Alex Honnold burst onto the mainstream scene with the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo. Now, I’ve heard a lot of talk about how he may be on top of the climbing food chain.
So, is Alex Honnold the best climber in the world? In the specific sport of free soloing, Alex is the best climber of this generation (and maybe ever). By his own admission, however, Alex is far from being the best climber in the world.
Don’t believe me? Hear it straight from the horse’s mouth:
I think a lot of the confusion about whether or not Alex is the best climber in the world comes from the definition of what the ‘best’ is. In terms of making a name for himself, climbing inspiring routes, and setting records, Alex Honnold is by far one of the most notable climbers of our generation. If you look at the sheer difficulty of routes that he can climb, though, and his well-roundedness in the sport, you can see that there are tens, if not hundreds, of other people who can climb harder routes than Alex.
Is Alex The Best?
The simple answer to this (in both my opinion and his, obviously): no, Alex Honnold is not the best climber in the world.
Really, this is less of an opinion and more of a hard fact. If you look at his resume, Alex Honnold’s redpoint max — that is, the hardest grade of climbing that he’s done before — is rated 5.14d. While that’s certainly impressive, it’s nowhere near the best climbers in the world, who are actually sending routes rated 5.15d, or 4 entire grades higher than Honnold.
Similarly, in the bouldering world, Alex has some impressive but not earth-shattering ascents. He has bouldered up to V12, which is an impressive feat for any weekend warrior or bouldering enthusiast. For a professional climber, though, it’s not all that impressive; the best boulderers in the world currently send routes in the V16-V17 range. Once again, Honnold is about 4 grades below being world-class.
Even in big wall climbing, where Alex specializes, he falls short of being the best in the world. While he’s renowned for his speed and fearlessness, he’s still eclipsed in pure climbing difficulty by others such as Tommy Caldwell, Kevin Jorgeson, and Beth Rodden.
However, there are two specific climbing disciplines in which Alex can claim to be the best in the world: free soloing and speed climbing.
Free Soloing
Free soloing — the art of climbing routes without a rope, or any protection — is more than Honnold’s bread and butter; it’s his entire diet. As I said earlier, Alex is far and away the best free solo climber of our generation, and he has a very good argument to be the best ever. His ascents, which include Moonlight Buttress, Half Dome, Astroman, and of course Free Rider, rank among some of the most impressive achievements of any athlete ever.
Honnold’s dominance in free soloing comes down to two things:
- Fearlessness: The ability to execute difficulty moves while suspended thousands of feet above the ground is very rare. Alex’s ability to stay calm when faced with potential death is what allows him to free solo in the first place.
- Stamina: While Alex isn’t the strongest climber in the world, he could definitely make an argument for being the best conditioned. This allows him to climb for hours on end without fear of falling.
Speed Climbing
Another area where Honnold shines is in speed climbing. By this, I don’t mean the Olympic sport, where athletes race up a 20-meter wall via a pre-set route. Instead, I mean this:
The art of climbing big walls as fast as possible, forgoing traditional safety and ethics to get to the top in the least amount of time, is the type of speed climbing that Alex excels at. His bravery and stamina that allow him to free solo also lend themselves well to speed climbing: he is able to climb with very little protection, while not getting tired on the massive faces of Yosemite (where many speed climbs happen).
In fact, Alex currently holds the record on the most important speed climb in the world, that of The Nose on El Capitan. He’s a two-time record holder for that particular trophy.
Who’s the Best Climber in the World?
So, if it’s not Alex, who’s the best climber in the world?
If you want to read more of my thoughts on this, I would suggest you check out my article here where I break down the 10 best climbers alive today. In this article, though, I thought it would be fun to break down climbing discipline by discipline to see who the best in each category is!
Sport Climbing
The best sport climber in the world is Adam Ondra.
I mean, really, what did you expect?
