair, the act is less inspiring Like, when you watch the David stuff, And two days later, it was surgically removed.

44:24 need like three more research interns Well, he didn't heal himself very well. I think that's part of what that video was, There's just something weird about people that are dating this girl in new york really briefly and um and a couple days later we all went to the oh, wow. Like if your fingertips hurt and your muscles are wrecked and it's hard for you to hold

47:09 like oh there's card number 24 and you're like really can do that yeah he's done it so many times You just tie your shoe. i just like crumple them all together i'm just shove them like is it shuffled you know like i he was known for walking that was called dual survivor I think one of them goofy because i mean you know there there are probably a billion people on earth that basically don't

49:44 a survival thing they're like that's that's a freaking that, you know, that's just their day to day. Yeah. It's not a survival thing. They're like, that's, that's a fricking Tuesday, you know, all changed clothes they're all clean they're all happy they're dry they're like having a good time Bear Grylls. But don't you go to Man vs. Wilder? No, it didn't. I think it may have. No, it definitely

51:36 They wanted to do things to set things up for him It was all, the way Bear Grylls tells it is more that the first several seasons of the show was Like basically people enjoy the entertainment of the show regardless. out and like have an experience with them and it's basically just a format for interviewing No. Do you want people following you around?

53:26 Yeah, the thing – I understand what you're saying, though, about that guy walking around barefoot. I mean, that's the thing. You need connectivity in some way. But the vast majority of people that live that way don't want are like actively seeking out like a hand have you seen it yeah or just like yeah yeah i know what you're talking about it's like these barbed things for fish and i was like i never even arrows for shooting fish versus shooting game. I was like, oh, that's so interesting. It's like these barbed things for fish.

55:58 This is what Rinella described. of splay yeah totally from grabbing our we're so used to our toes being in shoes in a you know And you're just trekking barefoot through the mud. Yes. Like, you know, yeah, climb on New Rock. back to just to remember that, you know, there are hundreds of millions of humans on earth that You know what I mean? Oh, get rid of all this stuff.

59:26 And some of it, you could argue, makes our lives less happy, though. All those things are incredible. inside a weird thing but you've seen the new one you're one of the rare people that's in the new skis and they uh have a most of these guys have uh snowmobiles and they have a trapping run that It's really weird. Especially if you're in the woods, right?

1:02:23 Did you hear about that? she was fucked up though that's crazy crazy. And they said that she came, She was almost the first. But see if you can find photos of Ashley Judd's leg. Yeah, so they had these poor dudes. Look at how they have it strapped together. from the mountain but after he broke his heel but that's a lot different than 50 hours out from the

1:05:26 Would it be easier to leave in there and come back? and get down eventually. Yeah. Actually, I haven't been to the strip at all. We drove the strip like right when it was all happening. I was like, this is crazy. But it was weird. I mean, traffic's a little lower, so it's like you're still able to go hike and climb. I know. Is that what's true in the normal population?

1:08:55 Second of all, to be indoors. Yeah, that's what's weird. Totally. body is actually sunny climate protected and you're from really hot climates. Totally. Your body actually needs to be protected. To me, how important it is for darker skinned people to supplement with vitamin D is a huge issue. Yeah, they call it vitamin D it's it's an actual hormone and it's responsible for

1:11:12 Do you know what that is? But now I've gotten really into it, I think. Yeah're like getting on board with the podcast. Yeah. And then, um, but now I've like gotten really into it. I think this might be helping. I kind of like that. I love that stuff. And then, on the wall, we didn't even have any porters around us anymore because we were sort of full-on middle of nowhere where there are no other like living things around there wouldn't be

1:13:14 transmit it around so is that stuff that you were taking is that like a prophylactic does it prevent and he was taking way more than you should be taking apparently didn't realize it until it I want to bring them there, but I'm worried about the medication. Yeah, but I would want to bring them where animals are. I'm sure it must exist, but again, I don't know like i've gone to morocco three times spent a month each time

1:15:31 And so, you know, we were in the desert-y part. And so I was basically sick the whole time. on the it depends on the place but so like on this trip in the jungle we were using iodine a one of my partners on the trip came home and thought he had a parasite, Yeah. to avoid yeah we'll see yeah well he said he got it from bathing he said he You just little scratches and stuff gets you.

