The character arc of Alex Honnold
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 17 August 1985 in Sacramento, California. Between then and now sit an International Baccalaureate in 2003, a Berkeley engineering course left unfinished, free solos of Moonlight Buttress and Half Dome in 2008, a speed record on The Nose in 2012, a Piolet d'Or in 2015, El Capitan on 3 June 2017 and an Academy Award for the film in 2019. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Alex Honnold?
Nine years of preparation for four hours.
He finished the International Baccalaureate at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento in 2003 and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley to read civil engineering. He left without finishing and climbed instead, living out of a van for years, which is a normal way to do it and an abnormal thing to choose.
The record built steadily. In 2007 he free soloed Astroman and The Rostrum in a single day. In 2008 he free soloed Moonlight Buttress in Zion and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. In 2012 he set a speed record on The Nose with Hans Florine, at two hours twenty three minutes and forty six seconds. In 2015 he won the Piolet d'Or, mountaineering's highest award, for the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia with Tommy Caldwell.
On 3 June 2017 he climbed El Capitan by the Freerider route without a rope, in three hours and fifty six minutes. Nobody had done it before. What the line shows, and what the headlines did not, is that the ascent sits at the end of nine years of climbing that route and others with ropes, over and over, until every move was known. Free Solo, the documentary of it, won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2019. He wrote Alone on the Wall with David Roberts in 2015, and founded the Honnold Foundation, which funds solar energy access.
The moments
Alex Honnold's timeline.
The 2000s
Mira Loma, and Berkeley
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A Baccalaureate and an engineering place, which is the conventional path.
Finish the degree, or climb
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: leave and climb, taken, or finish at Berkeley. Twelve years later he was the first person to climb El Capitan without a rope, and the film of it won an Academy Award.
He left the degree
Setback, and it changed everything. Out of an engineering degree and into a van. It is not the safe version of this decision.
Astroman and The Rostrum
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two routes without a rope, in one day, at twenty two.
Moonlight and Half Dome
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two of the most famous walls in America, in one season.
The 2010s
A record on The Nose
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two hours and twenty three minutes up a wall that takes most parties days.
The Piolet d'Or
Milestone, and it changed everything. Mountaineering's highest award, for a climb done with a partner rather than alone.
El Capitan, without a rope
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three hours and fifty six minutes, at the end of nine years of rehearsing it with ropes.
An Academy Award
Milestone, and it changed everything. An Oscar for a film about a climb, which almost nobody expected.
The 2020s
The Honnold Foundation
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The money from the climbing, put into electricity for people who have none.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is the least romantic lesson available from the most romantic climb there is: the famous four hours were made entirely of the nine years nobody filmed.
What he wrote
Books by Alex Honnold
- 2015
Alone on the Wall
Written with David Roberts, on the climbs that came before El Capitan and what preparing for them takes.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His spent nine years rehearsing before the four hours anybody remembers. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Alex Honnold: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Alex Honnold's character arc?
When did Alex Honnold free solo El Capitan?
Did Alex Honnold win an Oscar?
Did Alex Honnold go to university?
What is Alex Honnold's Piolet d'Or?
What is the Honnold Foundation?
What climbs is Alex Honnold known for?
Where does this timeline of Alex Honnold's life come from?
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Sources
- Alex Honnold, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, best documentary feature, 2019.
- Piolets d'Or, 2015, for the Fitz Traverse.