Alex Honnold’s ropeless climb of a 508-metre skyscraper may have left spectators shaking their heads. However, some had a different view of the livestreamed event, and not for the reasons you might expect.
Peter Croft is a Canadian-born rock climber and mountaineer known for his free solo ascents. He would climb without any ropes or safety equipment and was an inspiration for Honnold growing up.
Croft values the freedom that comes from rock climbing, because each climber gets to choose where they climb and the difficulty level.
Croft imagined if his own introduction to climbing had been “Alex climbing that tower,” he “would probably be a golfer now, or something entirely different.” For Croft the appeal has always been “[being] away from cities and into the mountains and kind of wilder environments.”
He made the choice not to watch the event and said, “it’s the type of event that is probably more interesting for people who don’t climb.”
Croft heard about the event being “good for climbing,” but he doesn’t see it that way.
“For some people who don’t know anything about climbing, they’re like, ‘Wow, this is really cutting edge.’ It’s nowhere near cutting edge. It’s just … a spectacular thing because it’s in the middle of the city and there’s lots of people watching.”
He said it distracted from the realities of climbing.
“It’s so far from what 99.9 per cent of climbers do.”
Croft was the predecessor for some of Honnold’s climbs, like the 335-metre Astroman and the 250-metre Rostrum route in Yosemite Valley, California.
Honnold and Croft were both climbing in northern California at one point, which led them to meet by chance in a climbing area, or what’s commonly known as a “crag.”
In Honnold’s first-person account of his historic free solo ascent of the 914-metre El Capitan, he was quick to mention Croft on the second page,
“Peter Croft was … one of my heroes, because in the 1980s and ’90s he had pushed free soloing … to unprecedented extremes. Many of the routes he’d free soloed back then had never been repeated in that style during the decades since.”
Netflix aired Honnold’s rope-free climb live in a January special the climber advertised widely as “Skyscraper Live.”
On Instagram, Honnold posted, “On January 23, I’ll be free soloing Taipei 101 in Taiwan. It’s been a long time goal of mine and it’ll be the most ambitious urban climb that I’ve attempted. It’s a nearly 1,700 ft tower! What’s not to like?! And I’ll be doing it LIVE on @Netflix. Tune in Friday, January 23 at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.”
One Instagram user, @mile23design, responded to the post with, “I love climbing and climbing documentaries, but I don’t think soloing like this should become a live spectacle. It will encourage climbers and the entertainment industry to do more of it and push the boundaries until someone takes too much risk and dies. I won’t be watching.”
Another user, @camm.joyy, commented, “This is so off brand for Alex. A huge money grab at the cost of his entire family. The physiological stress of being live streamed, and the potential LIVE DEATH is not worth it.”
Croft doesn’t blame Honnold for the creation of misleading narratives about rock climbing.
“I have heard some people just go, ‘Oh boy, I lost all respect for Alex.’ And I haven’t lost any respect for Alex. … It’s amazing the stuff he’s done. I just don’t think this is one of them.”
Volodymyr Yarynich, a self-described alpinist studying media and communication, couldn’t believe the idea of Honnold climbing with such high stakes.
“I got really big inspiration from Alex [Honnold], but Alex … is doing it without any safety device which makes it super crazy and just outrageous and not understandable.”
Though Yarynich was mainly inspired by his mother, who climbed mountains for more than 15 years.
“She used to climb … [the] 10 highest peaks in the world. Also, she attempted to climb Mount Everest and she failed. And that’s why I want to, in some way, … fulfill her dream of doing that.”
Yarynich sees climbing as an elite sport.
“You have to be prepared mentally a lot because you have to just walk straight for many, many hours without stopping. And it’s really hard mentally, not only physically.”
He was impressed by Honnold’s ability to complete the skyscraper climb without safeguards in place.
“When you climb … a tower … it’s really hard technique without any safety devices. In my opinion … [it seems] impossible, but we can see it’s possible.”
Yarynich explained the feeling of reaching a summit.
“The process of climbing the mountain is … hard, but once you reach the top, … you will feel this euphoria and you’ll feel this level of happiness that you’ll never forget.”
He added, “it’s impossible to explain to the person who [has] never done it.”
Jason Boivin, a certified mental performance consultant, said preparing for a sport like this requires “deliberate practice.”
“Consciously engaging with what you’re doing in a way that’s progressively more difficult over time and at an appropriate level of difficulty where … [it] matches a balance between your skill and your challenge.”
Boivin referenced Honnold’s brain scan from 2016, conducted by cognitive neuroscientist Jane Joseph.
“We know that his brain’s wired differently. Is that a predisposition or is that something he’s tried over time? We can’t really tell.”
“But we know that … doing things that are at the edge of your capability and continuously practicing and pushing the envelope … through exposure does help you tolerate things better.”