I have read many mountaineering books and there are similarly many technical climbing terms which do not detract from the story or the drama. Every sport has a Michael Jordan, the athlete whose fame stretches well beyond the playing field, and for climbing that person is Alex Honnold.

If there's a challenge for the proverbial 'nest generation', it would be free soloing Eternal Flame. 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. Alex Honnold's book is 'Alone on the Wall', with the 2018 edition having three extra chapters covering his El Cap climb.In 2007 he free soloed Yosemite's Astroman and the Rostrum in a day, matching Peter Croft's legendary 1987 feat, and suddenly Honnold was pretty well-known.

Alex is an eccentric and interesting character and the author uses him well as the narrative centerpiece. There is no doubting Honnold’s vast courage, but the foundation of that courage is one of confidence in his innate skill, not a haughty young adventurer’s bravado. If you’re new to the super human known as Alex Honnold, Alone On The Wall, is a good primer for the ongoing tale of the most famous climber the world has ever seen. On June 3rd, 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person to free solo Yosemite's El Capitan—to scale the wall without rope, a partner, or any protective gear—completing what was described as "the greatest feat of pure rock climbing in the history of the sport" ( National Geographic) and "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever" ( New York Times). Jack Geldard cuts through the hyperbole and reviews Alone on the Wall, by Alex Honnold and David Roberts.The book is well written and Mark Synnott did a great job telling the story and immersing the reader into the climbing culture. The question most readers will want to walk away from the book with—especially those who are not climbers and encountered Honnold firstly via a 60 Minutes feature on him or some magazine article—is simply enough, why does he do this?

Already one of the most famous adventure athletes in the world, Honnold has now been hailed as "the greatest climber of all time" ( Vertical magazine).I thought this was amazing as I read it until I mentioned it to Jimmy Chin, who told me that it was all fake. While Honnold is best known for his starring role in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, he has also appeared in several other films. Five months afterward, Honnold took the unprecedented step of free soloing the 2,000-foot (610m), glacially bulldozed Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. I didn’t really like the narrators tone, it was somewhat too casual, like he was pretending to speak as if he’s telling a story rather than reading it from an actual book. Got a little less interested in the narrative in the third quarter of the book, but over and all really enjoyed it.