“Always an adventure with Alex!”: the mother and son scaling new heights together

As kids grow up and fly the nest to follow their dreams, it can be hard for families with busy lives to get as much quality time together as they’d like.

When your son is one of the world’s most elite climbers, often out of the country and constantly in pursuit of his next vertical challenge, that common predicament is pushed to another level.

But for Dierdre Wolownick (USA, b. 23 September 1951) – who features in the GWR 2027 book and is the mother of Free Solo star, Alex Honnold – she decided to adopt an “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach.

The language teacher, artist and writer, who now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, had never rock climbed, but decided she would give it a try when she turned 60.

If nothing else, it would be a way to gain some insight into her son’s world, helping her to understand both what he experiences and the unique lingo only climbers are fluent in. Furthermore, it could open up an opportunity for them to spend some time together while also doing something active.

Growing up in New York after World War II, Wolownick told GWR, she’d “definitely not been an outdoorsy type” as a youngster. As the primary carer for her mother (who had been left disabled as a result of polio), she describes her younger self as “quiet, studious, very obedient and always listening for her [mother’s] call.”

So how did people first react when she revealed, as she was entering her sixth decade on this planet, she wanted to follow in Alex’s skywards footsteps?

“My colleagues at the college where I taught were concerned for my safety (‘Dierdre, you’re going to get hurt!’, ‘That’s dangerous!’, ‘Aren’t you afraid’ etc). The family was already accustomed to Alex’s antics on the rock, and no one really said much about what I was doing.”

Wolownick tackling High Exposure in the Gunks mountain range in New York in 2018

It didn’t take long for Wolownick to be bitten by the same bug her son had been. Her new passion was soon taking her to some beautiful locations all around the globe, from many sites across her home nation (such as the Whitney-Gilman Ridge in New Hampshire and The Gunks in New York) and abroad (such as Les Calanques in southern France).

Wolownick near the top of the Eichhorn in Yosemite in 2024

“It’s a ‘zen’ kind of activity,” she said, explaining what most draws her to the pursuit. “While climbing, it’s impossible to think about anything else. It puts you in the zone where the only thing you can concentrate on is the next handhold, the next movement…. It’s like a type of meditation. Completely absorbing and restful, despite the physicality of it.

“Another thing I love about it is that climbing takes you to the most gorgeous places on the planet! And the only way to get there is to climb up there.”

In 2017, Alex Honnold pulled off the ascent that would later be the focus of an edge-of-your-seat documentary on Netflix that would make him a household name. On 3 June that year, he became the first person to free solo El Capitan.

A 3,200-ft-tall (975-m) granite monolith soaring above California’s Yosemite National Park, El Capitan has long lured rock climbers to its precipitous face. It was first topped by Wayne Merry, Warren Harding and George Whitmore on 12 November 1958 after a 47-day ascent.

A mother-son selfie during their El Cap climb in 2017, when Wolownick was aged 66

However, free-soloing (that is, climbing with no ropes or other safety gear) is a whole different ball game. Only a small number of the most fearless “big wall climbers” (including Honnold himself) had previously attempted to “free solo” the entirety of El Cap. But none had been successful until then.

A few months after chalking up this unprecedented feat, Honnold was back in Yosemite to take on El Cap again, but this time accompanied by his mom. Suffice it to say that they definitely would not be free-soloing on this occasion; nevertheless, this was still going to be a monumental challenge for Wolownick.

She had notched up several years’ experience under her climbing harness by this point, but despite this she knew El Cap was going to be another level to what had come before.

For that reason, she did not shirk on preparation, spending four-and-a-half months in training for it. She broke down for us what that entailed: “I had a place to stay in Yosemite (at a Ranger’s home), so I spent three consecutive days there each week, for 18 weeks.

“The first day, I trained for cardio, doing all the hardest hikes up the big walls of Yosemite. The other two days, I trained on the fixed ropes that always hang on El Cap: one set on the east side and one set on the west.

"I used both to learn how to use ‘jumars’, or mechanical ascenders, efficiently and quickly. Alex wanted to do El Cap with me in one day (very unusual), so I knew I’d have to go as fast as I possibly could.”

