They climbed different routes. The Dawn Wall route had not previously been free climbed, it had only been aid climbed before (meaning climbers pulled on gear to help get through the most difficult sections). Honnold climbed a route called Freerider which is easier than the Dawn Wall but still very very very difficult.
Honnold free-solo'ed a (different) route called Freerider (also on El Cap), which is still stupidly difficult and would be a career highlight for most people to climb at all, likely over the period of several days.
Comparing it to the Dawn Wall climb completely misses the point and illustrates how misunderstood the sport is. Freeing a previously seemingly impossible-to-climb route is not the same kind of achievement as solo'ing an established route that, in the case of Honnold, he'd already climbed a dozen times or more.
They're both astounding, but for different reasons. It's a shame the media is comparing the two, as it would seem to diminish Jorgeson and Caldwell's achievement.
This also explains why Alex can climb it so much faster. No ropes to worry about on the way up.
Check out the movie valley uprising on Netflix if you want to learn more.
Aid Climbing = using ropes to assist with going up
Free Climbing = only using yourself to climb up, but still using ropes to catch your fall
Free soloing = climbing with no protection or assistance
> Or was it a different route?
Different route on the same mountain. They did the 'Dawn Wall' (which Honnold has also done), and his recent record was on 'Freerider'.
Here's the dawn wall: http://www.rockandice.com/dawn-wall-el-cap-yosemite-topo. Don't see a good topo for Freerider yet.
Edit: Turns out I was mis-remembering on the dawn wall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold#Selected_notable_... has a list of his notable climbs.
[edit: fixed Adam's name]
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/features/athlete...
Free-climb - uses ropes for safety in the event of a fall, but does not use ropes for assistance climbing.
Free-solo - no ropes at all. Just hands, feet and chalk, basically. IOW, you fall, you die.
Honnold's free solo is amazing because he did not make a mistake and have to use the rope. Every move was executed perfectly.
It was amazing because there was no rope.
Also the fastest ascent of Freerider, for the same reason.
So for those of us who know next to nothing about rock climbing, what's the difference here? Apparently Caldwell & Jorgeson were using ropes for safety although not for the climbing per se (hence why it was freeclimbing?) So this guy does it all alone, without any safety ropes, and in frickin 4 hours? Waaaat?
Or was it a different route? The Caldwell & Jorgeson stories mention "Dawn Wall", is that something else than Honnold climbed now?