I thought he was an asshole. Quite apart from how he came across in the film exposing yourself to utterly needless danger is a very bad way to treat people who love you.
I get that perspective. Let me ask this: Do you feel the same way about the people in your life who smoke? or eat fast food? or don't exercise daily? or text while driving? I know you can say those are an accumulation of small dangers but it isn't like Honnold never climbed once and decided to free solo the hardest cliff in the world. Do you feel the same about race car drivers? NFL players? We all have our identity and a lot of time it is associated with the things we are good with.
For some of those things yes. Dangerous driving and smoking for me are reckless to the point of being blameworthy. I'm less sure about eating badly and not exercising but I'm not sure that's a difference of kind rather than degree (inasmuch as those things tend to be less harmful, or an instance is less harmful)
If you eat so badly that you die at 40, then yes that's just as bad as slipping off a rock. Look at it this way, let's say a guy gets married and then starts eating so many big macs every day that he's headed to the grave in a few years. My guess would be that his wife would hate him for that even more than if he was a solo climber.
It's his life, if he chooses to do this instead of joining the military or being a firefighter or some traditionally acceptable form of risking your life, that's fine. He is not obligated to live the way 'the people who love him' want him to.
The only person in the movie who met Honnold before he started free soloing was his mother, and she seems fine with him doing it. Everyone else knew what they were signing up for. If anything, they're the selfish ones because they want him to stop doing what he loves.
> exposing yourself to utterly needless danger is a very bad way to treat people who love you
He didnt ask those people to love him, their emotions are not his responsibility, he gets to live his life the way he wants to. That's his right of existence.