During the El Cap ascent in 2017

Even with all that intensive practice, when the day came to scale a huge wall like El Capitan, Wolownick knew it was going to be tough. “Pushing your entire body weight up for 13 hours, or a little less than 3,000 feet, is exhausting!

“The one challenge I did face on the wall that day was that I had to learn how to lower myself sideways across the rock face, for the times when Alex would end a pitch way off to one side, relative to where I was. I knew I would have to learn to do it, and I also knew that it was a skill that you can’t practise or learn in a garage or a gym. So I went in knowing that lesson was waiting for me. And I did learn it.”

By the time they reached the top, 66-year-old Wolownick had set an El Cap record of her own, becoming the oldest woman to climb El Capitan.

So now both mother and son had made El Cap history. “Other-worldly” is how she describes how that feels. “Twenty years ago, I never could have imagined such a thing! The lesson is clear – it really is never too late…”

Four years later, she returned with some friends to take on El Cap again. This time she would make the ascent via the East Ledges, a slightly less sheer route than she had taken with her son in 2017. While less vertical, it’s challenging in different ways as she explained: “It involves one-third scrambling (really demanding, for mind and body), one-third jumaring (descending the six fixed ropes, using gear) and one-third some very rough hiking through the steep woods at the bottom of the wall.”

Wolownick training for her climb of El Capitan in September 2021

Topping El Cap on 23 September 2021 (literally her 70th birthday!) meant that Wolownick extended her own record as the oldest woman to climb El Capitan, and that age remains the mark to beat to this day.

At the start of the El Cap climb in September 2021

(The oldest person overall to climb El Cap to date is believed to be American Gerry Bloch, who at the age of 81 ascended the monolith via the Aquarian Wall over a period of 10 days between 13 and 23 May 1999.)

Wolownick speaking at the Lądek Mountain Festival in Poland in September 2026

Both Wolownick and Honnold still find themselves super busy – indeed nowadays Wolownick is as likely as her son to be seeking out her next climbing challenge, as well as working on her own film and book projects or guest speaking at various outdoor adventure festivals and seminars.

However the high-achieving mother and son try to arrange at least one climbing trip together each year, usually around Dierdre’s birthday in September.

Wolownick and Honnold during their recent climb at Mount Charleston in Nevada

This year, the pair took on Cranberry Ridge on Mount Charleston in the Spring Mountains of Nevada. On her actual birthday, Wolownick also snuck in another climbing trip to Yosemite with a friend – this time scaling the 5.5-level Church Tower, which offers spectacular views of El Capitan on the opposite side of the valley.

To see in her 75th birthday this year, Wolownick scaled Church Tower in Yosemite National Park. Credit: Garet McMackin

So what’s it like climbing with a world-class pro who happens to also be your son? “Climbing with Alex is an education!” Wolownick said. “He sees things differently than most people, and he just assumes that anyone can do what he does. He believes that I can, so I do!

“When we climb together, I have to make a concerted effort to do everything as fast as I can. To just believe. He holds the speed records on everything, and assumes everyone else can keep up! He does dial it back a bit for Mom…

“And I love watching him climb! It’s like watching an awesome, unimaginably graceful ballet.”

Wolownick is eager to encourage anyone who might have slipped into an “I’m too old for that” mindset to reassess what they’re capable of – and, as she discusses in her recent book, Success in 7 Steps, she’s not just talking about people who want to rock climb.

“It’s never too late to try something new or challenging!” she asserted. “You’ll never know what you’re capable of until you try it. The media tells us what we should be doing, eating, wearing, how much we should be sleeping, which drugs we should be taking, etc, all our lives. The real shame is that we believe them! But they don’t know you. Only YOU know who you are, and what you’re capable of – and you’ll never really know unless you try.

“That’s what Success in 7 Steps explores; with the method in that book, anyone at any age can achieve any dream.”

Indeed now aged 75, Wolownick has no intention of hanging up her harness and crampons any time soon. When asked how long she thinks she will keep climbing, she responded simply: “As long as my body will allow me to. I can’t think of any reason to give it up.”

For more tales of intrepid adventurers, check out our dedicated Adventure & Epic Journeys news page.