Alex Honnold interview #1 - Risk assesment

Alex Honnold is in Sweden for the Nobel Week Dialogue talking about his Freesolo documentary and the risk involved. The film producers finished their great presentation by saying Honnold's girlfriend thought it was 30 % that he would fall before the subject was raised. 8a met up Honnold with an interview. "I think we are talking less than 1 % risk and it relates mainly to a mental issue. Climbing on a 7c you just don't fall when giving it 100 % and you climb at your best." During the first attempt, Alex stopped in a "blink" as he did not have a great feeling. He is talking about walking up to the crag very early in the morning and it is really cold and dark when you start. "I made it up to the slabs but I couldn't feel my feet. The shoes were too tight and in a moment it was too much. The second time was better although feeling nervous. I know it was as prepared as I would. It was that moment or never. I was able to go into robot mode. I did not need to think about anything. I could just perform. There have been tons of situations where he says being scary needing to take a deep breath and carry on. Once a hold broke and he actually did fall two meters into a tree fully covered of snow on a ledge. So do you think you will come in a situation like this again? Over time I am probably losing the appetite of it a little bit. Part of it is the classic, it is a little bit of a young man's game to prove himself. At a certain point you do not want to push as hard. We will see. You now the last year has been crazy with traveling and working nonstop so I have been tired. I have soloed all the best routes in the Western US. El Cap always represented the end of a very long road. On the other hand, Alex finishes our risk assessment talk by comparing his free solos with the risks the astronauts take. "If it was once in a lifetime for the one achievement that would mean the most to you for your entire life. If I had a 3 % risk for death I still might go for it. You only have one life anyway. It is what matters the most and you are uniquely capable of doing it. I am sure the astronauts are probably throwing around numbers near 3 %."