Alex Honnold Calls His Special Shoes “Ferrari of Climbing Shoes”- Here’s Why?

Rock climbing legend Alex Honnold has made his name synonymous with the art of charting the unscalable peaks. The naturally gifted climber found a new high in his career after climbing the El Capitan in 2017. His experiences were subsequently made into the movie ‘Free Solo’ in 2018, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. Now, Honnold, who constantly tries to reach new heights and explore unknown territories, also requires equally supportive climbing gear for all occasions. One such climbing gear is his specially designed shoes that he once compared to an Italian luxury brand of cars. The similarity he found was in their “high performance”.

In 2019, Alex Honnold sat down with GQ Sports for its commonly held segment among celebrities, called “10 Things Alex Honnold Can’t Live Without”. One item was a unique pair of climbing shoes, yellow and blue in color, which served more than one purpose.

Alex Honnold’s special pair of shoes serves multiple purposes

Honnold started the GQ Sports interview humorously. He described his experience of sitting with all his climbing gear like a “kid piling up all his toys”. He then proceeded to explain the different purposes each shoe serves, depending upon his next mountain to climb, both figuratively and metaphorically. Each style of climbing requires a specifically designed shoe that caters to that style. This specific one had a bend and a curve in it.

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Honnold said, “There’s a project I’ve been working on near my home in Las Vegas. It’s a really hard, overhanging cave and so you want aggressively downturned shoes…I don’t know if you can see how hook-shaped the shoe is. The toe is all curved, so it’s like a hook, and also how soft it is in the middle, so you can really bend your foot…” Honnold then drew a praiseworthy parallel for his shoes, saying, “This particular model is like a Ferrari of climbing shoes, like really, really high performance for the aggressive”. 

However, unlike a Ferrari, these shoes don’t last that long, since the purpose it serves is a rugged one. Under extreme duress, it could last up to a maximum of six months. Alex Honnold’s ‘call of nature’ takes him to places that would otherwise seem highly risky even in the rock climbing fraternity. One such ‘call’ was from the South Pole last month when the free solo expert visited Antarctica.

In search of unknown peaks, Honnold once sparked Everest rumors

Alex Honnold and mountaineering guide Esteban ‘Topo’ Mena ascended the Vinson Massif, Antarctica’s highest peak in January 2022. Honnold was there to learn about climbing higher-altitude in treacherous climates. This news immediately caught fire, and it created a frenzy in the rock-climbing community that Alex Honnold might climb Mt. Everest very soon. Honnold is yet to comment on the subject.

Honnold has otherwise been encouraging to his fellow climbers and always sought to seek knowledge from others. Even the ones who are younger and relatively less experienced than him. On one occasion, he was even shocked at learning about the recovery time of Czech speed climber Adam Ondra. As for him, Honnold continues his never-ending quest of climbing in newer territories.

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