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The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life
The climbing community had long considered a "free solo" ascent of El Capitan an impossible feat so far beyond human limits that it was not worth thinking about. When Alex Honnold topped out at 9:28 am on June 3, 2017, having spent fewer than four hours on his historic ascent, the world gave a collective gasp. His friend Tommy Caldwell, who free climbed (with a rope) the nearby Dawn Wall in 2015, called Alex's ascent "the moon landing of free soloing." The New York Times described it as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." It was "almost unbearable to watch," writes Synnott.
This majestic work of personal history delves into a raggedy culture that emerged decades earlier during Yosemite's Golden Age, when pioneering climbers like Royal Robbins and Warren Harding invented the sport that Honnold would turn on its ear. Synnott paints an authentic, wry portrait of climbing history, profiling Yosemite heroes John Bachar, Peter Croft, Dean Potter, and the harlequin tribe of climbers known as the Stonemasters. A veteran of the North Face climbing team and contributor to National Geographic, Synnott weaves in his own amateur and professional experiences with poignant insight and wit. Tensions burst on the mile-high northwest face of Pakistan's Great Trango Tower; photographer/climber Jimmy Chin miraculously persuades an intransigent official in the Borneo jungle to allow Honnold's first foreign expedition, led by Synnott, to continue; armed bandits accost the same trio at the foot of a tower in the Chad desert . . .
The Impossible Climb is an emotional drama driven by people exploring the limits of human potential and seeking a perfect, dialed-in dance with nature. They dare beyond the ordinary, but this story of the sublime is really about all of us. Who doesn't need to face down fear and make the most of the time we have?
This majestic work of personal history delves into a raggedy culture that emerged decades earlier during Yosemite's Golden Age, when pioneering climbers like Royal Robbins and Warren Harding invented the sport that Honnold would turn on its ear. Synnott paints an authentic, wry portrait of climbing history, profiling Yosemite heroes John Bachar, Peter Croft, Dean Potter, and the harlequin tribe of climbers known as the Stonemasters. A veteran of the North Face climbing team and contributor to National Geographic, Synnott weaves in his own amateur and professional experiences with poignant insight and wit. Tensions burst on the mile-high northwest face of Pakistan's Great Trango Tower; photographer/climber Jimmy Chin miraculously persuades an intransigent official in the Borneo jungle to allow Honnold's first foreign expedition, led by Synnott, to continue; armed bandits accost the same trio at the foot of a tower in the Chad desert . . .
The Impossible Climb is an emotional drama driven by people exploring the limits of human potential and seeking a perfect, dialed-in dance with nature. They dare beyond the ordinary, but this story of the sublime is really about all of us. Who doesn't need to face down fear and make the most of the time we have?
416 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2019
364 people are currently reading
3727 people want to read
About the author
Mark Synnott
5 books110 followersExcerpt from Mark's :
"Mark Synnott is a New York Times bestselling author, a pioneering big wall climber and one of the most prolific adventurers of his generation. His search for unclimbed and unexplored rock walls has taken him on more than 30 expeditions to places like Alaska, Baffin Island, Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, Patagonia, Guyana, Venezuela, Pakistan, Nepal, India, China, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Russia, Cameroon, Chad, Borneo, Oman and Pitcairn Island. Closer to home, Mark has climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan 24 times, including several one-day ascents."
Author image: © Paul Reitano, used here by permission of the author
"Mark Synnott is a New York Times bestselling author, a pioneering big wall climber and one of the most prolific adventurers of his generation. His search for unclimbed and unexplored rock walls has taken him on more than 30 expeditions to places like Alaska, Baffin Island, Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, Patagonia, Guyana, Venezuela, Pakistan, Nepal, India, China, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Russia, Cameroon, Chad, Borneo, Oman and Pitcairn Island. Closer to home, Mark has climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan 24 times, including several one-day ascents."
