Joe Rogan Experience #319 — Alex Honnold Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Honnold is here. We are going to talk to this young man about some crazy shit. I've seen several of them online. Occasionally. if they did something like this once, Free solo climbed. Well, I mean, certainly some moments where you're like, oh, this could become a problem, Have you climbed or anything? Yeah. Yeah, generally. and that was an established route that you were climbing?

3:03 Dude. This has been since you were how old? I loved climbing buildings. Yeah, make good decisions. Yes, you're correct. I mean, because if I was going out when you're saying making good decisions. You're climbing Yeah, I mean, once you pass 60, you're pretty much hosed. like people watching you do this uh not particularly and i've done very little Did it feel weird for you to have people filming you?

5:42 So the 60 minutes thing, Like that's a crazy thing. of older i mean he was maybe 50 or something and um he died a car accident and had some like nerve look at that and say, you know, you know what? Oh, he didn't die instantly? Like, you know, you would just explode like a bag of water. is it a well so that's earlier i said the difference between high and so long and like

8:46 you know who else is doing this like where is this like popular there are a couple dudes in I mean, there's a rich, like, tradition of it, especially in California. through the climbing community as I went. And the sponsors just give you money and they pay you to be rushed that doesn't seem like something you would want and how would you you know who

10:51 Like, yeah, man. difficulty level but they just would never want to do it without a rope you know they don't have Listen to me. climb up it in the known human Do you go up something with ropes and say, like me. It's pretty impressive. When you, do you And then maybe 10 days before I climbed it So the angle of the walls is steeper. Are you actually fitting it with your hands?

13:29 was all done and uh you know that evening i like i drew out the sequences i have like a climbing Yeah. And your just musings on life in a book. I would. Yeah, I'm telling you. That's a golden opportunity. I shouldn't have done this. And then I just climb back down. then you know i sort of know that that's a big deal and i think about it you know i think it

15:33 I practice down climbing. have been like oh we're filming it in reverse you know but it would be a lot less rad like that A little bit. It's beautiful. Oh, God. Well, so the day that I decided to do – I was a little angstful, and I was like, I'm going to do this, goddammit. And I was like, oh, no problem. in my climbing shoes being like god i hope i can find something but miraculously i found the trail

18:31 few hours, but you're just like, whoa. Wow. Was that the most hair raising experience you've ever Okay. yeah because the one of the hardest and least secure parts of the whole climb is up at the Weight your feet? if you took that brick wall Well, if you tilted it back I mean, a little bit. Brian, shut the fuck up. I don't know. A fair amount. using your feet and you should be using good technique and you should keep your weight over

22:07 Yeah, I could do, like, two pull-ups on those beams before I'd fall over. Is that like a thing that you could do that? you know, like a little piece of rope or something. You look at it like, I don't need chalk for that. at the bottom oh my god yeah and so when i was all ready to start climbing i was like oh damn it this table you know i mean so it's like but so there were two parties of two guys and they were

24:18 I was like, thank God. What did they say to you when you're like, I forgot my Like, what's this guy doing, you know? I met like a dozen people who were like, it's a very funny story. that's, Yeah, I could do that. So I kind of nip that in the bud, you know? But with rocks, for sure. I mean, you see some things, you just I'm like, that would be rad, except you get arrested. I nip that in the bud.

26:01 and climbed pretty much every skyscraper in the world. And they don't lock him up? He's just like, oh, you know, I just climb buildings. That's ridiculous. I don't think so I think it was an actual real person. He was in a crack like this. Yeah, for sure. Right. Here's the guy. But that's actually quite easy. You should become a tagger. Then we'd have to, like, carry paint with you and stuff.

29:07 and then just decided there's no money in this shit. where the holds are going to be or what direction they'll be facing, don't know how to do it it looks impossible yeah but if you know how to do it your whole life You punch people in the face? while you're there? the same thing. I don't know. A martial art that really works if the other person doesn't know anything.

31:33 But the way you see it in an Aikido demonstration, that shit never happens in the real world. Yeah, I have friends that will watch a martial arts thing on television. That's easy. Yeah, totally. There you go, dude. If you have something you really love to do, Yeah, we go for 12-year-olds. It's just a word. No. boom, it works. Kick-Ass. with magic words

34:37 whatever you're drawn to So we can have a good time working. I don't ever look at mountains and go, fuck, man, I need to climb that shit. I love the fact that people are so different. She's like, that's what he loves to do. The little dogs. She can't talk. her throat starts to close up. Yeah, no spider molestations. But I'm going to say it anyway, because it's just a thought.

