by Mark Synnott
© Dean Fidelman
Dean Potter slacklining at Taft Point, with El Capitan visible in the background. It was near here that Potter and his friend Graham Hunt would later die wingsuit BASE jumping. The notch they tried to fly through is visible in the middle right of the photo.
© Dean Fidelman
Alex Lowe following the author’s lead high on Great Trango Tower in the Karakoram in 1999. The cable in his left hand is a funkness device, used for yanking out recalcitrant pitons.
© Mark Synnott
Alex Lowe on the summit ridge of Great Trango Tower. A few minutes after this photo was taken, while leading the next pitch, he slipped and fell about 50 feet down the backside of this ridge.
© Jared Ogden
The final bivouac high on Great Trango Tower. The author discovered, shortly after taking this photo, that Lowe was badly injured from his fall and had spent the night sitting on the ledge without getting into his sleeping bag.
© Mark Synnott
From left to right: Jared Ogden, the author, and Lowe camped at the base of the headwall after a harrowing descent in a storm.
© Jared Ogden
From left to right: Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Alex Honnold on the approach to Low’s Gully on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo.
© Mark Synnott
A young Alex Honnold on the flanks of Mount Kinabalu. This was Honnold’s first international climbing expedition.
© Mark Synnott
Jimmy Chin on the wall in Borneo. Low’s Gully, which drops 10,000 vertical feet over six miles, is visible below him.
© Mark Synnott
Sandstone towers on the Ennedi Plateau in Chad. The author led the first climbing expedition to this area in 2010. The team, which included Alex Honnold and James Pearson, climbed the first ascents of twenty towers, leaving thousands more for future generations of climbers.
© Mark Synnott
While exploring a canyon toward the end of the expedition, the team was accosted by knife-wielding bandits. This image is a screen grab from Renan Ozturk’s video of the encounter.
© Renan Ozturk, Camp 4 Collective
Alex Honnold, the author, and Hazel Findlay in Devil’s Bay on the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in 2011. Despite terrible weather they managed to climb the wall in the background, called Blow Me Down.
© Tim Kemple
Findlay and Honnold scope climbing objectives on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula in 2012. The team spent three weeks exploring the area, sometimes called the “Norway of the Persian Gulf,” aboard a catamaran skippered by the author. That afternoon, Honnold would free solo the wall at the head of the fjord, prompting the local inhabitants to tell the author they thought Honnold was a witch.
© Mark Synnott
Honnold gauging his pump after his free solo of an overhanging 1,800-foot cliff in Taghia, Morocco, called Rivières Pourpres. Honnold trained in Taghia with Tommy Caldwell before making his first attempt to free solo El Capitan in the fall of 2016.
© Mark Synnott
One of the many Berber bridges in the Taghia Gorge.
© Mark Synnott
Alex Honnold and Tommy Synnott.
© Hampton Synnott
The author (left) trick-or-treating in Yosemite Village with Tommy Caldwell.
© Hampton Synnott
Dierdre Wolownick, Alex Honnold’s mom, on Sunnyside Bench, about a week before Alex’s first attempt to free solo El Capitan. Wolownick was not aware of her son’s plan.
© Mark Synnott
Left to right: Peter Croft, Honnold, and Sanni McCandless, Alex’s girlfriend, in “the box,” as Alex sometimes called his Dodge ProMaster van. Alex elevates his ankle, which he damaged in a fall on Freerider earlier in the season.
© Mark Synnott
The author, pictured here, watched the climb from El Cap Meadow with a high-powered spotting scope. He described watching his friend that morning as “almost unbearable.”
© Mark Synnott
Honnold scales the Enduro Corner, 2,500 feet above the valley floor, on the first free solo of El Capitan, June 3, 2017. Tommy Caldwell called the feat “the first moon landing of free soloing.”
© Austin Siadak
An image taken through the viewfinder of the author’s spotting scope during one of Alex’s many training sessions on the route. A camera team, including Jimmy Chin, dangles nearby.
© Mark Synnott
The author attempted to free climb Freerider in 2002 but was unsuccessful. Here he is nearing the top of the Enduro Corner. This is roughly the same place Alex is climbing in the adjacent photo.
