The RunOut Podcast

Tag: Alex Honnold

  • The RunOut #162: Mary Eden on her ascent of Century Crack

    The RunOut #162: Mary Eden on her ascent of Century Crack

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    Mary Eden is known on Instagram as Trad Princess but in real life, she’s one of the sport’s best offwidth crack climbers. Recently she acheived the first female ascent of Century Crack, perhaps the world’s longest and hardest wide roof crack. 

    But first, we talk about what everyone’s talking about. Alex Honnold and Taipei 101. To listen to the full intro bit, however, you’ll need to head over to Patreon.com/runoutpodcast to become a supporter of the show. With just a few more subscribers, we’ll make as much money as Honnold did free soloing Taipei.

    Today’s final bit comes from the heavy metal band Bygone, with Canmore-based climber Noah Stachulski on guitar. When Noah’s not contemplating dry-tooling ethics, he’s debating his music bros on how to classify different genres of metal. Little surprise these the two worlds go together so well.

    Show Notes

    Mary Eden Becomes First Woman to Send ‘Century Crack’ (5.14b) https://www.climbing.com/news/mary-eden-trad-princess-first-female-ascent-century-crack/

    Follow Mary Catherine Eden on Instagram https://instagram.com/tradprincess

    Alex Honnold Completes Historic Live Climb of Taipei 101 https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-to-watch-alex-honnold-skyscraper-climb-live-netflix

    Bygone on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7ii5T8TaNV9XpG2mOkwslf?si=yqRUoJa3QzG11wC4oxoKKg

    Follow Noah Stachulski on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atthemountainsofradness/

    Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast

    Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. andrew@runoutpodcast.com // chris@runoutpodcast.com

  • RunOut 150: Girl Climber, with Emily Harrington and Jon Glassberg

    RunOut 150: Girl Climber, with Emily Harrington and Jon Glassberg

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    Jon Glassberg is a photographer and filmmaker, and Emily Harrington is one of America’s most prolific professional climbers, whose all-around feats span summits of 8,000 meter peaks, 5.14, National Comp podiums, and free ascents of El Capitan. Their new film is Girl Climber, which is profile of Emily and her quest to free climb Golden Gate on El Capitan in a day. 

    But first, crack open a case of Send Lite and help us ponder whether we need way more terms for doing what we do with our rock-climbing ascents.

    Our final bit is “Big Wall,” an alt-rock ear worm from Nathan Murdoch, from the forthcoming EP “If You’re Not There.”

    Show Notes

    Follow Emily Harrington

    Follow Jon Glassberg

    Pre-order Girl Climber from Jolt Film

    Girl Climber film review from Climbing Mag

    Follow Nathan Murdoch

    Listen to Big Wall on Spotify 

    Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast

    Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. andrew@runoutpodcast.com // chris@runoutpodcast.com

  • RunOut #93: Alex Honnold Hits Different

    RunOut #93: Alex Honnold Hits Different

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    We kick it with Alex Honnold, the rock climber who was once on 60 Minutes. He has even done a few other impressive things since then … you know, like free soloing El-fucking-Cap. It’s been a big year for Honnold, from traversing the polar regions of Greenland in search of a 4,000-foot unclimbed sea cliff while doing extreme climate science, to going deep into the pain cave on his epic HURT traverse in Red Rock, to nearly killing Magnus Mitbo, to perhaps, most importantly, becoming a dad. All while expanding his reach as media star. Honnold was gracious enough to come down off his perch and roll around in the muck with us podcasting lowlifes for a candid and fun conversation that traverses all the great things that we love about climbing, proving that he’s still a dirtbag at heart.

    To hear an extended cut of our interview with Alex Honnold, please support the show by becoming a Rope Gun on Patreon.

    But first, we attend to some unfinished business in the form of arbitrating, litigating, and otherwise conversing about booty. The “crazy girl” from our recent debate about booty’d gear writes in with her side of the story, and we formally submit her complaint into the record. Court’s in session and all the booty is on the line.

