This past weekend at Brooklyn Boulders in Brooklyn, we had the honor of hosting the 2015 ROCK Project Tour, led by Access Fund and Black Diamond.

The tour kicked off with a roundtable dinner with leaders of the climbing industry and notable members of the climbing community, where we discussed maintaining sustainability & good climbing practices with the recent explosion of climbing popularity in New York City. Saturday pro-climbers held clinics, followed by an after-party at Brooklyn Boulders and the weekend ended with a trip out to the beautiful Gunks.

We got to sit chat with pro-climbers Joe Kinder and Alex Honnold, who, set in the backdrop of Brooklyn, are two completely unremarkable sweatshirt clad white guys somewhere in their late twenties or early thirties. Besides their obvious strength and impressive climbing ability, what sets them apart is their ability to lead a life in pursuit of what they love.

Instead of the usual questions one would ask a pro-climber, we decided to take an unconventional interview route that has little to do with climbing.

What food item would you want to be stuck with?

Joe: I like granola bars, Chex mix… little snacks.

Alex: For survival or pleasure?

Both.

Alex: For survival something really practical like sweet potatoes. I think those are really nutrition-dense. For pleasure, chocolate chip cookies.

Joe: I really like chicken pot pie.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

Joe: I once stole a car.

Alex: My best friend and I wrote a very mean-spirited letter to another friend. It was probably middle school, and a really terrible thing to do. I didn’t actually write it, but I let it happen.

Joe Kinder and Alex Honnold

Rough. Any other biggest regrets?

Joe: Probably being too hungover, too sweaty while climbing… and getting into fights.

Alex: If I had to choose one thing, the one year I spent in college. That was a year I should have spent climbing instead.

Okay, moving on. What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?

Joe: Sex with a family member. But I won’t say who. Okay. I’ll just say they were female.

Haha, uhh okay. That’s probably normal. Alex?

Alex: I could not recall a specific dream. Every once in a while I’ll remember a dream, but then I forget.

You don’t remember any of your dreams?

Alex: I kind of view sleeping as booting off at night, and then booting on again in the morning.

Alex Honnold, free sleeping

So you’re a robot.

Alex: Kinda, yeah.

Where would you guys be now if you weren’t climbing?

Alex: Probably a depressed engineer.

Joe: If I didn’t do rock climbing, I’d be doing some crooked ass shit. Climbing changed my life – it saved my ass. I made my mom cry way too much.

Thanks guys!

Catch Joe Kinder, Alex Honnold and all the other climbers at the rest of the ROCK Project Tour to learn more about climbing, sustainability and good practices. Next stop, Seattle.