Around 2005, Alex Honnold began doing free solo climbing more seriously. Free solo means climbing without a rope or protective gear, so the main way to reduce risk is careful skill-building and choosing objectives that match experience. This starting point helps explain how later, longer routes became possible.
In September 2007, Honnold free-soloed two famous Yosemite Valley routes—Astroman and the Rostrum—in a single day. Both routes are long, steep, and sustained, which makes them important tests of endurance and accuracy without a rope. The ascents helped establish him as an unusually strong and committed solo climber.
On April 1, 2008, Honnold free-soloed Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park in 83 minutes. The route is known for sustained, difficult crack climbing over a big-wall length, so a ropeless ascent demanded both technical precision and speed. Reporting on the climb emphasized extensive rehearsal beforehand, showing a methodical approach to high-stakes objectives.
On September 6, 2008, Honnold made the first free-solo ascent of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (a long, multi-pitch Yosemite route). Contemporary reporting notes he finished in about 2 hours and 50 minutes and had climbed the route multiple times beforehand. This ascent showed he could manage not only difficulty, but also big-wall length and fatigue without a rope.
In early June 2012, Honnold completed a solo linkup of Yosemite’s three big walls—Mt. Watkins, El Capitan, and Half Dome—over roughly 19 hours. Reports note it was done in a “hybrid” solo style, meaning he climbed most terrain without a rope but used a rope or fixed gear for specific transitions like pendulums. The effort showed his focus on moving fast and managing long exposure, even when the climbing style was not purely free solo.
On January 15, 2014, Honnold became the first person reported to free-solo El Sendero Luminoso at El Potrero Chico. The route is a long, bolted big-wall line, and a ropeless ascent brought big-wall soloing into a sport-climbing setting. This added variety to his resume beyond Yosemite and Zion.
By the mid-2010s, Honnold’s plans increasingly centered on the idea of a full free solo of El Capitan, a much larger wall than his earlier ropeless ascents. The later documentary coverage frames this as a multi-year preparation process involving route selection, extensive rehearsal, and mental training. This goal set the direction for his biggest solo effort by 2017.
On June 3, 2017, Honnold free-soloed Freerider on El Capitan in Yosemite, reaching the top in 3 hours and 56 minutes. Major outlets described it as the first time a climber had free-soloed a full route up El Capitan, a landmark because of the wall’s height and sustained difficulty. The ascent was filmed and later became the centerpiece of the documentary Free Solo.
After the 2017 El Capitan ascent, the achievement became widely known beyond the climbing community through film and major media coverage. This shift mattered because it helped define “free solo” in the public mind as a specific, extreme style—no rope, no gear, and no fall allowed. It also marked a clear end point to the 2005–2017 arc of escalating ropeless objectives that culminated on El Capitan.
Alex Honnold's Notable Free Solo Ascents (2005-2017)