Author image: © Paul Reitano, used here by permission of the author
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 343 reviews
December 28, 2018
Written by an accomplished fellow climber, this story of the historic rope-free climb of Yosemite's El Capitan by Alex Honnold is fascinating and full of interesting info about the technical aspects of the climb, as well as the climbing world in general. Honnold had been obsessed with climbing El Capitan for 9 years, nearly a third of his life, and had analyzed and practiced every aspect of the route repeatedly. Those who think it was a crazy, impulsive act could not be more wrong. Alex was famous for being able to "put fear in a box and set it on an out-of-the-way shelf in the back of his mind." It wasn't true that he was fearless; he had just learned how to set aside that fear and concentrate on the task at hand. Each of the most challenging areas of the climb were mapped out extensively in the notebook he updated after every climb, and reviewed relentlessly. He knew exactly where he would put his fingers, hands, toes and feet on every part of the climb.
Though the climb itself took just under 4 hours, the book is nearly 400 pages long and includes Honnold's childhood and climbing history, as well as the background of those who supported him, and even those who climbed parallel to him with cameras strapped to them to record the event. There is plenty of coverage of the dangers of the sport as well, including a number of stories of those who perished during their climbs.
The book is quite technical, including a lot of jargon and technical terms about climbing: anchors, belay, transitions, hitch, carabiner, sling, crux, crimps, pitch, open book, horizontal flake, anchor point, full ape index, mini-tracking, ascenders, crux clab pitches, redpointing, beta, death zone, flow state, tension traverse, etc.
The author is very articulate and well-versed in all aspects of climbing around the world, as well as the expectations and demands of the sponsors who make it possible for professional climbers to achieve notoriety and financial success. Coincidentally, just as I was finishing this book, the National Geographic movie, "Free Solo" was being screened at a local theater, and I watched the film, which is a perfect complement to this book.
Though the climb itself took just under 4 hours, the book is nearly 400 pages long and includes Honnold's childhood and climbing history, as well as the background of those who supported him, and even those who climbed parallel to him with cameras strapped to them to record the event. There is plenty of coverage of the dangers of the sport as well, including a number of stories of those who perished during their climbs.
The book is quite technical, including a lot of jargon and technical terms about climbing: anchors, belay, transitions, hitch, carabiner, sling, crux, crimps, pitch, open book, horizontal flake, anchor point, full ape index, mini-tracking, ascenders, crux clab pitches, redpointing, beta, death zone, flow state, tension traverse, etc.
The author is very articulate and well-versed in all aspects of climbing around the world, as well as the expectations and demands of the sponsors who make it possible for professional climbers to achieve notoriety and financial success. Coincidentally, just as I was finishing this book, the National Geographic movie, "Free Solo" was being screened at a local theater, and I watched the film, which is a perfect complement to this book.
December 10, 2023
For those of you who have been following me for a few years, you know I'm an armchair adventurer. I love these climbing stories and this one really gets into the history of climbing in Yosemite and the reasons people love it. Of course there's coverage on Alex Honnold's free solo which is amazing.
January 21, 2019
I enjoy reading books on mountaineering and climbing even though I would never be able to do the incredible things these athletes do. Therefore, I was very interested in this story - how could someone climb that part of Yosemite without the aid of roles and other equipment? As far as THAT went, this book delivered on that promise.
However, the journey to get there was tedious. There were a LOT of stories that were more about the author and his climbing career instead of Alex, although when Alex was the subject, it was entertaining. Also, most books I have read on the sport are written in language not too technical so readers who are not climbers can understand better. That wasn't the case with this book as I was frequently flipping back to remember what what being discussed or what certain terms meant.I
Since I did finish the book and the story is gripping, I give this book a.passing grade.of three stars, but would recommend only readers who are climbers or have an advanced knowledge of the sport read it. I obtained this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
However, the journey to get there was tedious. There were a LOT of stories that were more about the author and his climbing career instead of Alex, although when Alex was the subject, it was entertaining. Also, most books I have read on the sport are written in language not too technical so readers who are not climbers can understand better. That wasn't the case with this book as I was frequently flipping back to remember what what being discussed or what certain terms meant.I
Since I did finish the book and the story is gripping, I give this book a.passing grade.of three stars, but would recommend only readers who are climbers or have an advanced knowledge of the sport read it. I obtained this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
February 16, 2019
A look at events leading up to Alex Honnold's free solo of El Capitan, described by the New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." Big wall climber and alpinist Mark Synnott, a self-described old silverback to his young alpha climbing friend of ten years, has enriched this story immeasurably by expanding the scope of the book beyond Honnold to include climbing history, personal memoir, and a cast of colorful characters that includes Alex Lowe, Jimmy Chin, Warren Harding, John Bachar and Dean Potter, as well as stories of climbs and expeditions around the world. If all you care about is Honnold, climbing's It boy of the moment, then just go read the expanded edition of Alone on the Wall and watch Free Solo over and over. Those with a deeper curiosity should love this book, even though it's sure to inspire arguments and discussion among the climbing tribe.
