Every once in awhile, a star emerges from our respec­tive activ­i­ties of choice. Cycling has Lance Arm­strong, Bas­ket­ball has Michael Jor­dan, and Foot­ball has Pele. Right now, in the world of ver­ti­cal rock climb­ing, a hum­ble 27 year old named Alex Hon­nold is shak­ing the entire foun­da­tion of the sport. Once qui­et­ly doing his own thing, the enor­mi­ty of his feats has put him on front cov­ers of pop­u­lar mag­a­zines such as Nation­al Geographic.

On June 5 and 6, 2012 Hon­nold made the first ever solo link-up of Yosemite’s Mt Watkins, El Cap­i­tan, and Half Dome, climb­ing 90% free solo (with­out the pro­tec­tion of a rope) with a few points of aid. What that means is that Hon­nold is a stud. Doing a link-up means that not only did he climb more than 7,000 ft. of ver­ti­cal rock in total, he had to approach and descend each route as well. Even the best climbers can take mul­ti­ple days to accom­plish just one of these routes, and he fin­ished the solo triple in a mind-bog­gling 18 hours 50 minutes.

The video above cap­tures footage of Hon­nold’s ground break­ing achievement.