    Last but not least, we’re honored to share an excerpt from one of our favorite climbing podcasts in the world, the Jam Crack podcast with Niall Grimes. This interview excerpt with the great Ben Moon is not to be missed.

    Show Notes

    Alex Honnold in Greenland on National Geographic

    Alex Honnold’s HURT traverse

    Alex Honnold Free Solos with Magnus Mitbo

    Part one of the great booty debate, Runout #88

    Listen to the whole JamCrack Podcast 112 with Ben Moon

    Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast

    Contact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. andrew@runoutpodcast.com // chris@runoutpodcast.com

  • RunOut #60: The Future of Everest

    RunOut #60: The Future of Everest

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    AB heads down to Vegas for a gonzo-style reporting mission on Alex Honnold’s latest free-solo project—only it’s isn’t Honnold who leaves him most impressed.

    Next, we speak to Mark Synnott, one of climbing’s great explorers and best-selling author, about his new book “The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest.” Like many, Synnott’s one and only impression of Everest was shaped through the characterizations of Jon Krakauer’s seminal book “Into Thin Air.” And yet, one of Everest’s oldest mysteries led Synnott to reconsider Everest and being to see it in a new light.

    Finally, your boy Luke Mehall spits some hot fire for today’s Final Bit.

    Show Notes

    “The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death Mount Everest”

    Mark Synnott’s feature in National Geographic about Everest.

    Alex Honnold reports on his latest solo link up in Red Rock.

    Cedar Wright’s Yolo Solo.

    Luke Mehall’s website.

    Subscribe to the Climbing Zine.

  • RunOut #9: Mikey Schaefer and the Fourth Wall

    RunOut #9: Mikey Schaefer and the Fourth Wall

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    To free solo or not to free solo, is not the question of today’s podcast—but whether it is ethical to film it.

    Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi’s documentary film Free Solo remains just about the biggest thing happening in climbing right now. It’s something that has haunted me and co-host Chris Kalous since we saw it a few weeks ago. To be honest, we haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

    And you can hear our initial discussion in episode 7. That episode is merely an attempt to dry out our sweaty palms in the aftermath of watching this film.

    However, now, with clearer heads, we wanted to dig in and go a little deeper. Free Solo is not just a spectacle of Alex Honnold’s obscene tolerance for risk, it also dances dangerously close to discussing the ethics of filming a guy risking his life.

    This film breaks the fourth wall—the behind the scenes story of struggling to shoot Honnold is as much a part of the story as Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan.

    We invited our friend Mikey Schaeffer to speak to us for today’s episode. Mikey is a longtime climber and just one of the true, authentic energies of our sport. He was also a DP, a director of photography, on Free Solo. Honnold selected him as one of the few guys he could trust to be hanging on a rope beside him and have confidence that Mikey wouldn’t drop a lens on him or cause some other horrific outcome.

    Mikey also has one of the more interesting roles in Free Solo. Of all the camera operators, he was the one who seemed to be most genuinely distraught by what he was witnessing. If you’ve seen the film, Mikey is the one whose face they cut to repeatedly during the climactic montage of Honnold’s big climb.

    He’s grimacing. He literally can’t bring himself to watch—and yet, like we in the audience, he also can’t look away.

    I recognized this as a device often utilized in horror and suspense films—Hitchcock was perhaps the original master of this technique. In this regard, Free Solo isn’t just a documentary; it fully fits in the genre of suspense and thriller.

    And yet, the thrills aren’t moot or for mere casual entertainment. The consequences are horrifyingly real.

    We spoke to Mikey to hear more about what it was really like to have worked on this film for the past two years. I personally really enjoyed this interview. Mikey shared some really surprising details and insights into his own experience. He also gave some really fascinating insights into the black box that is Alex Honnold’s mind.