© Ann Wang/Reuters via Imagn Images / iStockphoto / Tharakorn
Alex Honnold is a name that has been on everyone’s mind for weeks. He wowed millions of viewers worldwide after climbing the Taipei 101 skyscraper on Netflix, a feat watched by people all across the globe who held their breath as he scaled the 1,667 foot building.
After the Taipei 101 stunt, Alex Honnold went on a media tour including a live show on the Rich Roll Podcast and sitting down with Hasan Minhaj who asked Honnold the question that has been on everyone’s mind: what happens if nature calls while you are climbing?
Alex Honnold Explains What Happens When Nature Calls While Climbing
Just to be clear, Alex Honnold does not wear a diaper when he’s climbing. While that wouldn’t necessarily be ludicrous it would also be wildly unnecessary.
That would also require that Alex trains wearing a diaper because you never want to leave anything to chance when doing a free solo climb. And training while wearing a diaper is, in fact, ludicrous.
So what does he do? Well, he just finds the right spot to dangle and waits until there is nobody climbing underneath him. To be sure, there are a lot of follow-up questions that need to be asked here but Alex Honnold lays out what he does pretty clearly:
That same clip is up on TikTok if you’d prefer that over YouTube Shorts.
In His Own Words
Alex says he’s “never actually s–t” in his pants but adds that he has had a “lot of serious emergencies while rock climbing.” Honnold is referring to gastrointestinal emergencies. The kind where normally someone would run to the bathroom and handle things in a civilized manner.
However, when you are dangling from a rock face a thousand feet above the ground and your stomach starts making sounds like a rock tumbler mixed with the calls of a blue whale, what are you do to? Alex Honnold says he “you just like, freaking go.”
He adds the caveat that “you’re in nature so it doesn’t matter” which is interesting because depending on the wind direction there is a solid chance it comes back and hits the rocks where other climbers might ascend later. It could also get blown far enough into the air to float down to trails below. I think you can envision where my imagination is going here.
Alex added that one time he thinks he had Giardia when climbing, aka ‘Beaver Fever,’ which can lead to extreme stomach distress. Just some food for thought there.
The full interview with Alex can be seen here: