The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life
Mark Synnott, 2019
Penguin Publishing
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101986646
Summary
In Mark Synnott’s unique window on the ethos of climbing, his friend Alex Honnold’s astonishing "free solo" ascent of El Capitan’s 3,000 feet of sheer granite, is the central act. ''
When Honnold topped out at 9:28 A.M. on June 3, 2017, having spent fewer than four hours on his historic ascent, the world gave a collective gasp.
The New York Times described it as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever."
Synnott’s personal history of his own obsession with climbing since he was a teenager—through professional climbing triumphs and defeats, and the dilemmas they render—makes this a deeply reported, enchanting revelation about living life to the fullest. What are we doing if not an impossible climb?
Synnott 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.
Painting an authentic, wry portrait of climbing history and profiling Yosemite heroes and the harlequin tribes of climbers known as the Stonemasters and the Stone Monkeys, Synnott weaves in his own experiences with poignant insight and wit: tensions burst on the mile-high northwest face of Pakistan’s Great Trango Tower; fellow climber Jimmy Chin miraculously persuades an 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, choreographed dance with nature.
Honnold dared far beyond the ordinary, beyond any climber in history. But this story of sublime heights is really about all of us. Who doesn’t need to face down fear and make the most of the time we have? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Mark Synnott is a twenty-year member of the North Face Global Athlete team. He is a frequent contributor to National Geographic magazine and has written for Outside, Men’s Journal, Rock and Ice, and Climbing. He is also an internationally certified mountain guide and a trainer for the Pararescuemen of the United States Air Force. He lives in the Mt. Washington Valley of New Hampshire. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The Impossible Climb is an accomplished portrait of two remarkable lives—but its major weakness, of both style and imagination, lies in Synnott’s depictions of women. Professional climbing is largely a man’s world, but rather than examine this dynamic as he does countless others, Synnott uses descriptions that further diminish and objectify the women he encounters.… Like a jazz record or a dog-eared book by Dostoyevsky, the women here are simply another tool for characterizing the men around them—as well as vehicles for Synnott’s fascination with the younger Honnold’s sex life. This fascination is shameless and enduring, fitting into themes of aging that build throughout the book.
Blair Braverman - New York Times Book Review
Readers will pick this up for Honnold but will be equally engrossed by Synnott's own adventures and writing. A worthy companion to Honnold's memoir Alone on the Wall and Tommy Caldwell's The Push.
Library Journal
[A] lot of plodding backstory between the climbs themselves; the book works best when exploring the psychological challenges of such harrowing endeavors. The 2018 documentary Free Solo captures Honnold’s story… in a more concise and visceral way.
Booklist
A thrills-and-chills—and occasional spills—view of the mad heroes of free climbing, scaling mountain faces without ropes. You'd have to be out of your mind to head up the 3,000-foot-high cliff face of Yosemite's El Capitan…. Fans of mountaineering will find this a winner.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE IMPOSSIBLE CLIMB … then take off on your own:
1. You could spend the entire discussion session attempting to answer this question: what motivates Alex Honnold desire to climb El Capitan? What drives his—or any extreme sports participant's—need for risk?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: Discuss the role of brain chemistry/structure, especially what studies have revealed about Honnold's amygdala. Does the fact that his brain is different make his climbing feats less remarkable? Or not? Is it the risk-taking that is impressive … or the finesse and skill involved? Actually, what most impressed you about the Honnold's climb: the detailed preparation, the in depth know-how, the ability to see fissures and cracks?
3. What do you think of Alex Honnold as a person: why does he describe himself as a "total loser"? Clearly he has the right stuff for climbing, but does he have the right stuff for ordinary living: the messiness and give-and-take of relationships; the dull routine of daily existence? A friend calls him selfish, obsessive? How would you describe him?
4. What do you think of Mark Synnott, the author? He talks about having been away frequently from his family and putting aside the "responsibilities of being a husband and father." Is his drive to climb self-indulgent to the point of selfish? Do you think his children will come to understand as they mature?
5. How would you describe the relationship between Mark and Alex?
6. Consider the tension between climbing as a solo art and the fact that it attracts a fair amount of media attention and corporate sponsors. How does Synnott see the juxtaposition?
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