Meeting Speaker for June 11, 2012 - Alex Honnold

As we all know, one of President Ken's favorite hobbies is mountain climbing, an obvious influence in his labeling the different levels for our personal contributions to Rotary during his term as:  "Summit Baggers",  "Mountaineers",   "Explorers", "Hikers" or "Couch Potatoes". Initially, these labels may have seemed a bit intimidating to most of us.  However, this week's speaker brings a whole new excitement to "Strive for Your Summits". Our speaker, Alex Honnold, often referred to by climbers in the know, as THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED FREE SOLO CLIMBER IN THE WORLD,  makes reaching those SUMMITS all of us have been STRIVING for this term, look so easy that every Rotarian will want to become a "SUMMIT BAGGER" before the end of President Ken's term.  By the way, "FREE SOLO" means, climbing places like Yosemites' Half Dome or El Capitan, with NO ROPES.

Alex Honnold grew up right here in Carmichael where at a young age he became a regular visitor to an indoor rock climbing facility in Rancho Cordova.  Here he found his calling.  Already an accomplished climber at age 18, Alex dropped out of UC Berkeley, where he was an engineering student, and devoted all his time to climbing.  Living out of his van, Alex survived on less than $1,000 per month, enabling him to follow the weather and climb all year long.  Now, with many industry sponsors, Alex travels and climbs all over the world, all year long.  Alex prefers big walls and sport climbing, but enjoys any climb calling for extreme commitment. Yosemite is his favorite area because of its impressive walls and favorable weather.  In fact, his availability for this presentation to Rotary, is tied to this being "Yosemite Season".  That's when the ideal weather and other climbing conditions bring a migration of the worlds best climbers to Yosemite.  Here, in 2008, Alex was the first to climb the NW face of Half Dome SOLO - and in just 2:50 hrs. This usually takes most climbers more than a day or two.  In 2011 Alex and Hans Florne climbed El Capitan in 2:37 hrs.  Later Alex climbed El Capitan three times - that is up and down, in less than 24 hours.

In 2010 Alex was awarded Climbings "Golden Piton" for his climbing achievements. In 2011 he was featured on CBS 60 Minutes in October. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7383158n  (click link to view) The program generated such a large response it was shown again in early 2012.  Alex was featured on the cover of National Geographic in October of 2011 and in the March issue of People magazine, to say nothing of having pictures of him and stories of his accomplishments in most every climbing magazine in the world. Other notable climbs and acknowledgments are too numerous to list but are easily viewed c/o google @ alex honnold.