Alone on the Wall
Alex Honnold
David Roberts
Synopsis
‘Riveting . . . Honnold is neither crazy nor reckless. Alone on the Wall reveals him to be an utterly unique and extremely appealing young man’ - Jon Krakauer, bestselling author of Into the Wild
This updated edition contains the account of Alex's El Capitan climb, which is the subject of the Oscar and BAFTA-winning documentary, Free Solo
Alex Honnold is one of the world's best ‘free solo’ climbers. He scales impossible rock faces without ropes, pitons or any support of any kind. Exhilarating, brilliant and dangerous, there is a purity to Alex's climbs that is easy to comprehend, but also impossible to fathom; in the last forty years, only a handful of climbers have pushed themselves as far, ‘free soloing’ to the absolute limit of human capabilities.
Half of them are dead.
From Yosemite's famous Half Dome to the terrifying heights of El Sendero Luminoso in Mexico, Alone on the Wall explores Alex's seven most extraordinary climbing achievements so far. These are tales to make your palms sweat and your feet curl with vertigo. Together, they get to the heart of how – and why – Alex does what he does. Exciting, uplifting and truly awe-inspiring, Alone on the Wall presents an exploration of the world of extreme sports and the human ability to maintain a singular focus, even in the face of mortal danger.
[Honnold] is the foremost practitioner of the dark art of free solo rock climbing - ascending extremely difficult cliffs hundreds, sometimes thousands, of feet tall without ropes or protection hardware of any kind. That is every bit as stupefying as it soundsWall Street Journal
Riveting . . . Honnold is neither crazy nor reckless. Alone on the Wall reveals him to be an utterly unique and extremely appealing young manJon Krakauer, bestselling author of Into the Wild.
Honnold has free-soloed the longest, most challenging climbs ever. Most peculiar of all, even to elite rock climbers, Honnold does this without apparent fear, as if falling were not possible.New York Times