Joe Rogan Experience #1189 - Alex Honnold

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Should I, should I…

   1. AHAlex Honnold0:02

      Should I, should I do headphones, or does it matter?

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:03

      Yeah, I like headphones.

   3. AHAlex Honnold0:06

      I kinda hate hearing myself that loud though.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:07

      Why? You sound good.

   5. AHAlex Honnold0:08

      All right.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:08

      Why do you hate hearing yourself?

   7. AHAlex Honnold0:10

      Dude.

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      Try to pull this sucker up, like about a fist from your face. Good to see you again, man.

   9. AHAlex Honnold0:14

      Yeah, it's been a long time.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:15

       It has been.

   11. AHAlex Honnold0:16

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:16

       With a guy like you, it's always nice to see you're still alive. (laughs)

   13. AHAlex Honnold0:18

       Oh, you know, I do my best.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:20

       Do you get tired of hearing shit like that?

   15. AHAlex Honnold0:21

       Oh, I don't care. I mean-

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:23

       Do you get tired of like-

   17. AHAlex Honnold0:23

       ... I get it a lot.

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:24

       ... the weirdness of like interviewing with people and they're like, you know, "You know you could die? Is this scary?"

   19. AHAlex Honnold0:31

       (laughs) Yeah. Yeah, that's all right though. I mean, the thing is... Yeah, it's funny, uh, touring with the film, we've been doing Q and A's every night and you get the same questions from the audience all the time.

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:38

       Yeah.

   21. AHAlex Honnold0:38

       And part of that is tiring. But then part of it, like people ask the same questions because they're obvious, because everybody wants to know the same things.

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:45

       Right.

   23. AHAlex Honnold0:45

       And I'm like, "I understand that," you know?

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       One of the weirdest parts of the film is when they're showing all the guys who have died from free soloing and they're-

   25. AHAlex Honnold0:54

       Yeah, though actually, they didn't all die free soloing.

   26. JRJoe Rogan0:56

       Oh.

   27. AHAlex Honnold0:57

       That, that's actually one of the... That's probably the only thing that I take slight issue with, with the film.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       Ah.

   29. AHAlex Honnold1:01

       Is it's slightly hyperbolic, is the... Two of them died BASE jumping and one of them died rope jumping. They, they all were free soloists, which is kind of what the film is saying-

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:08

       Uh-huh.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Mm. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      you're doing is, man, there's moments that you must experience while you are climbing these incredible faces that are kinda magical. When you're up there, you're 1,000 feet up there, the view is fucking spectacular and you're doing it.

   2. AHAlex Honnold15:18

      Mm.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:18

      And you, you get to the top of these things. The, the rush and the feeling of accomplishment and the euphoria and just the glory of nature from that perspective.

   4. AHAlex Honnold15:28

      Yeah. Yeah, totally.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:28

      Like, look at this.

   6. AHAlex Honnold15:30

      Yeah. (laughs)

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:30

      Woo! I'm ... You could fucking wash your clothes on the sweat-

   8. AHAlex Honnold15:34

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:34

      ... that's in my hands right now. (bangs fist on desk) Man.

   10. AHAlex Honnold15:37

       (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:37

       That's a ... That fucking picture's insane. We're looking at ... What is the, the name of this photo, Jamie?

   12. NANarrator15:44

       Nice.

   13. AHAlex Honnold15:44

       It's, uh, the Enduro Corner from El Cap.

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:47

       Boah.

   15. AHAlex Honnold15:48

       That's actually ... That's the movie poster too.

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       (laughs) Fuck, man.

   17. AHAlex Honnold15:51

       That's-

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:52

       That is-

   19. AHAlex Honnold15:52

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan15:52

       ... so amaz- ... So that, that, that is not sitting in a cubicle. That is not-

   21. AHAlex Honnold15:58

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       ... fluorescent lights.

   23. AHAlex Honnold15:59

       Well, that, that is the end of a very long path that you have to choose and, and really cultivate. You know? I mean, that's, that's, for me, 23 years of sort of going in a ... Or 22 years or something, of going down a very specific path.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:12

       Very specific. You know?

