The most famous climber in the world took the most popular climbing YouTuber out for a day – little did he know he’d be free soloing 200 feet off of the ground!
This time Magnus went to Alex in Red Rocks, near Alex’s new hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. Initially, the plan wasn’t to free solo, but Alex managed to convince Magnus with a great route he assured him was “just like gym climbing“.
The route they climbed was Armatron in Juniper Canyon, a classic six-pitch 5.9 route. It’s 206 feet tall and there’s only one 5.9 – which features a finger-sized crack- with the rest of the route being easier.
It’s a trad route that Honnold has solo’d many times before, and overall looks like an excellent route with lots of places to place gear. Magnus seemed pretty confident on the whole thing, apart from the crack section on pitch 2. Watch the video below.
He’s more of a dynamic gym climber whereas Alex has spent years soloing cracks of all sizes. Magnus branched out into YouTube during the last few years of his competition climbing career where he took two medals in the IFSC World Cup.
Magnus Midtbo is probably the most well-known climber on YouTube, and was the first climber on the platform to reach 1 million subscribers! He just beat out Adam Ondra, who he also did videos with to celebrate.
Alex did most of the filming, looking utterly confident standing on tiny ledges.
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His content is a mix, featuring a lot of indoor bouldering where he sets challenges and visits gyms around the world. He also works in a lot of Ninja Warrior challenges with other popular YouTube creators like Anton Fomenko and Jujimufu.
That blend of content has really worked for him. He’s competed in Ninja Warrior competitions, launched his own brand of chalk bags and clothing – Rúngne – as well as opened an innovative bouldering gym – Rúngne Buldr – which uses light-up holds and Bluetooth to control routes.
Alex Honnold is of course the star of the award-winning documentary “Free Solo“. The film saw a younger Alex – still living in his van – contemplating the first free solo of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, via the Free Rider route.
The film was widely praised and won seven Emmys and the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2019. Since then, he’s continued to free solo and do a huge amount of climbing and adventure documentaries like “The Last Tepui“.
Alex and Magnus two had climbed before but in Magnus’s home country of Norway. However, they didn’t end up climbing together after a week of rain. The video also shows Magnus climbing his own 9a+ “Thor”, in the same cave where Adam Ondra bolted and climbed the hardest climbs in the world, Change 9b+ and Silence 9c.
