In a conversation with Digital Trends, famed climber Alex Honnold discusses finding purpose after El Cap and filming his new Disney+ docuseries, Arctic Ascent.
If you’re new to climbing, your first introduction to Alex Honnold likely came in 2018’s Free Solo, the Oscar-winning documentary from Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. Free Solo depicts Honnold’s pursuit to become the first climber to free solo El Captain (El Cap) in Yosemite National Park. Free soloing means no rope, so Honnold scaled a 3,000-foot wall with climbing shoes and chalk. Free Solo is one of the most inspiring and anxiety-inducing documentaries about the human spirit. Honnold’s groundbreaking accomplishment does beg the question of how he can top it.
Honnold is unsure how he’ll ever top Free Solo. However, the 38-year-old has found a new purpose for climbing, or as he puts it, a way to do “something useful in his life.” In 2022, Honnold traveled to Eastern Greenland to climb Ingmikortilaq, one of the world’s tallest unclimbed natural monoliths. Before attempting the first ascent of a wall 1,000 feet higher than El Cap, Honnold and a team of experts embark on a scientific expedition revolving around climate change research. Honnold’s team included world-class climbers Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schaefer, glaciologist Dr. Heïdi Sevestre, Greenlandic guide Adam Kjeldsen, and renowned adventurer Aldo Kane.
The excursion was captured on film and became Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold, a three-part docuseries premiering February 4 on National Geographic. In conversation with Digital Trends, Honnold talks about finding purpose after El Cap, tackling the Greenland expedition, and the challenges of scaling Ingmikortilaq.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Digital Trends: I want to start with something your wife, Sanni, said in the series. After soloing El Cap, you found yourself in this place where you were depressed, lost, and looking for purpose again. How did you snap out of that?
Alex Honnold: Yeah. I mean, I think that’s sort of ongoing … I don’t know. In a way, El Cap provided such a clear purpose and such a clear drive for so many years. I think that having achieved that, probably for the rest of my life, I’ll be left looking for things that are exciting in the right way. I mean, with Arctic Ascent specifically, it was nice to see all the pieces, all the things that I care about, come together into one trip.
It’s like, yeah, we get to do some cool climbing, but cool climbing by itself, you’re like, “Is it worth doing a TV thing [about it]? Is it worth being away from family?” Cool climbing plus a cool glaciologist who can teach us about climate science and then share it with a mainstream audience in a totally remote and fragile ecosystem. Then I’m like, OK, OK. All the pieces are coming together well enough that it starts to feel really worth it.
Climbing El Cap was more of a personal mission and a dream. This new mission, as you explained, is not just about you. It’s about climate research. When did that shift happen in your climbing?
You know, it’s basically an ongoing shift. I mean, I have a foundation. I started the Honnold Foundation in 2012, which supports solar projects around the world. Obviously, I’ve always cared about that work, and I’ve always wanted to do something useful with my life [laughs] because climbing is fundamentally very self-focused. It’s like you’re motivated by your own goals and your own projects, especially with free soloing. Nobody ever even sees it, necessarily. It’s like strictly for you and your own experience, and that’s really satisfying.
But, you’re left wondering if maybe you should do something a little bit better with your time [laughs] or more useful for the world.