   25. AHAlex Honnold16:13

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       And you're still ... Uh, you ... Do you have a different van, or are you still in the same van?

   27. AHAlex Honnold16:17

       I'm in a better van than last time I was here.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:18

       Wow. Nice.

   29. AHAlex Honnold16:19

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:19

       Moving on up. (laughs)
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Is that ... (laughs)…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

   2. AHAlex Honnold30:00

      Is that ... (laughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      That looks like-

   4. AHAlex Honnold30:01

      Doesn't it look like he's just running, like, on the sidewalk?

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:04

      It looks like-

   6. AHAlex Honnold30:04

      They just tilted the camera.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:05

      ... it's flat but he's on the ground-

   8. AHAlex Honnold30:07

      Yeah, exactly.

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:07

      ... and they're, they're faking it-

   10. AHAlex Honnold30:08

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:08

       ... for the camera. That's insane.

   12. AHAlex Honnold30:09

       Yeah, no, it's totally ...

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:11

       Now, do these guys free solo or did they specifically-

   14. AHAlex Honnold30:14

       (laughs)

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:14

       ... concentrate on this?

   16. AHAlex Honnold30:14

       No, no. I mean, imagine if you were free soloing like this, you would die for sure.

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:20

       (laughs) Yeah.

   18. AHAlex Honnold30:20

       No, that's like-

   19. JRJoe Rogan30:21

       I would think that beta blockers would be something that someone who free solos would wanna look into.

   20. AHAlex Honnold30:25

       I don't even, I don't, yeah, I don't know what that is.

   21. JRJoe Rogan30:27

       Beta blockers are something-

   22. AHAlex Honnold30:28

       Okay.

   23. JRJoe Rogan30:28

       ... that blocks your, your brain's production of adrenaline.

   24. AHAlex Honnold30:31

       Oh. But I mean, I don't know if you'd want that though, because the thing is, if you have an adrenaline spike, it's because something weird went on and you probably want to-

   25. JRJoe Rogan30:38

       You want that energy.

   26. AHAlex Honnold30:38

       Like I've had a, I've had a couple of times where I like broke a hold off or something, like all of a sudden your hold rips off and then you have that like superhuman surge of like, "Rah!" And you grab back on.

   27. JRJoe Rogan30:47

       Yeah, you don't wanna-

   28. AHAlex Honnold30:48

       You know?

   29. JRJoe Rogan30:48

       ... be mellow at that time.

   30. AHAlex Honnold30:49

       Yeah, exactly. You don't wanna be like, "I'm so relaxed as I fall all the way to the valley floor." You know, it's like you wanna freaking hold on.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Huh. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      and I couldn't do it. I was like, "Wow, this is really hard."

   2. AHAlex Honnold45:02

      Huh.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:02

      It's difficult to do.

   4. AHAlex Honnold45:04

      I bet, I bet if you, if you tried a bit, I mean, just because you have such a background in movement and fitness and everything, I bet, I bet it wouldn't be that hard for you.

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:10

      Um.

   6. AHAlex Honnold45:10

      You know, a little instruction.

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:12

      Yeah. I'm pretty heavy though for someone who's short. That, that would be a, an issue is hanging. I'm 200 pounds right now.

   8. AHAlex Honnold45:18

      Yeah. But so in theory, climbing should be more in your legs anyway.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:21

      Mm-hmm.

   10. AHAlex Honnold45:21

       You should be driving with your legs.

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:22

       Right.

   12. AHAlex Honnold45:22

       Um, because no matter what, your legs are always bigger and stronger muscles than your arms.

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:26

       Right.

   14. AHAlex Honnold45:26

       So like that's always what drives you upward.

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:28

       Yeah.

