Most Replayed Moment: Fear Is A Skill You Can Train! Lessons From The World's Greatest Climber

If your two girls asked what they should aim for, what would you tell them?

I’d say, “You do you.” Find what you love, learn skills, get good, and go hard. Pro climbing is cold and uncomfortable—but when you freaking love it, it doesn’t feel like work.

From the outside, a huge climb looks like a magic trick. We see the performance, not the whole life behind it.

The first time I saw El Cap at nineteen, it looked insane. Then came years of bigger walls. Before I free-soloed it, I’d spent a decade in Yosemite and climbed El Cap around sixty times. People think I just showed up—after thirty years of practice, yeah.

So were you scared in those early years, or was fear somehow absent?

All the time. Even on a rope, you wonder whether the gear is good or what happens if it fails. Years of fear teach you to manage it. The brain-scan story got overstated: I was safe in a metal tube. I have an amygdala, and it works.

Totally. I was shy and terrified of public speaking too. After the Free Solo tour, I’m basically fine. There’s no hack: get really freaking scared over and over, and it loses power. In climbing, it’s one slow move, then another, and fear creeps back in.

On Half Dome, I underprepared, got off route, and made a bad choice on a narrowing ledge above a massive drop. It wasn’t panic—it was, “Oh, I’m so screwed.” I backed up and changed tactics.

For anything impossible, I quit hoping it’ll magically look easy. I break it into pieces and work each piece. For a meaningful life, follow your own goals—find what matters and pursue it with everything you can give.