© Cameron Lawson
After completion of the climb, Alex told the author that on the way up the wall he was already thinking about his next goal. An hour later the author took this photo of Honnold on his hangboard.
© Mark Synnott
Alex received dozens of texts from his friends after the ascent. He joked that he needed an auto reply to respond to them all. The only equipment used for the climb, his shoes and a chalk bag, lies on the floor of the van below his legs.
© Mark Synnott
Author’s Note
The idea for this book grew out of an assignment for National Geographic magazine to cover Alex Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan. At the time of this writing, that article is scheduled to be published in March 2019. Some of the material in this book is taken verbatim from that article—and vice versa.
I have also used other articles I’ve written over the years for Climbing, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, and Outside as sources, and this book contains select passages that were taken verbatim from these earlier works.
Other sources for this book include films, YouTube videos, social media, online forums, podcasts, books, articles, news stories, and countless conversations and interviews. In many instances, the sources for information contained herein—be it a magazine, book, or individual—have been credited in the text. Some material that appears in quotes was sourced from the many articles that have been written about Alex over the years and are attributed in the text. One exception is on this page, where Alex describes himself as a “gangly-looking” dude. This is quoted from Joseph Hooper’s Men’s Journal article, “The Radical Calm of Alex Honnold.”
Some of the stories in this book took place many years ago. I re-created the tales of my youth in Chapter Two mostly from memory. These are stories I’ve been telling for decades, and I have endeavored, to the best of my ability, to recount them accurately. But memory can be a funny thing.
Sources for Chapter Three include John Long’s Stories from the Dirt, Warren Harding’s Downward Bound, Trip Gabriel’s 1983 Rolling Stone magazine article “Valley Boys,” Burr Snider’s 1986 profile of Harding in the San Francisco Examiner entitled “The Life of Warren ‘Batso’ Harding,” and Men’s Journal’s “The Legend of Dope Lake” by Greg Nichols. I am also indebted to Long and Dean Fidelman for sharing their recollections of Bachar and the Stonemasters. Their books—The Stonemasters: California Rock Climbers in the Seventies and Yosemite in the Fifties—are essential reads for anyone looking to learn more about Yosemite’s climbing history. I also gleaned a lot of information from the various forums on SuperTopo, into which one can easily get lost.
In Chapter Four, I am deeply indebted to Alex Lowther’s superb profile of Alex for Alpinist magazine entitled “Less and Less Alone,” as well as Seth Heller’s profile of Alex in Rock and Ice, “A View from the Top.” The story of Alex’s fall on Mount Tallac was sourced from him and his mother, Dierdre Wolownick, and I also referenced news articles written about the incident at the time. This chapter (not to ment
ion this entire book) also benefitted greatly from Alex’s autobiography, cowritten with David Roberts, Alone on the Wall. The journal entry Alex recorded after his fall on Mount Tallac (“Fell, broke hand . . . airlifted . . .”) was sourced directly from Alex’s book. Some of the dialogue in this book has been sourced from Alone on the Wall, including the exchange Alex had with the hiker on his way down from soloing Half Dome. Alone on the Wall, by the way, has been rereleased with three new chapters containing Alex’s first-person account of his free solo of El Capitan.
The section on the early history of Yosemite, including the Mariposa Battalion, was sourced from Lafayette Bunnell’s book Discovery of the Yosemite; Benjamin Madley’s book An American Genocide; and Daniel Duane’s New York Times article “What’s in a Name?” I also spoke with Madley and Duane and corresponded with Teenie Matlock, a professor at the University of California Merced, to fact-check this section.
Various articles written by Cedar Wright, James Lucas, and Duane Raleigh were valuable sources of information about Alex, John Bachar, and Michael Reardon. Wright’s column for Climbing magazine, The Wright Stuff, was an important source of information on the Stone Monkeys.
In Chapter Five I was able to refer back to my journal from the Trango expedition, as well as a paper copy of the entire Quokka website, which my father printed while the trip was unfolding. I also benefitted from the article for Climbing magazine that I wrote at the time, as well as Jennifer Lowe-Anker’s excellent book Forget Me Not, which covers, among many things, the Great Sail Peak and the Great Trango expeditions. Some of the dialogue in this chapter was pulled from the film we made, Great Trango Tower: A Granite Mile High, which can be found on YouTube.
