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Alex Honnold's Problem with Mountaineering | Climbing Gold Podcast w/Alex Honnold | Climbing Gold with Alex Honnold | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Alex Honnold's Problem with Mountaineering | Climbing Gold Podcast w/Alex Honnold
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The content critiques the modern trend of high-cost guided mountaineering, arguing it often prioritizes a superficial summit experience over genuine engagement with the craft and challenges of the mountains, leading to clients with minimal experience attempting extreme objectives.
when you get into that high dollar guiding, you're being exposed
to people who are truly interacting with the mountains
in the most minimal way possible.
And most of them, thankfully, will never face the consequences
of what life is like in the mountains when things go wrong.
This is climbing gold.
a couple of years ago, I had a slight be in my bonnet
that I was like, maybe I'll try like, high altitude
mountaineering a bit like, do, do some walking uphill.
And so, you know, Topo, Esteban Mena, the two of us went and climbed,
Mount Vinson together, and then, and then we're going to Aconcagua
and it's like a little Seven summitsee Like a little adventure.
But we we climbed Vinson and did this new route, which is not really
I mean, just walked up this other part of the thing, and then,
I was, like, totally sick from altitude the whole time.
I was, like, sucking.
And then we went to aconcagua and the the most fun part on Aconcagua
is bouldering at base camp. And we went to like, camp two maybe.
And then I was like, Topo I don't care, let's go home.
And so I went home and I went back to rock climbing
and, and and that was the end of my high altitude mountaineering journey,
mostly because I was just like, I just don't get it.
And and I was struck by a lot of things because that was my first foray
into the commercially guided, you know, because I was I was a commercial client,
you know, I'd hired a friend to, like, guide me on this mountain,
which was great for me because I meant
I didn't have to do any logistics, didn't do any permitting, like,
didn't care about anything, just went for a vacation with my friend
and we went climbing.
It was fun,
but I was really struck by all the other people that I met on the journey
because all the other clients had basically never climbed before.
You know, it's like everybody else who's there to climb the mountain,
you know, they're like, oh yeah, I went climbing twice.
I climbed Rainier and I climbed Shasta and I'm like, wait, what?
You know,
because I've been climbing like five days a week for 30 years, basically.
I mean, not not mountains all, all the time, but, you know,
but I've climbed a lot of mountains too I was sort of like, oh, my God.
And I consider myself a grossly inexperienced mountaineer.
And then you're like, man, everybody on these mountains is like,
never put on a harness. Like, never used an ascender.
Never like never tied a knot, like doesn't really.
I mean, I shouldn't joke about crampons
because I barely know how to use them either.
But still, I'm like, I kind of know how to use them.
And I was just like, does this feel like climbing?
You know, I was like, this is so I don't know, it was so weird.
Well, I have really complicated feelings about it.
I think obviously because, as a guide, like, I'm a great enabler of all of that.
But, I also and actually, let me just be clear that,
I mean, I think it's great for people to have outdoor experiences,
have like, powerful experience, and like, I'm into guiding.
I mean, I'm into taking people the mountains.
I think the mountains can be incredible teachers and like learning opportunities.
But for some reason, the really expensive guiding,
like on the really big mountains, just feels totally different
than than taking somebody up Rainier like it.
It is.
And I think like what you're underpinning here is this idea
that, like, you respect that climbing is essentially an individual pursuit.
the thing is that I, I do find interesting is that
when you get into that high dollar guiding, you're being exposed
to people who are truly interacting with the mountains
in the most minimal way possible.
And most of them, thankfully, will never face
the consequences of what life is like in the mountains when things go wrong.
And so I think it kind of it's like a self-perpetuating snowball in
so many ways where it's like, you know, that's what I thought was so crazy
is everyone's like,
I'm climbing Mount Vinson is my third mountain ever,
and then I'm going to Everest in the spring and you're like, wait, what?
You're climbing the highest mountain in the world.
And it'll be like, the fourth time you've ever gone climbing, you know?