1:18:33 Just heavy-duty stuff, man. like going to these sort of uncharted places It's nice to experience that. Yeah. how different aspects of it came to be. right and so it felt like an important time to tell some of those stories and Oh, yeah, yeah, totally. No, I'm okay, thanks. I've never had CBD. I kind of hate bubbles. There's my face. right you got ufos you got the whole thing the whole deal man there's a bow and arrow in there

1:22:09 Just water? You're going to wait. Yeah. And then it's also interesting watching because, spoiler alert, towards the end of the movie, he's really old. He was still going into the mountains at like 85. He had to accept at certain points in time that he still loved to do those things and you know he had to accept is with his woman, Joanne Uriosti, who lives in Las Vegas, who basically put up all the classic

1:25:00 a hundred different parties of climbers climbing on different routes of theirs scattered throughout the canyons. But they never really think like who put the bolts in, like who did this the first time? How old is Joanne? last 50 years they all started with these outrageous stories of like oh i hitchhike relatively mainstream climbing films that reach a broad audience they just bring more people into

1:27:32 all when you go to a bouldering gym most people are just laying on the pads like chit-chatting The kimono? And the whole idea is, you know, using your own body weight. It is funny that climbing has been around for so long as a human activity, but then as a sport and now as a popular sport, it's experienced this renaissance. you know or to escape predators or whatever else i mean you know it's like yeah i mean climbing is

1:30:11 look at numbers snowboarding is is gone way back down that's kind of interesting so i could be But the snow line is now sort of more like 7,000 feet instead of 6. you know could what happened in texas happen here and I was like, what happened in Texas? Then I do a little built to drive over anything. I was like, is that a COVID line or is that an apocalypse line?

1:32:26 And everybody's like, yeah, it snowed, because it was only snowing for a day. are more robust when they're tied into more things sure all came at once and it washed the whole mountainside away. You're kind of like... They're starting to build these electric exploring vehicles, Yeah, and Rivian, they support my foundation, Yeah, so these pickup trucks are fully electric.

1:34:41 And there's another company. Well, not just they pay me, but also it's a little bit of the design ethos behind it. for electric delivery. because they need electric vans. Rivian's put a lot of thought into how it will eventually reuse its batteries. And, you know, The way they've done it, I know what you're saying, it's almost impossible to gain traction this thing can actually go like this and crab walk

1:37:55 that has a 1,500-mile range to it. It got, These people do this for fun. Like it's not the real production like metal truck. electronics were being controlled by an ipad and there's an engineer like laying down behind the you're kind of like, Exactly, exactly. or 1,500 miles of range rather, the material? I just, what he calls So is this it? it modular battery swapping

1:42:08 at the thing they're interested in you do wind up with good ideas you know i mean like teslas are I just glanced at this. where you're like, But in Porsche's defense, That's cool. Yeah, it's awesome. know his helpers basically gave us this pretty cool tour of of the garages and uh he said it car going by me on the highway but you know i think it's cool that the humans have explored so

1:45:52 It's hard like oak, but really light. You needed a tax stamp to grow hemp in the 1930s because of the prohibition. but that was one of the false starts of innovation I mean think of like urban air pollution and stuff if there had just never been internal combustion cars. car from 1941 so this was a car that I guess it's not a model T like, Whatever this,

1:48:01 And how do you remember it? My memory is weird. But Elon was talking about Tesla's idea, Nikola Tesla's idea of Westinghouse put the kibosh on it, but he wanted to develop these towers to broadcast electricity the same way radio waves were broadcast. Yeah, not yet. Yeah. The only thing that feels a little slow to me is virtual reality because I've assumed that would be way ahead.

1:50:03 I think it'll be cool. gonna do a project with him did it make you want to go to everest i mean yeah a little i mean really Yeah. I don't think it's carbonated. How's it look in the can? You've been drinking too many bubbles. It's a soda that's sweetened with stevia. You're in the neighborhood. There's a rumor easier, better. Like, so many people play those kind of games or Fortnite.

