Alex Honnold

Alex Honnold is an American rock climber born in Sacramento, California on August 17, 1985. He is best known for his free solo ascents of big walls and is the first and only person to free solo El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. He is also the speed record holder on The Nose of El Capitan. He started climbing in a gym at 5 years old and was climbing frequently by the age of 10 and participated in a number of youth climbing competitions. He started attending college at the University of California, Berkley but ended up dropping out after skipping too many times to go climbing. Alex became well known after his 2012 solo of The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome was featured in the film Alone on the Wall. In 2012 he started the Honnold Foundation that focuses on sustainable ways to improve lives like the use of solar energy. In 2015 he co-authored the book Alone on the Wall.