Alex J. Honnold was born on 17 August 1985, in Sacramento, California USA, the son of a French professor and an English teacher. He is a professional rock climber, most famous for being the only solo free climber of the Yosemite National Park’s Triple crown with an 18-hour 50 minute link-up. He is a current record holder of Yosemite’s Nose of El Capitan, and also an author.
A famous climber, how rich is Alex Honnold? According to sources, Honnold has earned a net worth of over $500,000, as of mid-2016. His wealth has been established through his various commercial and sponsorship deals which have resulted from his climbing career.
Alex Honnold Net Worth $500,000
Honnold took to the sport in 1996 when he was 11 years old, joining a local climbing gym. He attended the Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, and upon matriculating, he enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied engineering. However, he dropped out of college as a sophomore, after participating in a climbing competition in Scotland, deciding to devote 100% of his time to rock climbing.
During his early climbing career, Honnold supported himself with life insurance payouts from his father’s death, as well as with his savings from after-school jobs he performed. He first came to prominence in 2007, by doing the legendary Yosemite Valley routes, first the Freerider and then a free solo link-up of the Rostrum and Astroman which he did in a single day, preceded only by Peter Croft. Yosemite became his favorite location to climb, with its inspiring walls and favorable weather, however, the following year he free-soloed the long Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park, the first rope-less free ascent ever made on that location.
Within a few years, Honnold was breaking speed records in climbing Yosemite’s three most challenging walls, the Yosemite Triple Crown – Mount Watkins, El Capitan and Half Dome. First, with Tommy Caldwell he finished the first free ascent of the three walls in less than 24 hours, and then Honnold soloed the walls climbing mostly without a rope, completing all in 18 hours and 50 minutes. Several days later, with Hans Florine he set a new speed record scaling the nearly 3,000-feet Nose of El Capitan in 2:23:51.
Today, Honnold is considered as the world’s best free climber who can climb almost vertical surfaces with no ropes or other equipment, just his rubber shoes and a bag of chalk. He has a great ability of completing climbs in a single day that take other climbers weeks.
Honnold has been the subject of various television specials and documentaries, such as 60 Minutes. He was also featured in the New York Times and appeared on the cover of National Geographic.
His death-defying career, where a single misstep can lead to death, has made him one of the most recognized climbers in the world and earned him profitable commercial and sponsorship deals, such as with The North Face, La Sportiva and Goal Zero, which have greatly contributed to his net worth.
Aside from securing sponsorship and assisting in major commercials, Honnold also does speaking appearances to improve his financial situation. However, the climber still maintains a simple living out of his van, which has been his home since 2007, in order to easily move to his next climbing spot.
Honnold was awarded the “Golden Piton” for his climbing achievements in 2010, and the same year he became the subject of the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Alone on the Wall”. In 2015 he released a book “Alone on the Wall: Alex Honnold and the Ultimate Limits of Adventure” which he co-wrote with his friend David Roberts. In it, the climber portrays his path from a teenage climbing enthusiast to a world-famous athlete, and recounts his most astonishing climbing achievements.
When it comes to his private life, Honnold hasn’t been married yet and sources believe he is single at present. In 2012, he founded an environmental non-profit organization called the Honnold Foundation, offering grants to organizations that offer ‘simple, sustainable ways to improve lives worldwide’, especially in the Third World countries in which he often climbs.
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