Alone on The Wall

I was fascinated by Honnold after watching him as the subject of the “Free Solo” documentary, and having the pleasure of meeting him after only spiked my interest about the kind of mental makeup he has, how he thinks and processes fear, and how he sees and rationalizes the outside world.

This book does a great job of answering those questions; it is not only Honnold’s own voice and writing, but also intersperses commentary from friends, family, and onlookers that Honnold is forced to comment on, which shows discrepancies not in truth but in interpretation. Yes, Honnold’s profession could be interpreted as a death wish (one mistake in a free solo and you die), but his own analysis of it makes better sense. He sees life as something worth living as long and healthily as anyone else, but not at the expense of not doing the activities one truly loves, even if they could cut life short.

One skill that Honnold sees to have at a world-class level is sustained mental focus. You can see this manifest throughout the book, not just in his multi-hour climbs, but also in his incessant need to be “doing” something productive at each moment. To give an example close to my heart — while on an off-day of camping, Honnold allegedly read Daniel Yergin’s 900+ page “The Prize” cover to cover. This is an intellectual human quality whose value can’t be overstated and I found highly unique in an athlete.