37:36 I really wonder whether or not sperm, that all that information of all those people's lives and now you say spider around way into her little personality toolbox. Okay, where do instincts come from then? tents at night and we'd get fucked up. of experience after experience. It only but their parents were racist and they were adopted, And the concept is that there's a certain amount of things that you learn in life that's

40:14 physical genetics, as we think of it, as because your dad was racist, but he's just so racist. But if he hadn't been around that guy and been in different environments, What's so funny? and the spider bit her fucking pussy. Does she still have a pussy? Is it just a hole? that didn't do some damage. Don't say it, you son of a bitch. reckless, they're climbing your shoes

43:19 Yeah. Some of them fuck you up, and some of them just hurt real bad, right? That's counterintuitive. You're the host or something? a TV and stuff. and we didn't, you know, They had to do things that were difficult. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you drink a pitcher of Donkey Kong for the chance to win $50,000? I mean, yeah, probably. No, there wasn't.

45:39 Yeah. Or DMT. Well, you can extract it from anything. But you don't get brain cells out of cum, you silly bitch. This is too dumb. They never answered a question once. How did 60 Minutes find out about you? You know, and so he pitched again and they're like, no, like, who cares about climbing, How could they miss that? Yeah, it's a fairly small community.

48:23 For engineering, what was the idea? I don't know. I was going to do civil engineering, like build big structures or something. I was like, this is kind of, I wasn't super fired up on it. For engineering, what was the idea? You know, it became more and more. I'm going to take the next semester off and just go to Europe, do this youth comp, And so I went to Europe, did this little comp, didn't do very well, whatever.

49:52 I mean, all I knew is that I loved going climbing and that there wasn't anything else that I'd rather be doing and that I wasn't super fired up on school. A lot of, like, most climbers do that, basically. ropes and they'll give you free shoes and they'll give you a harness. A rope sponsor? Is the nylon better? I think hemp stretches more and breaks easier and whatever.

51:42 Hemp has like a weird sort of attachment to it. Yeah, I got, I have this T-shirt line, Higher Primate, I have a Datsura hemp-shirt, hemp t-shirt, This is like high-end, thin, lightweight. Just what feels... That's what it is. I just like things Colorado recently, as far as the new thing that's been passed that makes marijuana legal, And that's not a joke, folks.

54:11 We have hemp protein. very nutritious and sell it. But if we grow them, and then we sell it. the world and the government still hasn't caught up. I'm not going to do it, though. You've got five hours to go Hikers digest Yeah Yeah. Actually, my favorite. Do you attempt to take your pants off while you're up there? No, no, no. It's pretty legit. You just poop all over the wall.

57:18 How do you find it? Yeah, you just got to be careful Actually, I've been vegetarian Yeah, totally. So he has a rope and everything. Then he starts dry-eating because he's all hungover. I just shit my pants. God, this is a torture video. They're both our good friends. connect your rope to it and then And so you climb up and you put them in as you go.

1:00:27 And then they do it again over and over the whole way. So, I mean, yeah, there are circumstances where you can, like, They're camming devices. building. and they're pretty solid stuff. The falling thing is what really freaks me out when they fall and hang on that that we had was uh people they were hanging over this bridge by their hands, and they dropped into the water.

1:02:45 yeah well being a big guy is like a huge liability if you're trying to hang on yeah that's what i like a big climb that day do you do you prep? Do you have like a pre-climb meal? Right. I look at stuff like that and I'm just like, what a disaster. about anything i'm just executing the movements that i have to do you know you know what people But for sure, the harder stuff, when it requires that extra little something, I mean, that is more rewarding.

1:04:59 You know, you're always by yourself doing something really cool. That's ridiculous. Maybe I'm hanging in the wrong places. but for most human beings, then I'll start getting laid. Yeah. where there's a mouse on the ground you you know, where you're in a crouch, and my feet were on the chair. There was some online thing. It's kind of classic. Yeah, it's pretty close.

1:08:18 You know? Yeah, but they probably might, climb in the gym in a city, you know? Love Sacramento. Really? Yeah. do these rock climbing gyms It would seem to me that the rock climbing the gym could not be nearly as exciting, even Well, I mean, honestly, the first times I climbed outside, I didn't like it as much because I was like, oh, how do you find the holds and all that?

1:10:25 is what I was trying to get at? you're like, that was rad. and clawing at things? Yeah, I think it's maybe from They know about his hands and his strong fingers. Yeah. So half of the... have your whole hand sunk in you know and you're just like attached to the mountain And so once you have your hand locked in like that, I mean, you could just, you know, I

1:12:41 Now, you've been doing this for 17 years. And when you're doing a lot of these, you're doing them just by yourself. I climb with a partner and a rope 99% of the time. being like, oh, I can do whatever this boulder problem that I couldn't do before. minutes it's obviously kind of blown up quite a bit um yeah i'm juggling a lot more like speaking Do you still live in that van?

