If you know any two rock climbers by name, they’re probably Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell. The elite climbing duo have repeatedly captured the world’s attention with bonkers accomplishments, from their traverse of the Fitzroy range in Patagonia to an epic enchainment in Rocky Mountain National Park. It doesn’t hurt that their jocular dynamic makes insanely dangerous adventures feel like Hollywood buddy comedies.
Now climbing’s odd couple might face their biggest challenge yet: riding bicycles really, really far.
According to their social media posts, Caldwell and Honnold plan on cycling from Colorado to Alaska. The 2,000-mile trip will also include some climbing (no details yet) and learning about climate change’s impact on the environment.
“A couple days ago Alex and I set off on what I think is likely to become our biggest adventure (at least in terms of calorie expenditure) to date,” Caldwell wrote on Instagram over the weekend. “We have some ambitious climbing objectives, and we’ll be passing through a bunch of environmentally sensitive areas. I figure if you want to learn to love the planet enough to find ways to protect it, sometimes you need to immerse yourself in it as deeply as possible.”
Honnold, Caldwell Ride to Alaska
Honnold and Caldwell have delivered both laughs and awe with two major documentaries: “A Line Across the Sky” (the Patagonian traverse) and “Cuddle” (the Rocky Mountain enchainment). The two even host their own MasterClass on climbing.
So it should come as no surprise that their latest adventure will also result in a film — this time with Honnold’s name on the masthead. Speaking at the Sheffield DocFest in the U.K. last week, Honnold said the two-wheeled tour will culminate with “a difficult climb in Alaska.”
The U.K. event included a panel discussion with National Geographic executives, who outlined several upcoming documentaries that will feature Honnold.
The Alaska trip with Caldwell will be filmed for a series tentatively titled “The Last Frontier with Alex Honnold,” according to Deadline, which reported on the event.
There’s no word yet on a release date — and that’s likely the farthest thing from the minds of Honnold and Caldwell at the moment. They’ve spent their first week “route finding through the Wyoming plains,” Honnold wrote on Twitter.
If you click through the photos in Caldwell’s post above, you’ll find a video of the pair chatting about a coiled rattlesnake on the trail in front of them.
“It jumped at Tommy!” Honnold says. “Thankfully it didn’t get either of us.”