1:53:22 Well, we've had headsets for years, though. I bet it's crazy. that goes around you and then on you on the ground rather what you're standing on is uh this circular actually feel worked after playing for an hour sure i mean because if you're actually running I think they were five. like the most immersive? if you have an omnidirectional treadmill, put money in and play dance dance revolution they got obsessed with it and they they lost like

1:56:46 for oculus when the last time we saw him and came into the studio that's what he gave us an oculus dana white was was advertising recently. Right, haptic feedback. move as much as you want like looking around right you know but um but basically you're you're sort of So like the perspective of a drone, So it's like bolted in place to be more stable.

1:59:17 of people get really motion sick in vr like my wife is like full hard no like won't won't do vr have to shoot them it's wild shit but it gives you a taste of what it's going to be like because this the haptic feedback was like so far along and they're so developed it's not that it's not that That's coming without a doubt. world yeah it's coming it took me a really long time to get a smartphone and you know i was like

2:02:08 is like a piece of junk and he was like i'm gonna fix that and he just like fixed it it's funny It was like a while back and I just – you know, I don't know. It's the old SE. That's the thing. When you see the screen, it's so's the screen is smaller than my thumb well i mean there you go Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you've got an Edsel. we traversed like a bunch of peaks and we were both soloing by ourselves and um he'd been making

2:05:01 dude i could take you on an adventure in red adventure take me on an adventure dude the thing about uh vegas is usually when i'm there i'm just there for the fights and peaks i've been working on traverse of all the peaks like up and over each one type thing it's phone just fell out of his pocket his giant new new 12 plus mega whatever. It fell out.

2:06:32 And it just like bounced. I know. And then when you're down climbing, obviously you're moving your legs a bunch, and it just fell out. Yeah. Yeah. video on it and it'll eventually die whereas well especially coming from a guy like you that does exactly what he wants to do with his life. someone could be reading a book on their phone too i know you're sad no i know it's funny because

2:09:50 with physical books yeah and so at a certain point you just have to use the medium that works for you you're working way through a library cabinet yeah a shelf yeah i mean it's kind of satisfying to be like oh i finished if something happened, if there was an immense solar flare and it killed the grid i can see what you're saying like 20 or 30 years from now you would expect that if digital devices

2:12:09 Yeah. But like you're not doing it i'm lost the instruction manuals for the pyramids well they did like literally the library of alexandria think the smallest ones might be like a half a ton and the largest are like 80 tons in the king's Not just that because you can get armies of human labor and you're not going to get that kind of precision It was originally covered in smooth limestone.

2:14:44 like perfect somebody already piled it here for us. poverty and you can dig a hole well some of the stuff that they found in Egypt some of the most spectacular shit they really did just find No, they probably killed that kid. cryptocurrency is like maybe not going to be one of the winning paths but we'll see ah well we'll You know what I mean? Because the whole thing about blockchain

2:17:34 like printing money and distributing money versus like generating cryptocurrency you know i don't and i mean there's going to be people that remember how to build houses population's dead wait are we doing zombie apocalypse we're doing some sort of a natural That's scarier. yeah exactly yeah preppers those guys they're probably not they probably won't make it

2:20:48 I want to say it was New Guinea, somewhere like there. Yeah, that's it. All of 7 billion human beings on earth. And scroll down. pairs, which means 80 people, I guess. your kids are good you know yes your kids are good probably but your grandkids are probably I would totally go. I'd be willing to go for the rest of my life later in my life. It'd be pretty wild.

2:23:48 but by the time we get people to mars they'll probably extend life lifespans yeah pretty far environments and they found think they know they're just like whoa it's interesting because this is a your health let's see you can find that study. That's what I read for fun at night you know i think this I might be fucked because I eat like a pig. Yeah, arguably.

2:26:59 like might be worth it you know only eating 600 calories a day and like living to 150 yeah or seeing if it works out that way do you anticipate a time where climbing is no longer like you know as you wind up being sort of like a spokesperson So we'll see how it all plays out. for sure no i mean i'm excited to participate in any way because I think it's such an important moment for climbing.

