Sacramento-area native to climb skyscraper live on Netflix. Local climbers react
Update: Netflix has postponed the climb to Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. PST. Read the latest on the event here.
Hours before Alex Honnold was scheduled to climb a Taiwanese skyscraper live on Netflix, Vaughn Medford knew the message he’d offer him.
“I trust him,” Medford said. “I mean, he knows what he’s doing.”
Medford, more than most people, would know.
Some people will learn who Honnold is by watching him attempt to climb a 101-story tower, Taipei 101, at 5 p.m. PST on Jan. 23 on the streaming service. Others might remember Honnold from “Free Solo,” the 2018 National Geographic documentary made about him becoming the first person to free solo climb Yosemite’s El Capitan, meaning he did so without wearing protective rope.
Then there are people like Medford, former general manager at rock climbing gym Sacramento Pipeworks, who’ve known Honnold since he was a local kid into climbing. If people like Medford and others at Pipeworks on Friday morning were nervous about what Honnold would be attempting several hours later, they weren’t much showing it.
That’s not to say, though, that the room was free of concern.
Honnold’s Sacramento roots
Honnold, 40, was born in Sacramento and grew up in Carmichael, attending Mira Loma High School. The Sacramento Bee noted in 2017 that Honnold first climbed at Davis’ Rocknasium when he was 5 and that he began climbing at Granite Arch Climbing Center in Rancho Cordova when he was a teenager.
Valerie Bradley, a Cameron Park resident, knew Honnold from his time at Granite Arch. She said Honnold was “a scrawny, gangly type of kid that you wouldn’t think was so strong and talented.” Her husband, Don Bradley, also knew Honnold from that center and said that Honnold was a “super-focused, strong climber” then.
Others like Medford, who worked at Granite Arch before spending 19 years as general manager at Pipeworks, had a different recollection of Honnold from his childhood climbing days.
“He could climb,” Medford said. “He was nothing exceptional.”
By 2009, a serious climbing career had developed for Honnold, who could not be reached for this story. The Bee noted in a feature that year, that he was getting treated to expenses-paid climbing excursions to places like Borneo and Mexico. A daring philosophy had clearly emerged, too.
“You need that mental control not just for soloing but for the times when there’s a 40-mph wind and your heart is hammering and you have to think, ‘Take deep breaths, I’m in a happy place,’” Honnold told The Bee at the time. “If I have any gift, it’s that ‘not panicking’ thing.”
Medford became the manager of Pipeworks around 2001. He said that Honnold was around Pipeworks from approximately the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s and that Honnold came through occasionally, when he was in town. Honnold no longer lives locally.
The adult Honnold was different than the child Medford remembered, more confident and self aware. At one point, Medford found the courage to tell Honnold that he shouldn’t be doing free solo climbing.
“He just kind of shrugged his shoulders and kind of laughed at me and went on about his thing,” Medford said.
Ryan Rougeux, assistant manager at Pipeworks, said he’d climbed before with Honnold at the gym and at locations in the field like Bishop in the Eastern Sierra. “That movie ‘Free Solo,’ that’s him,” Rougeux said. “That’s exactly who he is in real life, dedicated to climbing.”
Thoughts on what Honnold’s doing today
Valerie Bradley knew how “Free Solo” was going to end, with Honnold conquering El Capitan without ropes. Watching the documentary can nevertheless trigger her nerves.
“You still sweat, especially as a climber, because you know how hard what he’s doing is,” she said.
That didn’t mean Valerie Bradley was sweating Honnold’s date with Netflix and a Taiwanese skyscraper.
“I don’t think Alex would be doing it if he didn’t have 100% confidence in himself,” she said. “If anything bad happened, I would just be shocked.”
Her husband, who said his heart rate went up as he watched “Free Solo,” felt similarly about Honnold’s chances in Taiwan.
“If he’s going to do this, he’s prepared,” Don Bradley said. “He’s put the work in.”
The New York Times reported, as part of a Q&A with Honnold that ran Thursday, that he is now married with two young daughters and would “be paid in the mid-six figures for the climb.” Honnold admitted that the prospect of his death upset his wife, but also insisted his preparation hadn’t shifted since he climbed El Capitan.
“Honestly, I don’t think the calculus has changed that much,” Honnold told the Times. “Because I never wanted to die. Which is why I put so much effort into the preparation and training.”
Rougeux said that each of Honnold’s risks were calculated.
“I trust that he has tried all the sections and he knows it’s well within his ability to do something like that live,” Rougeux said.
Medford admitted the presence of cameras and the live nature of the climb changed his view a little on what Honnold was attempting.
“He’s the man — he knows what he’s doing,” Medford said. “But I think it makes me raise my eyebrows.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 12:38 PM.
