Inside the life of Alex Honnold, including his wife and parents.

Alex Honnold is a rock climber who is best known for tackling the 3,000-foot El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park without climbing equipment. Free soloing is considered one of the most dangerous forms of sport because climbers rely solely on their athletic abilities to avoid falling.

Alex’s spectacular achievement featured in the 2018 biographical documentary, Free only. The documentary won an Academy Award and a BAFTA. Alex also wrote the book. alone on the wall with fellow climber David Roberts. This article will look at Alex’s life growing up, his parents, the challenges he faced as a young climber, and his relationship with his fiancée.

His father died shortly after divorcing his mother.

Alex was born on August 17, 1985 in Sacramento, California, the son of Charles Forrest Honnold and Dierdre Wolownick. His parents raised him with his older sister Stasia. Alex started climbing at the age of 5 and was already competing professionally by the time he was 10. He claims other kids had more natural talent than him, but his love and commitment to climbing made him improve rapidly.

In 2003, he enrolled at UC Berkeley to study civil engineering. Disaster struck during her freshman year of college when her maternal grandfather passed away and her parents divorced her. In 2004, her father died of a heart attack. After Charles’ death, Alex’s mother allowed him to drop out of school to pursue rock climbing. Alex wrote in an article for plain wealth:

“That summer I was second in the junior category of the National Climbing Championship. After that, my dad died of a heart attack and some of the pressure was taken off me to stay in college. My mother was a bit more of a ‘go your way’ philosophy. I took a semester off to train and climb at the Junior World Championships in Scotland. I never came back.”

Alex would probably drop out of school anyway since, during his first year, he skipped most classes to go solo bouldering at Indian Rock.

Alex lived in a van for 14 years before buying a property in Los Angeles.

Alex’s parents were teachers and managed to offer their children a middle-class life. However, after leaving college, Alex did not have much capital and lived in his mother’s minivan. After a while, the van broke down and Alex started living in a tent. In 2007, she raised enough money to purchase a 2002 Ford pickup, which became her home.

Over the years, Alex’s financial situation improved, but he did not give up his truck. In 2017, he purchased a custom 2016 Ram ProMaster, which he lives in and travels extensively. Alex with whom I speak outdoor magazine on why he feels the need to live in vans:

“It’s not that I love living in a car, but I love living in all these places. I love being in Yosemite; I love being basically where the weather is good; I love being able to keep good conditions everywhere. And be relatively comfortable while doing it. And that requires living in a car… If I could miraculously teleport a house from one place to another, I would rather live in a nice and comfortable house.”

In 2017, Alex bought a property in Los Angeles, but lived in his car for a couple of weeks because the house had no furniture. He spoke with plain wealth about his house:

“I bought a house in Las Vegas, a classic manufactured home in the suburbs. It’s just functional. In some ways, it’s not unlike life in a van. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s close to the airport.”

Alex’s promotion to El Capitan put a strain on his relationship with Sanni McCandless

Jerod Harris/fake images

Sanni and Alex met during one of her book tour stops. She gave Alex her number and the two started dating. Soon after, Sanni quit her job in Seattle to join Alex on the road. When the pair started dating, Alex was busy preparing to take on El Capitan. The film crew making Free only he was recording every aspect of his life, including his budding relationship with Sanni.

Sanni felt that the event would test the couple’s relationship, and it did. Alex revealed that he considered ending the relationship after getting injured twice after carrying Sanni during training. Alex told the Los Angeles Times:

“I wanted to blame her, but honestly, it’s more my fault. Basically, I slipped, fell, hurt my ankle – she was there belaying, but it’s nothing she did. It was a bit unfortunate.”

Fortunately, the couple talked about their problems and resolved them before they got worse. As the big day approached, worries grew that Alex’s relationship with McCandless would prevent him from achieving her goal. Sanni told the Los Angeles Times who understood the concern:

“I mean, imagine you’re waking up to the most challenging physical experience of your life. If you wake up alone in a cold, dark van, you’re like, ‘I’ve got to go out there and improve myself and look great!’ If you wake up next to your partner and you are comfortable, you are happy, why go? Why put your life at risk?

A week before the climb, Sanni stepped away from Alex to allow him to focus on the challenge.

Alex got engaged to Sanni on Christmas Day 2019

Jimmy Chin and his wife Elizabeth Chai led the film crew that created Free only. Chin and Alex have known each other for a decade. After Alex finished her monumental ascent, he called Sanni and told her that he loved her. Chin told the Los Angeles Times who was shocked beyond belief by Alex’s comments. He said:

“In the 10 years I’ve known Alex, I’ve certainly never heard him say ‘I love you’ to anyone. So when we saw the footage, I thought, ‘He said what?’ I could not believe it.

Two years after his epic rise, Alex proposed to McCandless on Christmas Day 2019. Sanni announced the news via an Instagram post from the couple with the caption: “He said do you want to keep doing what we are doing ? And I said yes.”

Alex married Sanni McCandless in a family ceremony held in Lake Tahoe

“We are getting married,” Alex announced on Instagram. “Little family ceremony on the lake…totally charming in every way.”

Rock climber Tommy Caldwell officiated at the ceremony on Lake Tahoe. Sammi wrote on Instagram that the couple planned the ceremony in three weeks. She wrote: “Three weeks isn’t a long time to plan a wedding, but in classic style, our family rose to the occasion and helped everything run smoothly.”

McCandless thanked everyone who contributed to the wedding, including her husband. Thank you @alexhonnold for making me the happiest and luckiest girl in the world.

In May 2021, Sanni wrote an article about Outside detailing how Free Solo had helped prepare her and Alex for married life. McCandless concluded the insightful article as follows:

“Looking back, I can see how sailing Free Solo prepared us for the journey we just began: our marriage. Alex and I face just about every pressure a new relationship could handle. We fell in love in front of a film crew, knowing that if it didn’t work out, we would have made people’s lives difficult for nothing. We had to discuss not only the prospect of death, but also what each of us needed to feel truly alive.”

Alex’s mom is the oldest woman to climb El Capitan

Alex’s mother told ASN that she was unaware that Alex was planning to play El Capitan by himself for free. She went on a hike with her son the day before and Alex didn’t say anything about the climb. She explained:

“After the walk, he said that he was tired and that he would go to bed early. The next morning as I was driving to Portland, my daughter told me the news. That was how I found out. She knocked me down. I stopped at a picnic area on I-5 and stayed there to process what I had just heard.”

Several months later, Dierdre put her name in the record books by becoming the oldest woman to climb El Capitan. She was 66 years old when she performed in Halloween in 2017 alongside Alex. The ascent took 13 hours and the descent took six hours.

Dierdre always climbs on a rope, allowing her to go on personal adventures without Alex’s help. In 2018, she worked on two books: a French textbook and his memoir titled The Acute End of Life: A Mother’s Story.

Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn