Gold Wall with Honnold
When you haul all of your photo gear including one heavy-ass 200 ft static line, to the local crag, best case scenario is you find one of the world's best climbers doing something amazing and in the mood for having photos taken. So when I got to Gold Wall in Jamestown, CA and clipped the chains of my 5.9 warm-up only to look out across the crag and see Alex Honnold running up one climb after the other, I knew it was going to be a good day.
Jeff was on the DL after injuring his finger at Donner Summit a few weeks back so he also got in on the action, jugging the static line and taking shots (many of these photos are his, especially the one's of me).
After working the warm-ups, we moved left and set up shop near Suburia and Hillbilly Limestone. Now I'm not sure if it was Diane's doing but I'm assuming it was tactical because she was the first one to move left. We set up our gear right near where Honnold and crew were, so every time he would get tired of going from climb to climb, he would sit down next to us, continue eating his bag of Gold Fish and shoot the shit with us. Apparently his goal was to climb all 43 established routes at Gold Wall that day. The fucking machine did it too! I never saw him fall once and he would go from 5.12 to 5.12, not taking a break in between. All clean.
Diane attempted to send Hillbilly Limestone (5.12d?) a few times trying to get it clean, but came off right at the top. I top-roped it after she left the rope up and I couldn't believe how fucking hard it was. I thrutched my way up, the compression moves on the overhang draining the strength out of my body.
Watching Alex do what he does was kind of a mind fuck. I feel like I'm a strong climber with fairly good endurance, but watching him was truly inspiring and my psych to climb was definitely given a boost that Sunday.
As we were packing up, Honnold came back over, finishing the last of his Gold Fish and asked us if we had any water. Jeff offered a sip from his Camelback in exchange for a photo-op. Alex was flying out to Patagonia the very next day to join Tommy Caldwell and I can only imagine what sick and amazing things those boys will do this season. What I do know is, that he inspired me. As much as I love crack, I need to sport climb harder. So I spent the following Monday at the gym for four hours leading up route after route working on my endurance. If he can do it, so can I right? Well, maybe not but at least I can try.