   16. AHAlex Honnold45:28

       And then your arms should only be holding your weight in and keeping your, keeping you balanced over your feet basically. So-

   17. JRJoe Rogan45:34

       That's interesting. That's-

   18. AHAlex Honnold45:35

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan45:35

       ... something that they figured out fairly recently with grappling, over the last like 10, 15 years, with like jujitsu and things-

   20. AHAlex Honnold45:41

       Mm-hmm.

   21. JRJoe Rogan45:41

       ... along those lines, that your legs, your... it's really important to use mostly your legs when you're grappling.

   22. AHAlex Honnold45:47

       Yeah, totally.

   23. JRJoe Rogan45:47

       You know?

   24. AHAlex Honnold45:47

       I can see that. I mean, that's what's driving you forward and-

   25. JRJoe Rogan45:49

       Mm-hmm.

   26. AHAlex Honnold45:49

       ... pushing the whole, you know, yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan45:51

       Controlling your opponent and manipulating your opponent, doing st-

   28. AHAlex Honnold45:54

       Mm-hmm.

   29. JRJoe Rogan45:54

       ... stuff with your legs.

   30. AHAlex Honnold45:55

       Yep.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:01:40

   Well, no. I'm saying…

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

   2. AHAlex Honnold1:00:00

      Well, no. I'm saying I'm the strong beginner.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:01

      Yeah, but that's okay.

   4. AHAlex Honnold1:00:02

      Very strong grip and no idea what I'm doing. Just like, "Ah."

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:04

      Yeah. But the real problem would be if we were both beginners.

   6. AHAlex Honnold1:00:07

      Yeah. Okay.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:07

      That would be the real problem.

   8. AHAlex Honnold1:00:08

      Hmm.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      The like a, a strong spaz is not really ...

   10. AHAlex Honnold1:00:11

       They're (laughs) -

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:11

       ... they're not gonna work against a black belt.

   12. AHAlex Honnold1:00:13

       That's a, yeah. (laughs) That's the learning curve for climbing too. You don't want two beginners going out and trying to like climb a mountain together.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:20

       Yeah. I would worry about-

   14. AHAlex Honnold1:00:20

       Then you're like you have nobody, uh ...

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:22

       I would worry about that. Like if you're climbing, do you ever climb like ... Is there a chain, like one person in front of you? Like when you guys are on ropes?

   16. AHAlex Honnold1:00:30

       Yeah, yeah. I mean so it's ... Yeah. When you climb with a rope, it's basically two people. One goes out first and then brings up the second 'cause you're limited by the length of the rope. So basically one-

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:37

       Right.

   18. AHAlex Honnold1:00:37

       ... person goes out to the end of the rope, brings up the next person. That person climbs through, brings uh, up the second-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:42

       So are you dependent upon the holds that they put in when they put those bolts into the cracks and all the things that-

   20. AHAlex Honnold1:00:46

       Well, so bolts, bolts and things are put in by the first ascensionist, so the very first person to have ever climbed the route, but then everybody thereafter is able to just clip their, their equipment into the bolts or, uh, you know, use pre-established anchors, things like that.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

       Oh, so like if you go-

   22. AHAlex Honnold1:00:59

       So all the, all the routes are already established and you can like read a book that shows all the different routes.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:01:04

       Oh.

   24. AHAlex Honnold1:01:05

       So like El Capitan has, uh, something like 112 different routes up it.And-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01:09

       Wow.

   26. AHAlex Honnold1:01:10

       ... and of those 112, only 15 or so of them can be free climbed, which is different than free soloing. Free climbing, meaning just using your hands and your feet, and you're still using a rope, you're still clipping into protection as you go, but you're only using your hand and your feet to get you up, as opposed to, like, putting gear in and then pulling on the gear, which would be-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:27

       Oh.

   28. AHAlex Honnold1:01:27

       ... considered cheating. So of the 100 routes on El Cap, you know, something like 90 of them, you have to pull on the hardware. You have to, like, clip little ladders into it and step on, you know, you have to hammer pitons in and then clip into them and stand on them and hammer another piton and step on that.

Episode duration: 1:41:26