'Free Solo' Star Alex Honnold Is Training for Next Climb with Unconventional Sport: Thumb Wrestling (Exclusive)
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The 'Free Solo' star tells PEOPLE how he's preparing himself for a "grueling" two-month expedition this summer
The Walt Disney Company
This summer, Alex Honnold will spend two months traveling the country by bicycle as he embarks on his next climbing excursion.
The Free Solo star, 37, tells PEOPLE the adventure will be the subject of his next National Geographic show, and he departs for the trip in just a couple of weeks.
"We're bicycling from Colorado to Alaska and climbing mountains along the way, so it's like a two-month buddy adventure expedition," Honnold explains.
The climber says his objectives for this outing are "quite difficult" this time around, so his focus has been on preparing his mind and body for anything in the weeks leading up to the trip.
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"I'm climbing five days a week and I've been frantically bicycling so that I have some bike fitness," Honnold says. "The bike ride will be grueling because it's biking into Alaska, but obviously, anybody can ride a bike that far if they're willing to put in the effort."
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It's the climbing aspect that Honnold says will be a greater challenge.
"The climbing objectives are going to be really difficult, and it's only a couple of weeks until we depart, so I'm kind of like, 'Oh geez,'" he says.
The legendary climber is also preparing for his upcoming trip by keeping his hands in shape. Through his partnership with Dr. Squatch, the personal care and natural soap company, Honnold has taken up a new sport — thumb wrestling.
On June 7, Honnold and the company took over Los Angeles's Venice Beach to host the ultimate thumb wrestling tournament.
Honnold challenged fans to battle him in the ring for a chance to win a year's free supply of Dr. Squatch soap.
"The Venice Beach event was so much fun, and I'd say I'm not as bad at it as I could be. It turns out, thumb wrestling has more to do with coordination and speed, and I'm just not a big fast-twitch guy. I think you're probably better off getting into thumb wrestling if you're a professional gamer," Honnold says with a laugh.
Honnold will be honing his thumb wrestling skills all summer long in partnership with Dr. Squatch, and anyone who finds the climber out in the wild can challenge him to a round.
"Randomly, I was doing this event in New York City, totally unrelated to this collaboration. It was for ocean conservation and afterward, I was chatting with a bunch of marine biologists, and this woman just randomly grabbed my hand and pinned my thumb down. She looked at me and was like, 'I win.'"
Honnold is happy to help fans earn their year of free of soap, though. "With some of them, you can tell they really wanted it and they're really fired up. And I'm just like, 'You know, you should have this free soap.'"
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