Alex Honnold Has Panic Attack At Top Of Step Ladder
LAS VEGAS—His body trembling as he gripped the support bar for dear life, rock climber Alex Honnold reportedly had a panic attack this week at the top of a step ladder. “Sometimes, when you get all the way up there and you’re a foot—nearly a foot and a half—off the ground, you start to lose perspective on your own existence and just panic at mankind’s hubris,” said Hannold, reflecting on how dangerous it was to scale the 16-inch folding stool without a harness, rope, or medical team on standby. “There’s a certain rush you get climbing all the way to the highest point of the cupboard for some Milano cookies, but this time, at the peak of my ascent, the room started spinning and everything blurred into a dizzying gray. Suddenly, all I could think about was my poor wife being forced to identify my mangled body on the kitchen floor. She always begs me to stop going up to the top of the freezer without her holding my hips for stability, and I brush her off. But this was a real wake-up call for me. I couldn’t find a path forward and was stuck there for days.” Honnold expressed regret that his daring free solo of the step ladder was being streamed live to 15 million viewers on Netflix.
