A Conversation with Alex Honnold: Rituals of the World’s Top Free Solo Climber

It’s hard to articulate what building a successful company from a nascent idea actually takes. Founders and early operators must continually push past their limits, visualize paths forward when no clear route exists, and train for feats no one has ever attempted. They must do this all while maintaining a passion for the journey itself, enabling them to move forward even during the toughest times.

Company building is a lot like an elite sport. That’s why we were thrilled to sit down with one of the world’s greatest athletes, renowned free soloist Alex Honnold, to explore what it takes to achieve excellence. 

In a candid conversation with Ritual Capital’s Founder and Managing Partner, Chris Howard, Alex walked us through his preparation for accomplishing one of the most remarkable athletic feats in known history - a free solo climb of the 2,900-foot route on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. 

Many of the realizations and rituals that got Alex to the top of that summit are directly applicable to building companies. Here are some of our favorite takeaways from Alex’s talk for early-stage founders and their teams:

Invest in your foundation.

Alex shockingly considers himself to be “not the most talented climber” he knows, and started his talk by emphasizing that he spent years in a climbing gym as a kid before he ever attempted an outside climb. He started with the basics, drilling them over and over to the point of mastery, and entered the climbing circuit with nearly a decade of muscle memory and experience to pull from. That base made greatness possible.

Find excellent role models.

Alex didn’t invent free soloing and he didn’t do it in a vacuum. He’s accomplished things that have never been done before, but his wins are stacked on top of the experiences of people that came before him. An iconic photo of legendary Canadian climber Peter Croft free soloing Yosemite in 1985 - the year Alex was born - gave Alex direction and inspiration. And he leaned on a small group of trusted, elite climbers and athletes to be his sounding board and support system. 

Satisfaction is sweeter than success.

Alex described an earlier climb, free soloing Half Dome, that was a success by all accounts from the outside - it even ended up on the cover of National Geographic. But it wasn’t a performance that he was proud of, he knew he could have done better. That feeling of having “gotten away with something” caused him to be more intentional about his preparation for future climbs. 

Practice is the real work.

Most professional climbers train to be able to climb increasingly more difficult grades, but Alex had a different goal. El Cap isn’t the hardest grade in the world, but he needed to be so confident in the route he could do it without a rope. He needed to create an entirely unique training program. Alex tailored his training specifically for a free solo ascent of El Cap. It incorporated advice from endurance athletes and involved many runs up the rock’s face on a rope over the course of the season - something like running two marathons a week for six weeks before going for a personal record.

Know when to say when.

Are you training to get tired, or are you training to get stronger? Overtraining can be just as dangerous as under-training, and finding the right balance can be one of the most difficult aspects of being a self-coached climber (much like a self-coached founder). The body has limitations and doing too much can cause it to break down. That’s the value of having a real coach - someone else to check in, make sure you aren’t overdoing it, and focus your training to align with your goals.

Chart your own path (but not from scratch).

While planning his ascent of El Cap, Alex closely studied and practiced on the routes of prior climbers. But those routes were made by free climbing (with a rope), not the free soloing (without a rope) approach he planned to undertake. To accomplish his historic free solo climb, Alex had to find innovative solutions and chart an entirely distinctive course, but the experiences of those who had gone before him provided a vital foundation. When you’re trying to go somewhere no one’s ever gone, you can’t follow someone else’s path. You have to create your own. 

Give yourself a lot of empty time.

Having the time to reflect, process, and internalize his moves was a crucial ritual for Alex. He used his rest days to mentally run over each move, plan new iterations out in a training journal, and decompress. As he got closer to the free solo attempt, he structured his entire life around maximizing empty time - turning off social media, closing down emails, and living alone. This quiet allowed for a clarity that produced many “a-ha” moments that helped make the attempt a success. 

Your best window is usually not perfect.

The day Alex successfully completed his free solo of El Cap, the conditions were less than ideal and he already felt past his physical prime for the season. But that was the right day for that climb. The most important component of a climb like a free solo of El Cap is the psychological side of it - believing you can do it. The weather wasn’t the most important issue that day. It was good enough, he was ready, and he was confident he could make it to the top. 

Minimize the number of variables when it’s “go” time.

The night before a big climb, Alex lays out his clothes. He knows exactly what he’s going to wear (the same thing he wore during his practice climbs). He packs his bag and preps his food. When he walks to the base of the mountain, he avoids encountering anyone so he can keep his head clear. He makes sure there’s no room for anything to go wrong. His logic? When you know your mind is going to be racing, you want to minimize the number of variables. 

Fear is a skill that can be practiced.

When he’s stuck in an unfortunate position, Alex takes a deep breath, measures the danger, and mitigates it as best he can to move forward. He approaches handling fear with discipline and repetition, like developing any other skill. He also keeps it in perspective. A thousand feet isn’t scarier than 40 feet - it just means a couple extra seconds of free fall before you’re dead. By the time he nears the summit, he’s been in the zone for hours. In fact, Alex described the first steps off the ground, the decision to commit with the big wall looming over you, as the scariest part.  

Commit to a sequence and make the move. 

When slab climbing - which Alex describes as the most psychologically difficult kind of climbing - there’s nothing to hold onto. When attempting to scale a wall of coarse granite with some rough patches, a climber can easily second guess themselves. When confidence is shaken and panic sets in, everything can start to unravel. But, mid-climb, when your muscles start to fatigue as you’re standing on the edge, you have to make a decision, trust yourself, and make the move. 

This conversation marked the official launch of Ritual Capital. It’s the first in a series of behind-the-excellence glimpses into the rituals and learnings of those who have achieved greatness in various fields.