And I just
it's so crazy because I'm like, literally every rest day for the last 30 years.
I, like, go for a hike outside and I like, climb some mountain.
And, you know, they're not they're not big and they're not technical,
but it's like you're just in the mountains all the time.
And I'm like, I can't imagine, like, I can't even imagine being able
to count the number of times I've gone climbing.
On one hand, you know what I mean?
Like some of some of the clients, you're like,
oh yeah, those two times that I went and did a thing and you're like, you're
trying to take on the biggest mountains in the world
with like literally zero experience, like it's crazy.
No. And I, I used to try to quantify it for people.
I would say when they'd say like,
what do you think you need experience wise to climb Everest?
And I would, I would try to like find an answer that was succinct.
And I never could quite get there because they'd always counter it with like,
but you know, bro, dude, whoever like, never climbed anything else but
the Seven Summits and he summit it and it's like, okay, so I went to saying like,
you should not even consider climbing Everest
unless you have had 100 days in crampons that you can count.
And that's a lot for most people, I'd say.
I would say that you've had so many days in crampons, you can't count them anymore.
Like you just. Yeah, exactly. You're like, that's the thing, right? Yeah.
All the time. Like, yeah.
Because if I tell you 100 days in crampons and you go,
that's going to take me five years and I'm like, there you go.
Yeah, exactly. You just understood it.
I think I just got it.
I think I personally might be under 100 days in crampons, but I do feel like
you're not on Everest, Alex. That's the thing.
That's true. That's true. The thing.
So I prefer to surround myself with people who respect
the craft, you know, like the actual craft of being in the mountains.
And we've made the mountains so comfortable.
And I'm a person who, like, pursues discomfort for fun.
And like, you know, therapy and everything else.
But I really think, like, the more comfortable
you make it, the more normal we make it, the less special it is.
And so I live in this little, like, weird bubble of trying to encourage people
to experience it fully and be, you know, a connoisseur of the craft
because of the people I want to spend time with.
Yeah, but when you really experience it fully, it's heinous, you know, it's
like strong winds, no oxygen freezing cold, chapped lips, no food.
You're just like, you know, I mean,
and that's the difference
between alpine ism and sort of guided mountaineering is that,
you know, alpinism like people come back
missing couple fingers and they're like struggling.
And then high altitude mountaineering, you come back
and you're like, I feel so refreshed from my vacation.
You know, it's like so incredible. Yeah.
But I don't feel that way with like I think that I, that I see that happening,
you know, and I see like the other thing is, is if there was like
Big Brother style, chronicling of these expeditions
and you saw what that person who's worn crampons three times
looks like climbing to the summit instead of just seeing their, like,
highly chosen and procured summit photo.
And you saw like the, you know, absolute drudgery that they put
guides and others in to like, achieve this thing
and then quickly forget about it when they tell the story about the climb.
Like,
that's nothing to be that proud of. In my book,
you know, like, I they forget about it because they're so hypoxic.
They have no idea what happened there, just totally.
But I think you can go to the honor like the thing
you're doing, you know, like I have always tried to be.
And I'm lucky enough in my career that I can be discerning.
Let's just say that because, like, I have the privilege of being able
to decline clients, I'm
not guiding on Rainier and showing up with random people who,
you know, I just have to tie myself to whether I choose to or not.
Like, I'm very discerning, and I try to make the barrier to entry
such that the people that are going to come climbing with me
are going to share this like personal ethic that I have, and it's
going to be an enjoyable expereince, and we are going to go
and have this experience in the mountains that's going to,
you know, touch this resilience center of us
that's going to cause us to be uncomfortable
and not be able to solve it and find out like what the value of that is in life,
not get to the summit and take a photo and put it on Instagram,
and then have all your friends and family clap for you.
That can be part of it too.
But that's such a short lived joy that is like absolutely a sugar high
and like everything else, is the nourishment.
You know, like I want to nourish people with their experience in the mountains.
That's a really good, that's a good comparison.
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