Fearlessly on the up and up

Alex Honnold takes his life into his grazed hands climbing sheer rock walls, often without the safety of ropes. The fearless 28-year-old American adventurer shatters human limits with extreme ascents: setting new speed, endurance and free solo records on massive cliffs. One mistake, and he could die.

On Table Mountain he glided up routes with and without ropes a week ago.

Honnold is modest about his feats up rock faces, some 10 times higher than the Hillbrow Tower . He underplays what he does, earning the nickname "No Big Deal" among friends.

At Waterval Boven in Mpumalanga last month, he said: "I came to an exotic adventure destination and found high-quality rock and fully legitimate climbing. I really like Boven. The rock here is surprisingly good."

Honnold, whose home crag is the international climbing mecca, Yosemite Valley, started climbing in a local gym when he was 10.

When he got a job at the gym, "I climbed five days a week for 18 years, and not every time I was roped up".

Honnold started engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, but after his father died in 2004, he left his studies to follow his dream.

He rapidly made the leap from indoor, bolted routes to towering rock faces and by 2008 he was a professional, sponsored climber.

In a True Life video, he said: "Climbing these big walls by myself without a rope forces me to climb perfectly. It's entirely mental. What it requires is just motivation, just the desire for it. There's no trick."

Honnold spends about 10 days a year in his home town of Sacramento. For the rest he is on the road in his white van.

Honnold climbs for the pure joy of the movement and to push his limits.

He has climbed in China, Chile, Canada, Chad, Poland, Mexico, Jordan, Spain, Turkey, Greece, France and Morocco.

He was invited to southern Africa to participate in Robert Breyer's film, with the working title Climbing the Big 5.

For the film Honnold climbed at Blouberg in Limpopo, Table Mountain and the Yellowwood Amphitheatre in the Western Cape, Waterval Boven in Mpumalanga and Spitzkoppe in Namibia.

There is only a handful of climbers who can scale more difficult grades than Honnold - few free solo. What defies belief is Honnold's composure when his life hangs on a thread.

The risks are real. Five out of nine free soloists who have pushed boundaries in the last 40 years were killed.

Veteran climber and filmmaker Peter Mortimer said of Honnold: "On the physical side, he's an elite climber. In the mental game, he is inarguably the greatest in the history of the sport."

Honnold is the Usain Bolt of climbers - he keeps defying the odds..

• See www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-EvqAwNFLU