Hexes are solid, inexpensive pro with wide range of placements. That being said they usually stay on my rack when a cam will do
Anyone have any summer projects? i’m gonna be in california in august in Sequoia NP and San Diego. Not a climbing vacation but hoping i can get a day or two out with a rando from mountain project or something
Summer project? Not sweating my balls off in the gym? Fall project will be check your grip in RRG and nothing special in Vegas. I’ll probably try to make a day or two to Namaste in Utah.
I climb exclusively in the southeast so my project is not injuring something in the gym until "fall"(read: November) rolls around.
I haven't done rope in years - most of the friends I started climbing with have moved west - so I spend a lot of time in boulder fields these days. Rumbling Bald, Horse Pens, Citadel, etc.
A ton of scrambling to a number of summits, but no trad climbing. One of my big goals is the Black Tusk outside of Whistler, have a friend coming to do it with me in late August: Spoiler This happened a few days ago:
We have a thread on the Oregon board called “where are they now?” and every update I’m expecting to learn that Colt Lyerla died :(
Started watching and this is stressing me the fuck out also and they are basically only on the 1000 foot warm up mountain.
Streaming for anyone. https://www.lookmovie2.to/shows/view/15258106-arctic-ascent-with-alex-honnold-2024
It was good, but he came across pretty badly in the last episode, and I’m sure they were pulling punches. Definitely not as good as Free Solo. He also clearly has sociopathic tendencies. I enjoyed the first 2 episodes more than the last.
He was a sociopath as it related to caring about anyone other than himself. He completely had blinders on, which is what it takes to do what he does, but other people just don't factor into that, and both of them were not thrilled with the way he behaved and said as much but definitely held back on some level. He had equipment and they didn't (theirs got stuck on top of the glacier). They were below him bearing the risk of the rocks falling on top of them doing the grunt work that wasn't fun and he knew it wasn't safe, but was trying to convince them it was worth it.
There was a glimpse of this in Free Solo -- when his fiance (now wife) was talking to him about climbing, something like, "if you die, you'll leave behind a wife and maybe a kid." And he was just like, "yea, so?" You gotta have a screw loose to do what he does. But, it seems like he doesn't care about anything except climbing mountains, even at the expense of other people's feelings/safety.
Yes, it definitely built upon a smaller impression left in Free Solo, but that I saw in other movies as well.
Having never watched any of these documentaries yet, I was shocked that someone married him. He clearly isn't normal at all when it comes to caring about possibly dying doing something incredibly dangerous, you're kind of signing up for that marrying him (not that excuses his behavior).
p explicitly the definition of a sociopath just glad he gets his jollies risking his own life and not collecting skins
Maybe it was more in your face in this series because Mikey and Hazel were challenging him on his thinking to proceed despite dangerous conditions (in multiple scenarios - even in episode 2 skiing through a white out blizzard without being able to see crevices), so seeing his reactions brought it into the spotlight. Mikey even goes as far as to say to him that if I say no does this mean we can still be friends (as if he doubted it). Hazel beats around the bush in terms of how she felt about his communication and behavior, but made it clear she questioned it. Also from an editing perspective, this was a 6 week expedition, so in a 2 hour series for them to highlight it as much as they did, certainly made it a theme of the show.
I haven't seen the new series yet so I can't speak to his decisions in this scenario in Greenland, but I do find it interesting how quickly someone like Honnold gets labeled 'sociopathic'. He communicates his priorities pretty clearly to Sanni and I perceive that one of the reasons she loves him because he's so in touch with what makes him feel most alive, even if that thing feels insane to other people. I'd suspect that Honnold thinks most people around the world are sociopathic going their whole life with college football or [insert interest here] as the most exciting part of their life
Can’t remember what it was, whether he got some type of brain scan or a psychologist was talking to him but he legit lacks some kind of function in his brain that registers fear and obviously operates differently when it comes to relationships/people.
NatGeo replayed Solo after the Arctic episodes on Sunday night. I think it was in Solo where the scan showed that his amygdala is not activated at all when he's shown images/video of dangerous/frightening situations.
Dude's amygdala has to be all kinds of deformed. Edit: I'd have looked a lot smarter if I got this in before Henry Blake's video.
I get what you're saying and don't entirely disagree -- I have a pretty high appetite for risk myself (nowhere near Honnold's, obviously). But there's a pretty fine line between being an adrenaline junkie for the thrill and doing things where the risk of death is so high -- probably recklessly high. I think he's a fascinating person and appreciate what he's doing, but I don't think it's far-fetched to argue he has some sociopathic tendencies.
I don't think it would be a surprise to see he lands on the spectrum - which probably includes most, if not all, sociopaths. He hyper focuses on a single objective and the risks/side effects don't trigger the same reactions in his bran that it does for others.
I don't think he is being labeled that way in the figurative sense. If you are in tune to the behaviors they can be pretty apparent. That being said, I am not a psychiatrist but I still think I know it when i see it. We are not talking about a sociopathic killer who not only lacks empathy but also decides to do bad because of it. Alex has causes (like climate preservation), but I am not sure he connects with them on an emotional level as much as a logical level in that nature is his domain. For his particular goal in life it is an absolute gift for him, although I am sure there are drawbacks. Look, it's possible he isn't a sociopath, but they certainly have edited in content (in multiple documentaries) that would lead anyone who understands what it is to believe he is a sociopath or similar.
Mikey even questioned his empathy for them at one point and said that Alex's opinion was based on the confirmation bias of the fact that he hasn't died yet.
He was definitely a turd in episode 2 and 4. Episode 2 really irked me because it wasn’t just the three extreme athletes, the scientists were following them as well. “Alex we need to stop” ‘Why?’ “Because we can’t see 5 feet in front of us and we’re on a fucking glacier” ‘We could tie ourselves together’ “So if one of us fall in a crevice we all die!?” ‘Haha, yeah’. Then they wake up the next morning to see they were 5 minutes from plunging to their death. I also didn’t realize Mikey was a long time friend and climbing partner. He at once referred to them as his ‘pack animal” and talked down to him like he didn’t respect him “you’re grumpy” “why’s your morale so low?” And Mikey was like, we don’t have the right gear, this wall is falling the fuck apart, and I’m sick of you throwing rocks within feet of my head all damn day. Then I felt he bullied Hazel into continuing after Mikey finally said no way.
1 ep in. I'm glad he hasn't died. Also I'm not sure if his bigger feat was climbing el cap or landing his wife
mikey is the guy who filmed the free solo at el cap from the ground and couldn't watch in the first couple of minutes here:
Just walked past him at my climbing gym in Dallas. Can confirm he’s still alive. Wanted to fangirl and ask for a selfie but restrained myself. /coolstarrybra