Alone on the Wall
Alex Honnold and the Ultimate Limits of Adventure
W.W. Norton, December 2015
At age 28, Alex is considered one of the best climbers in the world, and probably the most famous, having pushed his sport to extremes that just a few years ago were considered unthinkable. Alex’s brand of climbing is called free-soloing, and it’s easy to comprehend but impossible to fathom: you climb without a rope, without a partner, without any kind of gear to attach yourself to the wall. The stakes are ultimate. If you fall, you die.
What has so impressed the adventure community is the way Alex has climbed routes both longer and of much greater difficulty than anyone before him ever thought of free soloing. So far he’s gotten away with it, though his closest friends – many of them top climbers themselves – are terrified that he’s going to kill himself. Everywhere, he is asked: Why do you do this? Aren’t you afraid you’re going to die?
There are, of course, no facile answers. Yet what Alex does has a lot to teach us about risk, reward, and the ability to maintain a singular focus, even in the face of extreme danger. Read about his exploits, look at the photos on his website, AlexHonnold.com, or watch a few minutes of the videos there, and if you’re like me, you’ll be unable to tear yourself away.
ALONE ON THE WALL: Alex Honnold and the Ultimate Limits of Adventure will be co-written with David Roberts, one of the finest adventure and mountaineering writers working today. The book will be structured as a series of seven extraordinary climbs. (Included is a sample chapter, on Honnold’s free solo of Half Dome in Yosemite.) Alternating chapters will treat other areas of Alex’s life, from how he started climbing to the impact of his risk-taking on his loved ones, and his efforts to give back through non-profit work. The narrative will be primarily first-person, though there will also be third-person sections in Roberts’ voice, and those of other climbers, that will help put Alex’s accomplishments in their proper perspective.
David Roberts is co-author with Ed Viesturs of NO SHORTCUTS TO THE TOP and three other titles, and with Conrad Anker of THE LOST EXPLORER, about the discovery of George Mallory’s body on Mt. Everest. He is author, most recently, of ALONE ON THE ICE (Norton, 2013), which was a finalist in Mountain & Wilderness Literature at the Banff Mountain Book Festival, where it received Special Jury Mention.