March 11, 2020
El Capitan, also known as El Cap, is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite. The granite monolith is about 914m high and is a legendary mountain for rock climbers. It took 47 days to climb it the first time, and it was considered amongst the community of climbers that a ‘free solo’ attempt would be so far beyond human limits and endurance that it was virtually impossible.
Climbing with a rope is pretty dangerous stuff, but climbing without is borderline insane in my opinion. People have been doing it for a while though, and Synnott’s book takes us back to the origins of free climbing with Royal Robbins and Warren Harding as well as potted histories of the men known as the Stonemasters who made the Yosemite peaks their own. But this book is primarily about the rise and rise of Alex Honnold, who took the discipline of free solo climbing to another level literally.
In June 2017, Honnold surpassed himself, by ascending El Cap without a rope in under four hours.
This achievement was seen as staggering across the climbing community and brought numerous accolades for this. For those watching, it was a constant heart in mouth moment though.
In lots of ways I liked this book, Synnott is a climbing insider and knows all the people that were involved in this as well as being steeped in the history of climbing in that part of the USA. He writes well too. The very end of the book is incredibly fast-paced as describes the climb and the emotions going through all of those watching him ascend. However, I felt it was a little too stretched out as it took a long time to get to that point. Not a bad book overall. 3.5 stars
Climbing with a rope is pretty dangerous stuff, but climbing without is borderline insane in my opinion. People have been doing it for a while though, and Synnott’s book takes us back to the origins of free climbing with Royal Robbins and Warren Harding as well as potted histories of the men known as the Stonemasters who made the Yosemite peaks their own. But this book is primarily about the rise and rise of Alex Honnold, who took the discipline of free solo climbing to another level literally.
In June 2017, Honnold surpassed himself, by ascending El Cap without a rope in under four hours.
This achievement was seen as staggering across the climbing community and brought numerous accolades for this. For those watching, it was a constant heart in mouth moment though.
In lots of ways I liked this book, Synnott is a climbing insider and knows all the people that were involved in this as well as being steeped in the history of climbing in that part of the USA. He writes well too. The very end of the book is incredibly fast-paced as describes the climb and the emotions going through all of those watching him ascend. However, I felt it was a little too stretched out as it took a long time to get to that point. Not a bad book overall. 3.5 stars
June 14, 2019
Wow just finished this. I picked this up after watching Free Solo and was thinking this would be more of a behind the scenes look. This book was not that . This is really just the author’s story of his experiences and trips with Alex Honnold and a lot of the author’s climbing stories too.
I did really enjoy the section on the bloody history of Yoesmite.
I found a good part of this book to be really long and feeling like a collection of news articles stitched together.... which if you read the Author’s Note at the end that is exactly what this book is, he took articles “verbatim” and put them into this book.
So in the end, this book is really long, wanders around on topics and probably needed to be edited down 100 pages. I am glad I finished it though.
I did really enjoy the section on the bloody history of Yoesmite.
I found a good part of this book to be really long and feeling like a collection of news articles stitched together.... which if you read the Author’s Note at the end that is exactly what this book is, he took articles “verbatim” and put them into this book.
So in the end, this book is really long, wanders around on topics and probably needed to be edited down 100 pages. I am glad I finished it though.
