Alex Honnold Biography

He is known to the world as an example of unnatural calm, when he hangs on his fingertips from a thin line between life and death. But no one watched him when he, more than ten years ago, at the age of 19, stood at the foot of his first serious route without a rope - a wrinkled corner, in the area of ​​Lake Tahot in California. On the scale of routes, the wrinkled angle has a rating of 5.7 on the complexity of the route - almost 15 points are simpler than the most complex route, passed by Honnold by that time.

But still, its height is 90 meters. To rise on this route solo, at first he had to have a desire to do this. His heroes were climbing without ropes like Peter Croft and John Bachar, who set new style standards in X and X. Honnold, among other things, was also terribly shy, which made it difficult for him to search for partners for climbing with a rope. He saw their photographs in climbing magazines and immediately realized that he wanted to be in the same position: terribly vulnerable, potentially deadly, completely under control.

In other words, he is a classic seeker of thrill. On the day he climbed into the FMRT pipe, Honnold also filled several psychological questionnaires used to measure the degree of addiction to the search for sensations. He was asked to agree or disagree with such statements as “I would like a feeling of very fast skiing from a high mountain” “I just adore the descent from the mountain on skiing,” he says; “I would like to jump with a parachute” “I studied Skydiving”; “I like to explore unusual cities or their areas independently, even if there is a danger of getting lost” “This is everyday life for me.” Once he filled a similar questionnaire at an exhibition of goods for outdoor activities, in which an illustration of the question “whether he was thinking of climbing was thinking” was his own photograph.

However, Honnold was very frightened on the wrinkled corner. He grabbed the big and friendly ledges. Obviously, he did not give up after the first such experience. On the contrary, Honnold acquired what he calls “mental armor”, and constantly crossed the threshold of fear. Gradually, his attempts, at first seemed terrible to him, began to seem not so crazy: a solo-welter, in which he clings to the stone with only his fingers, and his legs dangle in the air; Or, as he made in June on the infamous route “Absolute Crumpus”, the ascent without a rope along the slope, to which he never climbed before.

Over the 12 years of free solo-abroad, Honnold's hands broke, his legs slipped out, he went from a well-known route to an unknown, animals such as birds and ants were frightened, or he was overtaken by "fatigue on the verge when you were over the abyss too long." But since he coped with these problems, he gradually pacified his concern about them. From the point of view of Marie Montfils, who leads the Laboratory of Remembrance of Fear at Texas University, the Honnold process resembles an almost alphabet, albeit brought to the limit, a way to work with fear.

Until recently, according to Montfils, psychologists believed that memories - including memories of fear - are consolidated, become unchanged shortly after the acquisition. But over the past 16 years, this idea has changed. Studies have shown that each time, causing a memory, we carry out its reconsolaidation, that is, we can add new information or another interpretation of what we remember, and even turn the memories associated with fear into fearless ones.

Honnold has a detailed ascence magazine in which he constantly reviews his lifts and notes that it can be improved. He is also preparing for his most difficult ascent for a long time - rehearses movements, and then represents all the movements in ideal performance. In order to prepare for climbing a meter wall, he visualized everything that could go wrong, including falling from a height and bleeding on the stones below - to reconcile with these opportunities before leaving the earth.

Honnold completed this ascent on the wall known as the “Lunar Light Column” in the Zaon National Park, 13 years after the first ascents, and four years after the start of solo.

A return to the memories with the aim of presenting them in a new light, says Montfils, this is a process that almost certainly occurs in our heads completely unconsciously. But intentionally returning to them, as Honnold did, is much better - "a great example of reconsolaidation." Visualization-pre-Consolidation, in which a person imagines a future event, and not what happened in the past-works about the same.

A sense of confidence in their abilities reduces the excitement, which can explain how people who are shy about performing in public how, by the way, Honnold is embarrassed to worry about this, doing this often and developing skills.The tonsil again plays a key role. Montfils offers an example from his life. She always had a fear of snakes. Once she and her friends walked along the coast of the lake on a canoe, and saw a water shield, a poisonous snake hanging from a branch.

Montfils began to scream, frantically rowing to the center of the lake and after that refused to go to nature for a whole year. Then, on a walk around the crossed area, she met another snake and panicked again. This time she decided to apply her knowledge to solving the problem. She tried to lie down, calm down and recall her experience in a calm and logical manner.

She reconsolaid the frightening memory of something more useful. In just a week, she suppressed her fear, gathered her will into a fist and again went for a walk. In the year, Honnold “just to boast”, went through the ledge of “thank God” during a free solo for a half-merchant in the Yosemite National Park. Without returning to the past and without scanning Honnold's brain before he began to engage in free solo, you can’t find out what part of this fearlessness constitutes, and which training.

But some opportunities can be discarded. Joseph Leda, a neurobiologist from New York University, studying the reaction of the brain to threats with X, says that he has never heard of people born with a normal tonsil-as it seems to have happened to Honnold-and not showing any signs of her activation. Regarding Honnold, the possibility that a person can “renew” the tonsil through excessive stimulation, Leda says: “I don’t think this is possible.” However, when I describe the complete absence of tonsil activation in Honnold during the completion of tasks in the scanner, Leda says that "it sounds very impressive." Genetically, parts of the brain in different people vary, tells Leda, so it can be assumed that the contour responsible with Honnold for fear is in the most “cold” part of the spectrum - which explains why, in his youth, he saw not a mortal danger in the photographs of the climbing ropes, but a powerful attractiveness.

