‘Free Solo’ climber Alex Honnold takes on projects from environmental podcast to scaling skyscraper

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alex Honnold knows a thing about passion and challenges. Since his legendary ropeless ascent up Yosemite’s El Capitan in “ Free Solo,” the professional rock climber has taken on a host of projects around environmental conservation and battling climate change.

On Tuesday, Rolex released the first episode of the fifth season of the Planet Visionaries podcast in which Honnold, who hosts the show, gives a platform for scientists and the world’s innovators to be heard.

The podcast is one of many projects Honnold is involved in amid the growing threats to public lands in the U.S., denial of climate change and questioning of science.

“I interview guests who are very passionate about what they do and very good at what they do, and I typically come out of the interviews feeling all fired up, basically to do what I do, but do it a little better,” Honnold said.

But still a climber at heart, Honnold is also training to climb Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper without a rope next year for a live Netflix event, a building he’s been eyeing for over a decade, he said.

Honnold’s foray into environmental work began with a nonprofit he founded in 2012 to fund community solar energy projects around the world. He was climbing and living in a van, and felt like he should be “doing something useful for the world,” he said.

“You can’t be a professional climber without caring about protecting nature,” Honnold said.

As he traveled to far-flung places looking for different things to climb, he saw a pressing need for energy access, not just to decrease reliance on fossil fuels but getting rural communities reliable energy access for the first time.

“People don’t care about nature unless their basic needs are met,” Honnold said. “They’ll cut down the last tree in the whole region if it means they can boil water for their family. So obviously you need to meet people’s basic needs first before you can try to protect a place environmentally.”

The Honnold Foundation has now supported about 120 projects around the world since its inception and will give out about $3 million in grants this year, Honnold said.

One recent project is a solar project for a housing complex in São Paulo, Brazil, reducing energy costs for 227 families, and providing installation and maintenance training for women and youth there, according to his foundation website.

Though he’s now juggling being a climber, podcast host, philanthropist, husband, and father, Honnold’s been ready for the change.

“The reality is that I turned 40 this summer and I think I can still basically climb about as well as ever, but I certainly won’t be able to for another 10 or 15 years,” Honnold said. “I’ve been going so hard for so long, and I wouldn’t want to just live in a van and only rock climb for my entire life.”

These days, Honnold spends most of his time at home in Las Vegas with his wife and two girls, who are one- and three-years old. They take the kids on a family hike every week, train in the garage for a few hours while the kids nap, then play with them in the afternoon.

Being a climber, he said, has help him tackle life’s biggest challenges, from starting a nonprofit to whatever he may turn to next.

“Focusing my whole life on projecting things, like trying things that are too hard for me, it has taught me a lot about taking on big projects,” Honnold said. “If you just start and just start chipping away at ’em … eventually, you can kind of do it.”