December 20, 2022
Every so often I encounter a book that hooks me at the start, and then for whatever reason, it loses its luster for me and I put it aside. On occasion, books like that never get finished although that is more of a rarity for me - I almost always give a book another shot. The Impossible Climb started out this way. I began reading it earlier this year, got about 20% into it, and lost interest, put it down where it sat unhappily for the next six months. I just could not get into the story, much of the first several chapters revolved around the author's own childhood with side yarns about other rock climbing guys (yea, pretty much all dudes) in the 70's and 80's. Yet somehow, some way, the book called out to me from my book shelves and when I picked it up again last week, I read it nearly straight through after starting from the beginning all over again. Alex Honnold's story captivated me in some way. As I have discovered time and time again, I love reading non-fiction stories about adventurers, and people who live on the edge, in this case literally. They are not necessarily admirable, some are not good and fine people, but their perseverance, grit and laser-like focus are fascinating.
May 10, 2022
I enjoyed reading this! I liked the pieces on the history of climbing/Yosemite culture and insights into Honnold's childhood.
February 20, 2025
Finished this book like god intended.. smoking a spirit in El Cap Meadow staring at my favorite rock … man I just can’t wait to get up there. Big wall climbing is the only thing I care to do right now and this story was insanely inspiring. A bit tedious but I loved learning more about Yosemite dirtbags (my people fr) and I also loved the bit about if Honnold’s amygdala was firing differently and how he controls his fear. I kinda wanna free solo now ngl. It was probably a bad idea for me to read this book. \_(ツ)_/¯ see you guys on the flip
July 5, 2019
A very interesting book on the world of climbing, with a focus on Alex Honnold and his successful free solo of El Capitan in Yosemite. Some reviewers have knocked the book for not focusing entirely on the free solo attempt, but I liked that it included other climbing stories and information. I learned a lot and enjoyed the book, even though I'm not a climber of any kind. The book is well written and Mark Synnott did a great job telling the story and immersing the reader into the climbing culture. I look forward to his next book.
April 11, 2019
Very inspirational insight into Honnold’s outlook on climbing and life in general. I enjoyed reading about a subject that I previously knew nothing about and really had little interest in. At times I got a little tired of all the technical talk about climbing but overall enjoyed learning about the history of climbing a many of the major players in the climbing world!
October 30, 2019
I love most climbing and mountaineering books, but this one just wasn’t up to par. It was oddly “bro-y” —lots of strange stories about Alex Honnold having sex with women, and verbatim recordings of meaningless conversations with him. The author was completely unintrospective and came off like a real prick. I’d say skip this book and watch Free Solo instead.
December 17, 2019
I loved the Oscar winning documentary Free Solo about Alex Honnold amazing free solo. Thus, I was excited to read this book. However, the title is a bit of a misnomer as much of the book is about the author and other climbers. This left me dissappointed. The last third of the book is more of what I was expecting from the book overall. Still interesting but not what I signed on for.
May 23, 2024
Gives so much good background that they couldn’t have fit into the film. Full of adventure but found myself losing interest during parts in the first half that didn’t relate to the El Cap free solo.
July 7, 2024
Mindboggling and jaw-dropping. This is a fascinating look into the history of mountain climbing and especially free soloing. It's hard to grasp the idea that someone would willingly climb thousands of feet up a cliff face *with* ropes, much less do it multiple times *without* safety devices.
April 24, 2023
i feel like i was just beat over the head with the history of everything that has happened in rock climbing ever. the only thing that kept me going was the stonemonkeys and alex honnold.
February 7, 2020
“Peter Croft once explained the feeling you get from free soloing as a heightened type of perception. A little edge that you need to stand on looks huge—everything comes into high relief. That’s just what happens to your body and your mind when you’re focused intensely on the feedback you’re getting from the environment and there are no other distractions. You become an instinctive animal rather than a person trying to do a hard climb, and that perception doesn’t immediately go away when you get to the top. It dulls over time, but for a while it feels like you almost have super senses. Everything is more intense—the sounds of the swifts flying around or the colors of the sun going down. A lot of times I don’t want to go down, I don’t want it to end.”
