Alex Honnold hasn’t been sleeping much since he returned from the record-breaking adventure of climbing the nearly 1,700-foot Taipei 101 tower.
The American rock climber, 40, made history last month when he became the first person to free solo the skyscraper located in Taiwan’s capital, aired in real-time on Netflix’s Skyscraper Live.
In a new interview, Honnold opened up about returning to family life, including sleepless nights with his two-year-old daughter, Allie, who wakes him up every 45 minutes.
“She just learned how to get out of the crib [last night],” he told People. “So we have to redefine our sleep situation — I woke up, like, every 45 minutes. I watched through a tiny crack in the door after I put her to bed, and I just watched her. It looked effortless.”
Honnold said that despite his lack of sleep, he’s extremely grateful for his wife Sanni McCandless and their kids. The couple also have a four-year-old daughter, June.
“I’m way more tired, but family life is great,” he added. “It’s freaking awesome.”
The climber admitted that, since his children are still young, he’s not sure about how being a dad will affect his career, specifically his appetite for crazy adventures. “I think my capacity to take risks probably hasn’t changed that much yet,” he explained.
Built in 2004, Taipei 101 features mostly glass curtain walls, with balconies near the top that taper to a pointed peak. It was once considered the world’s tallest skyscraper before Dubai’s Burj Khalifa took the title in 2010. Taipei 101 now stands as the 11th-tallest building in the world.
Honnold’s event was originally scheduled to stream one day earlier than it did, but was delayed by 24 hours due to rain. While conditions in Taipei were dry enough for him to complete the challenge the next day, he still faced significant wind during the last stage of his climb.
Still, it only took Honnold one hour, 31 minutes and 43 seconds to complete the hair-raising stunt. The event ran on a 10-second delay, allowing Netflix to cut the feed if Honnold were to fall.
Many people were left intrigued by what McCandless’s internal thoughts were while her husband defied death with the climbing stunt, which she addressed in a press conference once Honnold had safely returned to land.
“I was telling someone that when you really love someone, and you think that they might be stressed, you say, ‘I wish I could take their place, I wish I could take their stress away.’”
But in this case, she could sum up her feelings in five words: “Thank God I’m not him!”
McCandless, 33, continued: “I knew the second he left the ground, it would all just, not fade away, but kind of get quieter, be more of an internal experience, and then just be joyful.”
Honnold is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock climbers in the world. With more than 30 years of experience, he rose to global prominence in 2017 after becoming the first person to free solo a full route up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — a feat later chronicled in the Oscar-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo.
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