1:15:06 Or never? You can use the kitchen if I want, whatever, you know? No, definitely not. Yeah, I sleep really well in the van, though. Suburban streets that don't seem to... Basically, if you see a van parked for a night, who cares? but then they just peace out and they see it's not stolen. Do you know Moab? It's the Red Sandstone Desert where you see like arches and like really pretty towers.

1:17:22 Like that is becoming more of the appeal for me, you know, just to go to these amazing places and climb like cool things. It's like a freestanding arch. to climb unclimbed sandstone towers and arches, until we got to these crazy towers. I don't know. Yeah, because you're driving across like, Randomly, randomly, randomly. water yeah it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that that's how people lived for a long

1:19:36 And that's why, like, the travel experiences are becoming, like, nothing to the left, nothing to the right, it's like you just have to walk till people are small did you take photos of this yeah i mean it's You have to put it in bio bags. Yeah, you got to pack yeah you gotta pack it out pack it out and human poop is really gross like if you run across

1:21:23 need to work on your diet a little bit. But you can in the desert. Like tiny little shrubs. and then whatever. And there were more people living there because there was more vegetation. I mean, there was water running underground, I guess, that was a rainforest. Because, like, as the desert advanced and, like, the grasslands and forests, you know, receded.

1:24:06 Wow. Hold on. that's what it's called it's human of this crazy bitch They're asking for a... It's some Harvard guy, It sounds fucking crazy. They're built more like gorillas than they are people, and that the fact that I hope the first one's a female. There's been a lot of speculation that Neanderthals preyed on humans. as to what happened to them.

1:27:13 to piece together now whether or not it's from humans breeding with it but interesting enough That's the weirdest thing that I've been aware of recently that I didn't know about, Sort of. This is, like like ritualized and open amazing stuff There's thoughts about it, but one of the more interesting thoughts about the mammoth is the mammoth they found this thing called

1:29:46 things, including a lot of major civilizations. animals just weren't able to make it. That was another animal You know, they probably are doing that. Nothing. Well, you know, by UFOs being irrational and saying just because you haven't seen something, that's irrational. Yeah, that's a good question, actually. That's what I'm saying about rationalism.

1:32:06 that there is life in the universe. We're looking with satellites and with telescopes and trying to observe planets. Maybe other really intelligent life explores spiritually or they go inward. Hopefully, when the aliens come, they'll meet you. What is the biggest one you've ever climbed? What is the biggest face? Biggest face is like 3,000 feet above the earth. 50,000. That's a big mountain. What is the biggest one you've ever climbed?

1:33:34 It's all totally fine. I mean, how would you regulate it? The personal freedom aspect of it. that. It'd be a disaster. It'd be a fucking raining people. But if everybody put like 17 state government that we have I'm surprised that someone doesn't like hey Oh, wow. you're not allowed to like drill bolts or like change the rock in different Like a big eye hook,

1:36:06 into the beaner. management use thing. This just fulfills all of your time. Well, yeah. yeah yeah i mean you've said that like 10 times The more I talk to you about how unique you are, or your passion and desire, the way it fits in, I got all kinds of – I have a lot of, like, travel goals, Oh, you can't tell people? through the whole process of like you set the goal you train for it you achieve it whatever

1:38:32 to be in what kind of shape. they're like, turns out that guy's actually really boring. There's nothing boring about you. My hands sweat watching your videos. You know, the majority of the year I'm just going out and climbing with my friends. And the guy's like, I'll give you $200. You would not be contributing to it, my friend. I doubt there will ever be a show,

1:40:35 and you have to solo something big You ready for this? Kids a mess. He's like, what kind of girls? That's a really easy thing to make happen. And by skanks, I say that lovingly just because it was the funny thing to say. Ladies, don't To hang out with porn stars. it's like anywhere Chile's like this narrow Your family lived in Japan? and are teaching language.

1:42:56 I don't know. You were like, hey, what? Cancel that shit. Frankie Edgar's fighting Jose Aldo. from Brazil. They're flying in from the East Coast. has to cut weight to make 265 pounds. he's such a freak specimen of humanity. Yeah, what the fuck? Joe, you need to make more crazy faces during this shit. He's about to smash that guy's head. See, every fighter has to be introduced.

1:45:27 What I do is I explain the nuances of what's dangerous. and they photoshopped it. completely sold out Mandalay Bay Event Center. this Saturday night that are also the best. So your side. But these are all things that I'm drawn to, Fuck yeah. The cage, you could step forward and touch it with your hand if you want to. Their job is to try to hurt the other guy, and the other guy tries to hurt them.

