"It’s a beautiful route that I’m surprised doesn’t get climbed more" – Alex Honnold casually chalks off another big wall onsight solo
The climbing legend says the 4-hour car-to-car solo was a "personal best"

Alex Honnold ticking off yet another big wall climb may not exactly be surprising anymore, but it's still newsworthy, and the climbing legend revealed he had casually chalked off another onsight free solo of another 5.10d climb this week.
Onsighting in climbing means climbing a route for the first time without any prior knowledge of it, and free soloing means doing it without any protection – like a harness, belay device or rope. A climbing route graded 5.10d is hard. But posting to Instagram, the Free Solo star says he chalked off Gift of the Wind Gods on Mount Wilson in less time than it takes most people to play 18 holes.
"I was really impressed by the quality of the climbing - it’s a beautiful route that I’m surprised doesn’t get climbed more," says Honnold, who apparently was able to enjoy the views as well as risk life and limb and even took the time to share an impressive bird’s nest at the top of the route.
"I made it car to car in Oak Creek in 4 hours, which is a personal best I think for climbing a big route on Wilson.
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Mount Wilson is the highest peak in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, near Las Vegas where Honnold lives, and the Gift of the Wind Gods route entails some 1,500ft of vert and multiple pitches, if you're actually climbing with a partner and using ropes.
If you're Honnold? It was all just one big pitch.
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Julia Clarke is a staff writer for Advnture.com and the author of the book Restorative Yoga for Beginners. She loves to explore mountains on foot, bike, skis and belay and then recover on the the yoga mat. Julia graduated with a degree in journalism in 2004 and spent eight years working as a radio presenter in Kansas City, Vermont, Boston and New York City before discovering the joys of the Rocky Mountains. She then detoured west to Colorado and enjoyed 11 years teaching yoga in Vail before returning to her hometown of Glasgow, Scotland in 2020 to focus on family and writing.