Adam Ondra is the best all-around climber in the world right now. His resume is absolutely bonkers, and would probably take me an entire article to fully flesh out, but a few of the highlights include:
- First person to climb 5.15c
- First person to climb 5.15d
- First person to flash 5.15a
- First repeat of the infamous Dawn Wall
- Seventh-most hard bouldering ascents in history (V15+)
- Most hard sport climbing ascents and most hard sport climbing FA’s in history
What’s most shocking about Adam Ondra is how good he is at everything. He doesn’t only sport climb; he’s sent the hardest boulder problems, the hardest big wall problems, and the hardest off-width routes. Ondra excels at every level of the sport, and he is far and away the best sport climber alive today.
Some runner-ups include:
- Alex Megos
- Sebastien Bouin
- Chris Sharma
- Jakob Schubert
Trad Climbing
The best trad climber currently alive is Jacopo Larcher.
This was a hard one to choose, because there are simply so many good trad climbers out there today. Titans of the discipline like Sonny Trotter and Beth Rodden have been around for the better part of a decade, and either of them could have easily been #1 on this list, but the current award has to go to Jacopo.
First of all, Jacopo has the most ascents of 5.14 trad routes in the world, with 7 (including the infamous Rhapsody, featured in the video above). Secondly, he just recently sent his 6-year project Tribe, which he refused to assign a grade to. However, the fact that he said that Tribe was harder than both Rhapsody and the 5.15a sport climb La Rambla, it stands to reason that it could be the hardest trad line in the world right now (and the only one with a grade of 5.15).
Owning both the most hard ascents and the single hardest ascent makes Jacopo Larcher the best trad climber alive today.
Runner-ups:
- Beth Rodden
- Dave MacLeod
- Nico Favresse
- Tommy Caldwell
Big Wall Climbing
The best big wall climber alive today is Tommy Caldwell.
20 years later, the king still reigns.
Tommy Caldwell is the best big wall climber in history. He has set about 50% of the free routes on El Capitan, including the two monumental routes on the Dawn Wall (the largest, blanket wall in the world). He’s been climbing at a world-class level since he was 16 years old, and he’s yet to slow down.
Even now, when he should be well passed his physical prime, Caldwell continues to rack up accolades. He recently set the speed record on the Nose, became the first person to complete the Fitz traverse, and established New Dawn 5.13b (all with Alex Honnold as his companion).
Some runner-ups include:
- Adam Ondra
- Kevinn Jorgeson
- Emily Harrington
Bouldering
Nalle Hukkataival is currently the best boulderer around.
In a controversial decision, I’m going to go with the Finnish bouldering sensation Nalle Hukkataival as the best boulderer alive right now. Certainly, Nalle has the credentials to deserve this spot; he recently nabbed the first ascent of Burden of Dreams V17, the only boulder grade of that difficulty in the world.
He has the third most hard boulder ascents and the third most hard boulder FA’s in the world, putting him in some pretty elite company. Like I said, there are a lot of really good boulderers out there, but Nalle is currently the best.
Some notable runner-ups, any of who could make a very good argument to take Nalle’s spot:
- Daniel Woods
- Dai Koyamada
- Jimmy Webb
- Tomoa Narasaki
Crack Climbing
Pete Whittaker is the best crack climber in the world right now.
Crack climbing, which some consider to be one of the purest forms of climbing, is a sport for the hardcore and slightly masochistic members of the community.
Ironically, Pete Whittaker is neither of those things. The soft-spoken, baby-faced Brit crashed onto the climbing scene at 21 years old, when he and Tom Randall branded themselves as the Wide Boyz and sent every hard offwidth problem in the continental United States. From there, Pete has only continued to assert his dominance.
Other notable ascents like his rope solo of Freerider, his battle with Recovery Drink, and him and Tom’s project Crucifix have only helped to establish his dominance.
Runner-ups:
- Tom Randall
- Mason Earl
- Nico Favresse
- Will Stanhop