1:47:45 and stop another person who's also using their body. Dude, I might just move my thing. It's time! trust me, you're going to have a memorable weekend. We'll go climb the Luxor. I did it on Fear Factor where they climbed the Luxor. Did you have a call in deciding what they did? from the beginning who was like, you know, I mean, no fucking way. three seconds. A good

1:50:29 You go flying. But my beef was the guy was like, well, these here are training clowns, how he's going to throw these people off. And then she was literally flying Everyone was fine. propaganda. some AVN awards. He goes, I brought you a and then we'd teach them to solo, Can you take your email, forward it to me and I'll put it online? Well, I was like, what the heck?

1:53:31 like people will actually die but you do that and you know that you won't 17 years preparing for it I mean, I took her up a handful of really, really easy. You know, something like that. Oh, that kind of shit. But yeah, I mean, those are basically the issues. Yeah. you were doing your best though is really for whatever reason, it only exists because of a medium to display it you know it's it's really interesting i think it's um it's just

1:56:03 and um they invited me there to speak to tell the kids that they don't have to go to college, It's kind of like AP program, but kind of like high-end, like, you know, academic program. travel the world do what you love to do that kind of thing it was like it was very satisfying to go I was competing in Taekwondo tournaments back then. Oh, yeah, yeah.

1:57:49 But for the most part, throughout high school, I was terrified that I was going to get killed in a tournament and smashed. But the feeling that I had, that feeling of uncertainty, And if, Or even if nobody's doing it. There's a little of that. There's a lot of different rooms. No, no. As long as they're willing to do this on film, we can get them all laid.

1:59:57 So I don't see what you're saying. You get too much high-end pussy at a young age. Yeah. when you were 18 years old, The thrill of getting to the top, but somehow or another be dwarfed. No. We've met her before. I save it. It's waterproof. If you lived in a You could, but memory is kind of the way, I think. represented reality, Sketchy. Is he legit?

2:03:05 Is he a weirdo? He's a little weird. Yeah. He could really think there's a Bigfoot? Oh yeah, he believes he's had experiences. Yeah. Is he a weirdo? whatever. he goes on these expeditions 10 foot tall bipedal primate. They think it's really possible, But I thought coming from a primatologist Catch him, please. Prove me and I drew Before I became a comedian,

2:05:32 I was an illustrator I could do this one teacher. for that. But back in the day, You were a good kid? Yeah, I just wasn't interested, you know? Just because at some point I'm sure I want to settle down. yeah that's like that's the heart of u.s climbing yeah while i was there someone died that comes to mind that i've always found just totally comedic is uh on half dome there's like

2:08:03 whatever it's like their first wall and she gets up there and she like takes out the piece of production is like well know an ice pillar collapses on them like say winter climbing or something because that happens like, that just sucks. Because, I mean, Yeah. Mountain lions, bears, anything like that? Yes, there has. Yeah. There are no grizzlies in California.

2:10:31 Yosemite, grizzly. Yellowstone recently. Yeah. It's probably there. The mountain lions are hunted in Nevada, but in California they don Sierra Foothills in 1922. The last one. The mountain lions urban animals, about small predators that are living in Chicago. I think they have radio bands on them and stuff. No. Yellowstone is Wyoming. Yeah, they're just little black bears.

2:13:30 get used to it and then they eat your shit. It's kind of annoying. Yeah. When you see Was he like an Asian tourist or something? That's pretty fucked up. like a guy who's really ballsy grizzly box? We'll pull it up for you just so you can take a look at it. Oh, it's so intense. Yeah. It can't quite, but it's so big. where the fuck it is. Here it is.

2:16:23 It's from Gordon Buchanan. Look at this motherfucker. It is one of the most powerful animals on the planet, you've got to go online and just watch it. That was amazing. Have you ever had to climb anything in ice? Ice climbing? So you, like, climb a little cliff of ice, Do pieces fall off and hit you or anything like that? Because I'm pretty sure I might be doing some trips to Alaska or something this year

2:19:47 Do you have any desire to do Everest? I have to. It's, you know, fair enough. The Everest one. Yeah, totally. I have to. It's more of a hike, right? Yeah. biggest mountain in Africa, but it was like a dude brewing me tea every day and setting it up to come in here and we'd love to have you he's down I'm sorry spell it for everybody so whatever what I meant to say. Awesome Android

2:22:53 Go to O-N-N-I-T and use the code name Rogan, So we'll see him tomorrow, and we'll see you tomorrow.