Free Solo Quotes

Mikey Schaefer: Let's hope for a low-gravity day.

Alex Honnold: I think it's the best thing in life to be able to take the one thing you love the most and have it, like, work out that you can make a living that way.

Dierdre Wolownick: [On how Alex's climbing affects her as a parent] I think when he's free soloing is when he feels the most alive, the most everything. How could you even think about taking that away from somebody?

Alex Honnold: Anyone can be happy and cosy. Nothing good happens in the world by being happy and cosy.

Mark Synnott: That's the most magnificent crack on planet Earth.

Alex Honnold: Having the girlfriend in the van is awesome. I mean, she's cute and small and, like, livens the place up a bit, doesn't take up too much room. I mean, it's, pretty much makes life better in every way.

Alex Honnold: The big challenge is controlling your mind, I guess. Because you're not, you're not controlling your fear, you're sort of just trying to step outside of it.

Alex Honnold: I try to expand my comfort zone by practicing the moves over and over again. I work through the fear, until it's just not scary anymore.

Alex Honnold: You're standing on tiny edges, small variations in the texture of the rock. If you slip, your hands can't hold you. It's just the two tiny points of contact that keep you from falling, and when you step up, there's only one.

Alex Honnold: My Mom's favorite sayings are, Presque ne compte pas, Almost doesn't count, or, uh, Good enough isn't. No matter how well I ever do at anything, it's not that good. The bottomless pit of self-loathing. I mean, that's definitely the motivation for some soloing.

Alex Honnold: My friends are like, Oh, that'd be terrible, but if I kill myself in an accident, they'll be like, Oh, that was too bad, but like life goes on, you know, like they'll be fine. I mean, and I've had this problem with girls a lot, you know. They're like, Oh, I really care about you, I'm like, No you don't. Like if I perish, like, it doesn't matter, like you'll find somebody else, like, that's not, that's not that big a deal.

Tommy Caldwell: Having that romantic relationship around is detrimental to that armor. You have to focus and inherently a close romantic relationship removes that armor.

Alex Honnold: So I could just, like, not do certain things, but then you have, like, weird simmering resentment because it's things that you love most in life have now been squashed.

Tommy Caldwell: Imagine an Olympic-gold-medal-level athletic achievement that, if you don't get that gold medal, you're gonna die. That's pretty much what free soloing El Cap is like.

Alex Honnold: I like having fun when I have fun. I don't like being told that it's time to have fun.