I just finished up Mark Synnott's book on the history of rock climbing, which focuses on Alex Honnold's historic "free solo" of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, documented by the Oscar-winning movie, "Free Solo" released in 2018.
This quote seems to be one of the most poignant in the entire book. It captures something in the way of "why" these free solo climbers do what they do. Pushing themselves to the limit, requiring complete focus, mind and body, to do one of the hardest climbs in the world without any ropes, without any falls or errors, and the risk being immediate death.
There is an aspect of "flow" in the focusing that creates a "high" because of the complete concentration and the complete exertion. Upon completion there is both the sense of accomplishment, but also the heightened senses from the "fight or flight" response triggered by fear and the gravity of what you are attempting.
I am both in awe of what has been accomplished by climbers like Honnold, Tommy Caldwell, and others, but also understand that I would never take unnecessary risks that they subject themselves to on these climbs. While Synnott points out that Honnold has a personalized "risk calculus" in his climbing, due to his training and practice, but despite that, there are always inherent risks in anything we do.
Today, we got over a foot of snow, and I still had to go into work. Driving in that is a risky proposition. This book was multilayered as it looked into the history of rock climbing, but also the psychological aspects of climbing, risk, and what it means to really live. What I am living for is drastically different than what Honnold is living for and values. I was surprised by how much the book made me look deeper into those ideas and view the sport of rock climbing in a completely new light.
I received this as an eBook from PENGUIN GROUP Dutton via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of the title. I did not receive any compensation from either company. The opinions expressed herein are completely my own.
I just finished up Mark Synnott's book on the history of rock climbing, which focuses on Alex Honnold's historic "free solo" of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, documented by the Oscar-winning movie, "Free Solo" released in 2018.
This quote seems to be one of the most poignant in the entire book. It captures something in the way of "why" these free solo climbers do what they do. Pushing themselves to the limit, requiring complete focus, mind and body, to do one of the hardest climbs in the world without any ropes, without any falls or errors, and the risk being immediate death.
There is an aspect of "flow" in the focusing that creates a "high" because of the complete concentration and the complete exertion. Upon completion there is both the sense of accomplishment, but also the heightened senses from the "fight or flight" response triggered by fear and the gravity of what you are attempting.
I am both in awe of what has been accomplished by climbers like Honnold, Tommy Caldwell, and others, but also understand that I would never take unnecessary risks that they subject themselves to on these climbs. While Synnott points out that Honnold has a personalized "risk calculus" in his climbing, due to his training and practice, but despite that, there are always inherent risks in anything we do.
Today, we got over a foot of snow, and I still had to go into work. Driving in that is a risky proposition. This book was multilayered as it looked into the history of rock climbing, but also the psychological aspects of climbing, risk, and what it means to really live. What I am living for is drastically different than what Honnold is living for and values. I was surprised by how much the book made me look deeper into those ideas and view the sport of rock climbing in a completely new light.
I received this as an eBook from PENGUIN GROUP Dutton via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of the title. I did not receive any compensation from either company. The opinions expressed herein are completely my own.
June 30, 2020
Great book outlining the history of climbing, the importance of Yosemite, characters of the climbing world, and the "moon-landing of free solos"
October 8, 2019
I listened to most of this book on audio while training on a campus board, so it was extra fun and motivating to learn about some of the most epic climbs attempted to date. A central event of the book is Alex Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan, but Synnott includes many of climbing’s most central personalities and their respective adventures. Whenever I read a book or see a movie centered around climbing culture, I get the feeling that even if I wasn’t obsessed with the sport, the characters are so charismatic and funny that I’d love these books/movies anyway.
This book is fine, a fairly interesting read, but there are simply better alternatives available that keep me from recommending it. Synnott seems torn between writing a memoir of his own adventures in climbing (in kind of a self-deprecating way), and writing this “free solo of El Cap” centered story. The two don’t really mesh together all that well. So if you’re interested in learning about Mark Synnott, this might be a good choice, but if you’re interested in rock climbing culture, and specifically Honnold’s free solo of El Cap, just watch Free Solo. The film does an outstanding job detailing not only the climb, but also Honnold’s character. One of the selling points of this book is that Synnott has known Honnold as a friend for a few years, so he knows him pretty well, but Honnold isn’t exactly elusive, he’s written an autobiography and speaks extensively about his motivations in the movie Free Solo.