2:28:49 of climbing like I like the big you know sort of adventurous endeavors in the mountains which It's funny because literally since the film I've had zero injuries of any kind. Yeah, it's just a fluke at times. He sucked. all that kind of stuff, good healthy lifestyle. be that appealing because you're watching a little screen yeah i kind of like the little screen

2:31:37 crazy you know like go to the great barrier reef or and fry your retinas and kill your vision real quick because it's all like inches in front mobility things that i was playing with today um i actually just learned that's like a personal weakness i mean so much of climbing is identifying your personal weaknesses splits, I mean, it does open up all kinds of technique that, that a normal climber wouldn't

2:34:05 Yeah, so that, exactly. Like, you have to be able to stretch really far. Yeah. Respect. So that's the thing with climbing is that I would never allow a long period without working out like hand stuff or arm stuff. The stretching is like so peripheral where you're in suburban vegas but like the whole it's like really big with suburban housewives and stuff

2:36:38 It's not just you're sweating because you're stretching. the, and it was like too hot and then everyone sweat so much that it became like humid in a way that hot yoga like that you have to shower you have to go home you have to change it's like it's like that much and you start the class and you're like yeah it's not that crazy not that crazy and then

2:39:05 and then you're, like, slipping and sliding, and you're just like, oh, man. The key to learning how to stretch properly, though, is little incremental pushes through pain and breathing exercises. You have to be consistent too. Yeah, I do my workout, and then I did 45 minutes of stretching. That was like two years ago. That's me like a week ago. You might not be able to do it right now, but you definitely could.

2:41:18 weren't as fluid anymore and then I started stretching out again and got it all back which is more in your arms. And then sort of adventures like mountain, what I was talking And I'm like anything that's good for everything I assume is like good for nothing. Yeah. it's mostly mellow. And we were talking about REM sleep because, you know, your REM sleep is much higher percentage than than whatever like you must be making up for

2:44:01 what's the secret, what's the thing? Like, how do you do this? You know, totally insane seeming before that i mean i still love climbing on things you know i was like climbing the school buildings predators to to fend off enemies to do whatever we had to do to survive in terms of like trekking It is kind of true. you know it's like right like typically when i feel that kind of major anxiety it's like for a

2:46:57 Well, dude, I think part of that is because you get worked by nature so often dude i had uh earlier this year there was a winter storm warning for vegas it does snow in vegas And so I went out in this crazy storm. I didn't know where I was going. around and then it all is way more socked in i couldn't even see my tracks anymore because the thing is i was totally have a thermic completely wet totally worked and my hand had

2:50:00 That's like I mean, it turned out being it turned out being way more. You know, it's like when you're adventuring in the mountains, sometimes those winter storm advisors actually happen, you know. If you're doing that kind of shit. day basically i was like oh what if i died but didn't you feel happy that you were home well had to move into a home which is kind of sad but oh that sucks yeah yeah she had like a stroke or something oh that

2:52:19 heard of you before and you're you know like you just live here too so That's the weird thing about Vegas. I think so. but still i mean it's just suburbia you know it's like yeah i think it's two million people living Whereas there are, how far away is San Antonio? It's sprawled into like a mega city that you're just like, oh, it's just too much. And you're like, where the fuck is it?

2:54:35 to come you know i was using lyft and um then another driver gets there and i'm now like fully It felt like I was driving in Bangalore or somewhere. Old school. Like all the stoplights are out. so people just kind of like figure their way He's like, my friend, this is Mexico City. People were just trying to make their way through it. Sometimes it is.

2:57:03 so nasty i was like this is great and Interesting. Oh, really? you're going to be diminished because of the altitude. high altitude. Well, it depends on where they're fighting. which is I think 5,000 feet point i can around vegas which is like 8400 feet oh wow like yeah it's like at least something like uh did you see yourself doing it for a long period of time like how long did you think about

3:01:42 gold and it's just like an it was going to be just a look at the competitors and kind of the state of of climbing as it goes into the it's just interesting because like Peter was an incredibly talented climber, who are just physically so much more gifted So yours is more, it's more produced. And then some of the stories, like I was telling you, the woman, Joanna Ariosti, the first Ascensionist in Vegas.

3:04:23 appreciate it it's always fun to talk to you and sit down with you. It's crazy. Great to see you.