Chapter Six was sourced from my journal of the Borneo expedition and the article I wrote for Men’s Journal, “Borneo’s Forbidden Chasm.” Another important reference was the book Descent into Chaos by Richard Connaughton, as well as numerous news articles written at the time of the rescue.
Much of the reporting about Dean Potter came from extensive interviews with two of his best friends, Dean Fidelman and Jim Hurst. I also watched numerous YouTube videos of Dean, including Eiger Jump, which contains excellent footage of Potter’s freeBASE of Deep Blue Sea. Matt Samet’s excellent article for Outside Online, “How Dean Potter Became Everyone’s Favorite Wingsuited Slacklining Speed Climber,” is where I sourced the line “living like plankton” that appears on this page.
Chapter Eight benefitted immensely from Joseph Hooper, who shared his notes with me from his reporting for his Men’s Journal article “The Radical Calm of Alex Honnold.” This material was critical for me in re-creating the story of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson topping out the Dawn Wall. Other sources for the Dawn Wall section include Tommy’s autobiography, The Push; Andrew Bisharat’s reporting for Rock and Ice magazine and his website, EveningSends.com; John Branch’s numerous articles about the climb that appeared in The New York Times; Burr Snider’s Harding profile in the San Francisco Examiner; Harding’s book, Downward Bound; and a CBS Evening News broadcast from November 1970.
My main source for Chapter Nine was the writer J. B. MacKinnon, who was extremely generous in helping me to understand the brain scan that Alex underwent at the Medical University of South Carolina. In re-creating this scene for the book, I relied heavily on interviews with JB and his article for Nautilus magazine, “The Strange Brain of the World’s Greatest Solo Climber.” I am also indebted to Dr. Jane Joseph and Joseph LeDoux, who spoke with me at length about this subject. For those who would like to learn more about the amygdala, LeDoux’s book Anxious is an excellent source.
The more recent stories, including the trip to Morocco and the two trips to Yosemite, I reported in person with extensive note-taking. Much of the dialogue comes from recorded interviews and conversations. In some cases, where stories were recounted to me, I re-created dialogue based on what interviewees remembered of past conversations in which they had taken part. Some scenes in these three chapters recount situations in which I was not able to take notes or make recordings at the time—while climbing on El Capitan with Alex, for example. And there were many times when hanging out with Alex that I made a conscious decision not to take notes so as to preserve the authenticity of the scene. In these instances I took notes at the next available opportunity. In cases where I was unsure if I had it right, I fact-checked with the relevant parties. The quote on this page, where the climbers show up while Alex is setting off and they say, “Oh my god, it’s happening,” was told to me secondhand and confirmed by Alex. It also appears in J. B. MacKinnon’s piece for The New Yorker, “Alex Honnold’s Perfect Climb.”
Acknowledgments
Out of all the people who helped bring these chapters to fruition, no one had a bigger impact than my friend and fellow Crazy Kid Jeff Chapman. If you enjoyed this story, please tip your hat to Jeff, because it’s in large part due to the many hours he spent editing, analyzing, and providing feedback on the manuscript. His insights were at times of such genius that I found myself pumping my fist in the air, as if I had just topped out El Capitan without a rope. I can’t thank you enough, Jeff, and I hope someday I can return the favor.
I am also extremely grateful to National Geographic magazine and my editor, Peter Gwin, for assigning me to report on Alex Honnold’s historic free solo of El Capitan. Without National Geographic’s support and belief in the importance of this story, the book that you are holding would not exist. By the same token, I am deeply indebted to Jimmy Chin, who collaborated with me on the article and invited me to be a part of his project. The film he codirected with his wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, about Alex’s impossible climb will be of keen interest to anyone who has read this book.
There would have been no story to tell without Alex Honnold. Thank you, Alex, for your friendship, for being who you are, for your inspiration and support, and for trusting me to get this right. I owe the same thanks to Cassandra “Sanni” McCandless, who openly shared her story with me, climbed with me, and even babysat for my son Tommy. I’d also like to thank Alex’s mom, Dierdre Wolownick, for sharing her many stories about Alex as a youth. (And congratulations, Dierdre, for becoming the oldest woman to climb El Capitan at age sixty-six!)