In short, fine book for a climber obsessed with climbing culture, but I’d recommend watching all the Sender Films movies instead (Reel Rock series, Valley Uprising, Free Solo, etc).
This book is fine, a fairly interesting read, but there are simply better alternatives available that keep me from recommending it. Synnott seems torn between writing a memoir of his own adventures in climbing (in kind of a self-deprecating way), and writing this “free solo of El Cap” centered story. The two don’t really mesh together all that well. So if you’re interested in learning about Mark Synnott, this might be a good choice, but if you’re interested in rock climbing culture, and specifically Honnold’s free solo of El Cap, just watch Free Solo. The film does an outstanding job detailing not only the climb, but also Honnold’s character. One of the selling points of this book is that Synnott has known Honnold as a friend for a few years, so he knows him pretty well, but Honnold isn’t exactly elusive, he’s written an autobiography and speaks extensively about his motivations in the movie Free Solo.
In short, fine book for a climber obsessed with climbing culture, but I’d recommend watching all the Sender Films movies instead (Reel Rock series, Valley Uprising, Free Solo, etc).
July 18, 2021
This is a great book if you are interested in the limits of human athletic performance. Although it is ostensibly about Alex Honnhold's mind-blowing free solo ascent of El Capitan, it's actually an examination of all the discoveries, errors and achievements by his predecessors that led to this crowning achievement.
The book is 400 pages long, but very well written and continuously engaging. The individual profiles of climbers and their unique accomplishments are surprisingly interesting. Sadly, many of them end up dead by the end of the book because they make one mistake pushing the limits of their capabilities.
You might choose to avoid this book if you are not interested in rock climbing or mountaineering. I think that might be a mistake as the book is as much about psychology and the process of gaining and distributing hard won knowledge.
Of course, the book's description of Honnhold's truly unique accomplishment will likely give you vertigo.
The book is 400 pages long, but very well written and continuously engaging. The individual profiles of climbers and their unique accomplishments are surprisingly interesting. Sadly, many of them end up dead by the end of the book because they make one mistake pushing the limits of their capabilities.
You might choose to avoid this book if you are not interested in rock climbing or mountaineering. I think that might be a mistake as the book is as much about psychology and the process of gaining and distributing hard won knowledge.
Of course, the book's description of Honnhold's truly unique accomplishment will likely give you vertigo.
May 10, 2019
Mark Synnott lives in my community, and it was a pleasure to hear him speak about his life as a climber, an adventurer, and his friendship with Alex Honnold, the subject of the award winning documentary Free Solo. I had seen the film as had most of the members of the standing-room only crowd, but Mark’s talk was much more than a discussion of Alex’s accomplishment. Mark spoke about growing up in the Mount Washington Valley, his exploits as a teenager, and how he was drawn to become a climber. He does the same in this book, writing about his own life while weaving in the history and evolution of the sport of rock-climbing, its culture, and the celebrities of the sport, including Alex. Non climbers might get bogged down in the technicalities, especially the rating system of climbs, but don’t let these details stop you from continuing this fascinating and suspenseful book..
May 10, 2019
I am a fan of books about climbing (e.g., "Into Thin Air" which is the best of Krakauer, in my opinion). This book started out really well- lots of explanations about the origin and development of free climbing, and about the personalities and rivalries in the sport. The author went to great pains to include his own story, which really personalized the book, and to explain terminology as he went along. Alas, the last quarter of the book is about Alex Honnold and his El Capitan solo, which totally overwhelmed this reader with technical climbing details with no explanations, to the point of being totally boring. Can't say I ever developed any connection with Honnold, either, which didn't help. So this book ended up being a disappointment, and I had to really grit my teeth to finish it.
