How Does Alex Honnold Manage to Be Everything Everywhere All at Once?

Lately, it seems as though Alex Honnold is everything everywhere all at once—even more than usual. He’s hosting a new season of the podcast Planet Visionaries. In his backyard, he’s been sending hard, including a 5.14d project. Two daughters under age four demand his attention (during this interview, he was dropping one off at school, and the other rattled away in the background). He also supports solar development around the world through his foundation. To top it all off, just a few days ago, he survived a livestreamed free solo of a skyscraper.

Just a few weeks after ticking Taipei 101, Honnold is also hosting a new travel show: Get a Little Out There With Alex Honnold. Streaming on OutsideTV starting February 26, this new five-part series sets out to prove that Nevada is an underrated state for travelers—and climbers.

The series, orchestrated by Travel Nevada, takes Honnold to both the incredible and the absurd corners of the state he calls home. But he also got to do some climbing with two longtime partners who appear as guest stars. In one episode, a storm nearly shuts down Honnold and Cedar Wright from an adventure climbing objective in Great Basin National Park. And Tommy Caldwell—who recently moved from his longtime home of Estes Park, CO to South Lake Tahoe, joins him for more climbing around the state.

Compared to, say, engagements halfway around the world in Taiwan, Honnold said it was “a real pleasure” to shoot Get a Little Out There. “I was really into the show,” he said. “I do love Nevada and it’s a total pleasure to road trip around home.”

We caught up with Honnold to get the word on the climbing he discovered (beyond Red Rock), his best tips for climbers in Nevada, and whether he thinks clowns or free soloing 5.11 slab is more terrifying.

6 Questions With Alex Honnold on Nevada

Climbing: Is Las Vegas the most underrated “climbing town” in the U.S.?

Alex Honnold: Definitely. Vegas is for sure the best climbing in the country. It’s not totally underrated, because Red Rock is an international destination. But there are surprisingly few climbers here given the array of climbing.

Nevada in general is the most mountainous state in the contiguous U.S.. Everyone thinks of the desert and the Strip. But there’s high desert with mountains everywhere. There’s rock everywhere.

Climbing: What’s your best tip for climbers to get “out there” in Nevada? Any underrated routes or secret crags you want to share?

Honnold: There’s so much rock that nobody knows about. One of the areas that we visited was The Wild Granites. They call it the Fitz Roy of Nevada. It’s not quite Fitz Roy, but it is epic. As you’re driving, there’s this giant rock in the distance, with granite spires all around it.

Nobody’s heard of it. We climbed it for the show. It’s a 10-pitch, 5.13a trad climb on a granite face—straight out of Tuolumne [in Yosemite]. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.

In one of the episodes, as I was driving north of Ely, I was following Google Maps and I saw these columnar basalt things all around me. I’d never heard of it. It wasn’t on Mountain Project. I didn’t see anchors. You get a lot of that in Nevada. If you’re feeling adventurous, there’s literally rock everywhere.

Climbing: When you visited Great Basin National Park, did you scope out any climbing? And did you get to climb anywhere else while filming?

Honnold: Great Basin had a beautiful landscape—really impressive—but it’s not classic climbing. When we got there, it had just stormed. There was snow over everything. It felt very alpine. I don’t think Great Basin is going to be a climbing destination. It’s remote mountains with not much information or trails. There are probably no 5.13 big walls, but it for sure has 5.7 adventure routes.

I climbed there with Cedar. We were aspiring to just go quest up the middle of the wall, up the face, with all those mixed routes. The road was closed, so we hiked an extra 3,000 feet of vert. It all felt a little more epic. There were 50mph winds. It was like, “This is enough of an adventure.”

I also did a little climbing in Red Rock just to highlight home sweet home. And we hiked up Mt. Charleston, then went to the Ruby Crest. It was supposed to be a big adventure, but it turned into a snow adventure. It stormed quite a lot. We climbed a bunch of random things.

Climbing: With this new show, your podcasts, your recent Netflix project, and your foundation—not to mention two kids—how do you juggle at all? And how do you squeeze actual climbing into your busy life?

Honnold: I’m just freaking panicked all the time [laughs]. I run a tight ship. I do a couple hours of this, a couple hours of that. It has been a particularly busy fall—a little hectic. Over the summer, I spent two months in Tahoe with the family, training. And I’m going out sport climbing this afternoon.

Climbing: Aside from all these projects, what are your top climbing goals, plans, or trips for 2026?

Honnold: I’m going to take a family trip to the Font [France’s Fontainebleau] mostly so our two little girls can play and boulder. Then another Yosemite season. I had a pretty nice Yosemite season this year for the first time since having kids. We don’t have any other set plans—no expeditions.

Climbing: What’s scarier: Free-soloing 5.11+ slab or visiting Nevada’s Clown Motel?

Honnold: Definitely soloing slab. The Clown Motel—wow, it’s really different. But I was into that stuff. I like that quirkiness. I wouldn’t necessarily stay in the motel, but there were a bunch of people staying there who were into it. Between takes, we were hanging out in the parking lot and one of the guys staying at the Clown Motel had a giant clown tattooed on his thigh. He’d come from Indianapolis and was just really into clowns. I was like, “Wow this is a freaking life experience.”

Catch Get a Little Out There With Alex Honnold on Outside TV starting February 26. New episodes drop weekly.

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