But no less than the brain with which he was born is also important the brain that he created for himself, spending thousands of hours after risky activities. The role of genetics in the development of character traits that motivated Honnold to free ascents looks clearer. Passion for sensations is partially inherited, and can move from parents to children.

This feature is associated with less excitement and muffled responses to potentially dangerous situations. As a result, there may be a tendency to underestimate risks, which in a recent study was associated with an imbalance, which leads to low activity of the tonsil and less effective suppression of passion for adventure by prefrontal cortex. The study of Joseph does not consider individual cases, she considers Honnold's brain pictures “observation”, but she noted the “extremely reduced” responsiveness of the tonsil in a certain type of acute sensations - and Honnold refers to them.

The most likely explanation of the inactive tonsil, according to Joseph, can be that the selected pictures were not impressive enough. Honnold also surpasses people in terms of good faith, associated with the possibility of concentration and bringing affairs to the end. He also showed high planning scores, his typical manner of behavior, and very low in neurotism, which allows him not to bother with unlikely risk results, which he cannot affect.

One example does not prove the theory, but a person who is engaged in free solo and at the same time has the nickname “nothing like that”, Joseph about the amateur of overwhelming sensations in the case of Honnold, quite convincingly confirms the hypothesis. I think she can teach us a lot in the treatment of addictions to harmful substances, anxious disorders and the search for strategies useful for people, ”she says.

For example, in many acute lovers, violations in behavior lead to impulsive attempts to experience something new, which does not have immediate consequences, such as sudden drinking or using drugs. Honnold always avoided drinking alcohol and drugs, and he also does not drink coffee. Joseph is interested in whether this energy can be redirected to such classes with a strong emotional response as climbing with protective equipment - such classes require self -restraint, planning and setting certain goals, which imposes other norms of behavior in life on a person.

Mo can for a little of us to try a little Honnoldian magic. You may not have features inherent in overwhelming lovers, and the ability to suppress the tonsil at will, but with the help of conscious attempts and gradual, repeating meetings with the object of our fear, each of us can find courage, the presence of which we did not suspect.In Honnold, his personal challenge implies very high rates.

And although he is so surprisingly arranged - or he led himself to such a state - in his activity there are risk factors. When I asked Honnold to describe the ideal psychological sensation from free solo, he said: “You find yourself in the situation that you can say-this is outrageous, you understand? This is amazing. This is the whole point - to be in a place where you feel like a hero.

” But at the same time, he said that the simpler, routine ascents that the Middle Scalolas would still regard as extreme lost his novelty, and even some extreme ascents no longer cause him such emotions. The lack of activation of the areas of most of the Honnold’s brain during the task with remuneration, according to Joseph, coincides with the hypothesis, according to which adventurers need a powerful stimulus in order to pump up a dopamine contour that makes you feel a reward.

One of the consequences may be a constant search for thrill, which, in case of abuse of substances or gambling, creates dependence on them. Honnold, in this sense, can be “dependent on climbing,” says Joseph, and the passion for sensations can constantly push him to the boundaries of the capabilities of the solo. At the same time, the determining qualities of his ascents were responsibility and a tendency to careful planning.

The biggest risk for him, according to Joseph, could be the struggle of these two opposite motives. Joseph expected that Honnold would be at a low level of impulsiveness, and impulsiveness and disintections associated with the adoption of hasty decisions and the implementation of rash acts without evaluating the consequences, especially during periods of poor mood of a person, will appear.

And he showed high marks according to these parameters. This can explain the fact that in the terminology of Honnold himself, the ascents of the class “Yes, everything has gone” in which composure is inferior to depression and anxiety can be called, and planning is impulsive. Here is an example: when he suffered from unsuccessful relations in M, he alone ascended a meter wall in the Nevada desert, on which he once climbed with a rope only once in his life, and a few years before.

Honnold considers the ascent as an example of how he learned to curb positive and negative emotions, directing them to solve his problems. Obviously, everything ended well - it is still with us, and can tell this story. But when I asked Joseph if she wants to warn about something Honnold on the basis of scanning and polls, she replied: “Do not give impulsiveness to win the responsibility.” Honnold says that he began solo, because he was embarrassed to offer unfamiliar climbers joint ascents.

In the photo, he is in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula, makes “deep-sea solo-eating”, in which the route usually ends with a fall into the water below. The next time I catch Honnold, when he in Europe is engaged in mountaineering with his girlfriend. I am interested in whether the new knowledge about the atypicality of his brain affected his self -awareness. He says that there is no - the discovery that his tonsil in the brain, like an old dog in an Irish pub, did not affect how he was engaged in climbing, and did not change his self -awareness.

But it cannot be said that he did not stop for a while in order to think about all this. During a recent rest from climbing, he says, he and McCandles decided to try out Via Ferrat, arranged near Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland. Via Ferrata is a route for mountaineering, specially equipped with metal structures - steps, pegs, stairs and bridges embedded in stone.

On it, the climber is protected by a special equipment fixed on a fixed cable. Honnold, of course, refused the equipment. What I need to pay attention to this, ”he says. It turned out that Via Ferrata passes along a smooth stone wall using several steps from reinforcement, located in meters above the valley. They were high in the mountains, the weather deteriorated, McCandles almost cried, and after the recent rains, water drained on limestone deposits and dripal on the steps and on their heads.

He realized that in that case he did not. He was so often in similar situations that they became ordinary for him. There was nothing to work with - the question was only in who he turned into.