@zenvelo I would wager that there is a high percentage of people on the spectrum among avid rock climbers.
For a lot of people on the spectrum, climbing is almost a compulsion. A combination of proprioceptive input and hyper focus on complex problem solving.
There’s also this other aspect of being autistic called special interests. Where they pretty much live and breathe it.
There are countless videos of little autistic toddlers climbing onto the roof of their house. My friend’s kid has this compulsion to climb. It’s almost like breathing air for him. Even after getting a cast (from climbing), the little guy was trying to climb with his cast on. I’d imagine Honnold was probably like that as a kid.
There’s also a tendency to disassociate from fear. Autistic people may have a hard time with a lot of everyday things that are easy for NT people. But there are a lot of instances where they are perfectly calm and collected in an emergency. It’s almost like adrenaline calms them down and helps them focus.