May 20, 2019
The author's note at the end explained why the book seemed so disjointed; the chapters are taken from the author's pieces he wrote over the years for different publications. The book jumps around in time and to a lot of different climbers. I didn't like how only one woman climber was written about; I know there are a lot of women climbers out there and I got annoyed with the focus on the men. I also didn't like the stories about some of the climbers' exploits, like stealing the food from the church group picnic. I think those tales were supposed to be amusing but I thought the climbers seemed like jerks. It's clear the author is starry-eyed when it comes to Honnold, so I felt like I was reading a sort of love letter at times, like it was too personal. I clearly wasn't the target audience for this book.
October 18, 2019
This was my introduction into the world of climbing in general and free soloing specifically. Alex is an eccentric and interesting character and the author uses him well as the narrative centerpiece.
I appreciated reading about the author's interest in the books Alex was reading when they would meet up. From The Brothers Karamazov to Sapiens I could definitely relate to his interests.
The downside of this book is a sport like climbing has its inherent jargon that the author usually doesn't bother himself to explain, leaving the newcomer to search Google: "What does it mean to 'barndoor' while climbing?"
The culture and history of climbing are discussed as well as some of the ethical dilemmas of being a climber, filming a climber, and how celebrity introduces a complexity to the sport.
Overall a fascinating read that has encouraged me to dig deeper into the sport.
I appreciated reading about the author's interest in the books Alex was reading when they would meet up. From The Brothers Karamazov to Sapiens I could definitely relate to his interests.
The downside of this book is a sport like climbing has its inherent jargon that the author usually doesn't bother himself to explain, leaving the newcomer to search Google: "What does it mean to 'barndoor' while climbing?"
The culture and history of climbing are discussed as well as some of the ethical dilemmas of being a climber, filming a climber, and how celebrity introduces a complexity to the sport.
Overall a fascinating read that has encouraged me to dig deeper into the sport.
April 1, 2019
The Impossible Climb, isn't just about men or women climbing a mountain, no this is about El Capitan, a sheer rock formation 3,000 feet from base to summit, many have tried to climb and have. succeeded. but over 30 fatalities have been recorded. It has a sheer glacial rock face. which makes it hard to climb.. Alex Honnold , in 1917 not only. climbed El Catitan, but he did it with no equipment, and in just under four hours he reached the summit. It was filmed for National Geographic, and called FREE SOLO,
The Impossible Climb not only tells his story, but that of other climbers, it's amazing read.
The Impossible Climb not only tells his story, but that of other climbers, it's amazing read.
August 20, 2019
I was disappointed in The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life, as the title was false advertising. Having watched the documentary Free Solo, I became interested in reading this book to learn more about Alex Honnold. Unfortunately, The Impossible Climb is more about the author, his climbing experience, and the history of climbing in general. The book suffers from a lack of organization, made even more difficult with the audio version. It is clear that Mark Synnott knows the climbing world, but this book lost me early on and never regained its footing.
January 4, 2021
This book contains marvelous storytelling. I have extremely limited climbing experience, so some of the technical terms were sometimes lost on me, but Mark Synnott's ability to describe the physical and mental experience that goes into these extreme endeavors put me on the mountains beside him. And in a time when so many of us want to travel, this book was the perfect escape to visit some beautiful landscapes and travel across the world. If you love adventure and want to step into the shoes of the climbing world, this is a great book for you.
June 11, 2019
4 stars for the half of the book that actually talks about Alex Honnold and his amazing free solo of El Capitan. 2 stars for the other half of the book, wherein the author talks extensively about his own climbing past, hero-worships a bunch of jerks, smears another climber in a highly biased recounting of a particular trip, and fetishizes an intentionally nameless Malaysian woman.
April 14, 2023
This was EASILY one of my favorite non-fiction books. Even though a large part focused on Alex Honnold, I really enjoyed the tidbits of climbing culture in the beginning and middle of the book. I usually climb indoors, but this book has absolutely convinced me to start climbing outside some (though it's a bit hard where I live). Everyone -- even people who don't climb -- should read this.
April 11, 2019
Loved this more for the climbing stories I missed in the 90's with Steve House, Mark Twight, Jared Ogden, Alex Lowe, Michael Reardon than just the Alex Honnold component alone. Recommended read for fans of the sport and history of climbing.
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