It was serendipitous that around the same time I was developing the proposal for this book I happened to sit on a panel alongside author Virginia Morell. I owe a huge debt to Virginia for introducing me to her literary agent, Gillian MacKenzie. Gillian turned out to be not only a kindred spirit but a brilliant agent who helped me to find the perfect editor and publisher for this book. I would also like to thank Gillian’s business partner at MacKenzie Wolf, Kirsten Wolf, and their assistant, Allison Devereux.
I got very lucky when Gillian introduced me to Stephen Morrow at Dutton. He understood from the moment we first sat down together, even better than I did, what this book could be. His guiding hand and unwavering belief in this project kept me on track during the year and a half we worked together on the manuscript. Along the way, Stephen became a close friend, and I can say with certainty that this would be a far lesser work were it not for his expertise and passion. At Dutton, I would also like to thank John Parsley, Christine Ball, Amanda Walker, Madeline Newquist, LeeAnn Pemberton, Eileen Chetti, and everyone on the Penguin Random House sales force—you all made me feel like I was part of a team that was far stronger than the sum of its parts.
I am indebted to Tommy Caldwell, Peter Croft, John Long, Dean Fidelman, Mandi Finger, Ben Smalley, Chris Weidner, Maury Birdwell, Ted Hesser, Colin Haley, Mike Gauthier, Emily Harrington, Brad Gobright, Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen, Jim Hurst, Mikey Schaefer, Pablo Durana, Matt Irving, Dave Allfrey, Cheyne Lempe, Clair Popkin, Joseph LeDoux, Jane Joseph, Henry Barber, Nik Wallenda, Forest Altherr, and Jeff Ball, all of who generously gave of their time to help me better understand Alex Honnold and some of the other characters in this book.
And a huge thank-you to all the people who co
ntributed visuals: Corey Rich, Austin Siadak, Dean Fidelman, Clayton Boyd, the Frost family, Phil Bard, Cameron Lawson, Jared Ogden, Tim Kemple, and Frank Hoover.
I owe a lot to the many editors I’ve worked with over the years. You taught me how to use the written word to tell stories and always made me look like a better writer than I am. They include: Duane Raleigh, Alison Osius, Mike Benge, Jeff Achey, Michael Kennedy, Matt Samet, Dougald MacDonald, Jonathan Thesenga, Brad Wieners, Grayson Schaffer, Kevin Haynes, John Birmingham, Alex Bhattacharji, Steve Byers, and Mike Benoist.
Greg Child, Jeff Achey, John Climaco, Shaun Pinkham, Jim Zellers, and my father-in-law, Alan Kew, reviewed the manuscript and provided critical feedback. Each one of you had a piece in making this book better than it would have been without your input. Thank you for your time and support.
I’d also like to thank all the members of the climbing tribe, especially those with whom I have roped up over the years. A few of you are (and I apologize in advance for anyone who should be on this list but is not): Simon Ahlgren, Baker Bent, Christian George, Ben Spiess, Rob Frost, Randy Rackliff, Tyler Hamilton, Chris Davenport, Pete Masterson, Jimmy Surette, Scott Lee, Freddie Wilkinson, Mark Richey, Dustin Cormier, Sean Lorway, Bruce Ostler, Charlie Townsend, Frank Carus, Tom Burt, Shaun Pinkham, Eli Simon, Warren Hollinger, Jerry Gore, Ed February, Andy de Klerk, David Hamlin, Jeff Achey, John Climaco, John Catto, Kit Deslauriers, Renan Ozturk, Hazel Findlay, James Pearson, Brady Robinson, Peter Croft, Kristoffer Erickson, Pete Athans, Kasha Rigby, Hilaree Nelson, Rick Armstrong, Chris Figenshau, Heidi Wirtz, Sam Elias, Cameron Lawson, Pat Ament, Eugene Fisher, Steve Schneider, Mike Pennings, Jeff Hollenbaugh, Lance Lemkau, Brad Tomlin, Lee Smith, Brad Bond, Ted Hesser, Spencer Salovaara, and Bob Snover.
