20 November 2014

Alex Honnold writes about Clif Bar in the New York Times

Alex Honnold, 8a member for 12 years with 800 ascents in his scorecard, shares his thoughts in New York Times, regarding his sponsor Clif Bar fired him for soloing. Alex says he understands their position as a company but it is hard to comprehend why they signed him up in the first place. The article does not mention if any financial deal was made or if Clif Bar just took him out of their pay role. Some years ago, some guys asked if 8a could publish some planned solo climbs. Of course we turned this offer down and since then we have had a general policy to not publish death potential climbs. Honnold is a world class sport climber with three 8c+, eleven 8a+ onsights, including often giving personal grades. Here is an old 8a interview. It is very hard to draw the line what we can publish and we have discussed the dilemma with Honnold personally and he said he totally respected our position. Honnold do not want encourage other to risk their life but he wants to be able to keep doing what he likes. 8a will continue to publish astonishing solo climbs by Honnold as long as they are all around in the media. Last Friday he did Corazon 8a in Yosemite and this was his scorecard comment. "Awesome day of climbing with Tommy (Caldwell)! Fell on first 13b and last 12a but redpointed each. Swung leads and hauling. 15.5 hours of fun.". If you want to stay updated on his ascents, mark him as your 8a friend.
3 comments
Sort by:
Date
Reply
Most commented
Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads
30 December 2023

Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on t…

76
Welcome to Vertical-Life Web
15 February 2024

Welcome to Vertical-Life Web

Six years after partnering with 8a.nu, we’re excited to announce the unification of the 8a.nu website and the Vertical-Life app into a single platform: Vertical…

43
Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)
20 February 2024

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…

34
Related
21 December 2022

Honnold soloed The Phoenix 7c+ in 2006

Alex Honnold soloed in 2006, on his 2nd go as marked in his logbook. It should be mentioned that 8a has a policy to not make news about solo climbing as we do not want to encourage this in order to get a headline. However, over the years, we have sometimes made exceptions for Honnold as these news …

6
2 November 2008

Honnold makes 3rd ascent of The Promise

Alex Honnold has made the 3rd ascent of the much debated The Promise at Burbage. Alex registered the route as an 8b trad, commenting that he felt it warrants E8 7a and that he used pads. The FA graded it as an 8c, E10. Alex is perhaps best known for his very fast free solo ascent of the Moonlight bu…

0
Honnold and Co. repeats El Niño
16 December 2008

Honnold and Co. repeats El Niño

Alex Honnold has, after taking a few weeks building up his endurance, moved his game from the short grit routes of the UK, to the the bigwall of El Cap, Yosemit…

0