• Alex Honnold is a world-renowned rock climber who achieved a free solo ascent of El Capitan granite monolith in Yosemite National Park and proposed to his long-term girlfriend, Sanni McCandless.
• Sanni McCandless is an entrepreneur, certified personal life coach and co-founder of OutWild, which helps people live outdoor lifestyles and exercise.
• Sanni met her future fiancé, Alex Honnold, at a book launch in 2015 and was featured in the documentary “Free Solo”.
• Alex Honnold was born in 1985 and is a vegetarian, atheist and feminist.
• Sanni and Alex have a combined estimated net worth of more than $2.5 million.
Alex Honnold is a world-renowned rock climber, who recently impressed everyone with his latest feat: he performed a free solo ascent of the El Capitan granite monolith in Yosemite National Park, and asked his long-married girlfriend, Sanni McCandless was, in marriage. Fans of Alex could also see Sanni in the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo”.
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Early life and family
Cassandra “Sanni” McCandless was born on June 30, 1992 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA – she spent half her childhood between her hometown and the city of Seattle, Washington. Her zodiac sign is Cancer and she holds American nationality. Cassandra was born into a family of two children, her sisters Helen and Laila.
Today it dawned on me that I have my dream job. 5 years ago (or maybe even earlier) I said out loud that one day I would…
Posted by Sanni McCandless coaching on Saturday, June 1, 2019
Her mother, corporate communications specialist Lesley Marijke McCandless, and her father, an electromagnetic engineer, Jay McCandless, own a California company called “Suncastle Microwave LLC”. They spend a lot of time at work, but Cassandra remembers that they always took care of their children, even though they were very busy. Cassandra got her nickname “Sanni” from her childhood friend, who couldn’t pronounce her name properly, so she shortened it in her own way, and Cassandra liked it so much that she started introducing herself to the others as Sanni. Since her early years, Sanni enjoys active games and also enjoys singing.
Educational background
Sanni graduated from East Chapel Hill High School in 2010 and enrolled at the University of North Carolina, located in Chapel Hill.
During her junior year, she joined an “a cappella” music group called “Cadence”, not as a singer but as their business manager and social chairman, organizing their performances at various local events and festivals. In 2014, Sanni graduated from UNC with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. In 2017 Sanni became a certified personal life coach and completed her studies iPEC.
Career
Marketing and event planning career
While studying at university, Sanni started working as a waitress in a small cafe called “Carmine’s Ristorante and Pizzeria”. She developed her management expertise, benefited from her work with the music band “Cadence” and enrolled in an event planning internship with the “Back Country Land Trust”, a non-profit environmental conservation organization.
In 2013, Sanni joined the Durham Arts Council, one of the oldest American arts councils, and also interned at her Alma Mater, completing the “UNC APPLES Program” where she hosted several events, including the CenterFest Arts Festival. During her senior year of college, Sanni worked as a Spanish teacher and also babysat for the family of her parents’ friends.
In 2014, Sanni worked as a hospitality worker in the WorkAway organization and lived in Cordoba, Spain for several months. After briefly working for Koru Careers, Sanni took on the role of Events and Marketing Coordinator at the Queensland Council of Social Service, working for the Energy Savvy Families programme.
Shift from a clerk to an adventurer
In 2015, Sanni quit QCOSS to coach outdoor adventure sports including rock climbing with her older sister. In a few years, Sanni became an entrepreneur, founded a life coaching center, attracted more and more clients and felt stable in the new market. Later, Sanni co-founded OutWild, a community for people who want to live outdoors and enjoy outdoor sports. Along with the other co-founders, mountain athlete Jeremy Jensen, and career manager and podcast host Courtney Sanford, Sanni helps other people change their lives and get closer to nature and achieve freedom of self-expression. ‘Through her coaching, she helps people overcome the doubts and worries that constantly stand in the way of living without fear and satisfaction.
Her clients achieve lifelong goals and find freedom of choice in their own lives by learning to communicate more honestly,” says Sanni’s information on the official website from OutWild. During the difficult times of the 2020 global pandemic, Sanni teaches free online workshops such as “Effective Communication”, “How to Have Difficult Conversations”, and others.
Personal life, fiancée Alex Honnold
Sanni met her future fiancé, Alex Honnold, at a book launch event Alex held for his book “Alone on the Wall” in 2015 – Sanni was brave enough to give him a small piece of paper with her number on it when he signed her copy of the book. When Alex returned to Seattle after a few weeks, he called her and they began dating, and Sanni subsequently began accompanying him on his travels.
At the beginning of their relationship, Alex already had the idea to climb the El Capitan rock, even though he had already had two accidents. Later, Sanni was featured in the documentary “Free Solo” directed by Jimmy Chin and his wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, who were also producers of the film. The film won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, beating out documentaries like “Minding the Gap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” and “RBG.” The film also won multiple awards from 2018 to 2019, including Toronto International Film Festival Awards, British Academy Film Awards, and Primetime Emmy Awards, winning all seven categories for which the film was nominated.
Sanni is often asked by her followers if she is afraid of Alex dying, as he often puts himself in danger on an almost daily basis.
She once wrote that she didn’t even think about his death at first, but after her friend Ueli died in an accident while climbing Everest, and his wife Nicole became a widow, Sanni understood that people she loved often had their lives on the edge lived. . But even then she wrote: ‘I would never want my death to deprive someone else of the joy of living. It’s natural and healthy to grieve, but maybe it’s also good when time is up. Not because we won’t miss the people we love, but because death is coming for all of us.”
Who is Alex Honnold?
Alexander Honnold was born on August 17, 1985 in Sacramento, California, USA. His mother, Dierdre Wolownich, is also a climber – she climbed El Capitan when she was 66, but not quite solo, as her son later did.
Alex’s father, Charles Forrest Honnold, is a community college professor. Alex admits that he has never been the best climber, as he has seen many children who started climbing early and pretended to have a natural gift; Alex says he’s never been like this before, but has a passion for it, so he’s managed to achieve so much. Alex gained popularity in the climbing world when he free-soloed the Rostrum and the Astroman in Yosemite Valley in one day, and has accomplished many other major climbs, including several free solos and speed solos.
Alex is a vegetarian and does not use drugs or alcohol. His main interest after climbing is reading; he reads several books a week when he has free time between his climbs.
I read a story for Disney! Something else… https://t.co/9kUUYh6Svq
— Alex Honnold (@AlexHonnold) April 29, 2020
His favorite writers include Crey Rich, David A. Sinclair, and Robin Diangelo. Alex calls herself “a militant atheist and a feminist.”
Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts
Sanni enjoys winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding and mountain skiing. She also likes swimming, dancing and just walking in the woods. Her favorite creature is a butterfly.
Sanni is often asked if she is related to another outdoor enthusiast and hiker, Chris McCandless, who died of starvation in 1992 when he was just 24 years old during his travels across North America as he had minimal supplies.
Sanni knows his story, but they are not related.
Appearance, clothing style
Sanni has long light brown hair, is 1.7 m tall, weighs about 56 kg and her vital statistics are 34-24-35. Sanni likes to wear straw hats. She has no tattoos.
Wealth and salary
From 2020, Sanni’s net worth would be around $1 millionwhile her fiancé, Alex, reportedly has a net worth of over $1.5 millionwhich grew considerably after the success of the documentary film about his free solo El Capitan.
