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That is fucking amazing. I can't even comprehend what it must be like to be living on that wall for eight days (let alone 19 or 28). The mental and emotional state it must put you in...
How it compares to what Alex Honnold achieved on The Nose? Difficulty or size is different?
They're both the best at what they do, but they do different things, and I don't think either of them could do what the other does.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's Caldwell on pitch 15 last year: https://youtu.be/PLd_c4CjG44
What kind of strength does one have to have on the finger to be able to hold himself with just the tip? I have always wondered. I only saw climbing scenes in movies and have always wondered if people actually are able to work with such little grip and it seems they are. So for such climbing do they use earlier runs to put the rings (whatever they are call) for the safety lines during the actual climb?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's Caldwell on pitch 15 last year: https://youtu.be/PLd_c4CjG44
What kind of strength does one have to have on the finger to be able to hold himself with just the tip? I have always wondered. I only saw climbing scenes in movies and have always wondered if people actually are able to work with such little grip and it seems they are. So for such climbing do they use earlier runs to put the rings (whatever they are call) for the safety lines during the actual climb?
For pitch 15 of the Dawn wall, Caldwell drilled bolts with hangers into the granite likely while rapelling down from above and pre-placed quick draws (two carabiners connected by a short loop of webbing) on the bolt hangers- this was all done ahead of time in preparation for the redpoint, (the official climb done from the ground up) You can see Tommy in the video clipping his rope in as he goes along.
The permanent bolts are only used on blank sections of the wall where there are no cracks available to place removable anchors such as nuts and cams.
How it compares to what Alex Honnold achieved on The Nose? Difficulty or size is different?
Alex Honnold has done the fastest aid climb of the Nose. It's the same height as the Dawn Wall but much easier difficulty wise (5.8 vs 5.14d).
You can check out the topos for each climb. This is the nose (http://www.supertopo.com/topos/yosemite/thenose.pdf [p15-16]), and you can see, with just a few exceptions, most of the pitches are graded 5.10 or easier.
This is the Dawn Wall (http://www.rockandice.com/dawn-wall-el-cap-yosemite-topo). It's much, much harder, particularly when you realize that the Yosemite Decimal System progresses like the Richter scale, in the sense that a step from 5.13a to 5.13b (an increase of 1 grade unit) is leaps and bounds harder to achieve than improving from, say, 5.8 to 5.9.
That is fucking amazing. I can't even comprehend what it must be like to be living on that wall for eight days (let alone 19 or 28). The mental and emotional state it must put you in...
This has been getting a bit easier, emotionally. He had a phone and Internet (he posted on Instagram from the wall, if I read the article correctly)
Keep in mind that although he did it in a single push of 8 days, he has actually been up and down the wall for a lot longer, freeing and aiding every pitch many times. I was on the Nose almost a month ago and I could see his portaledge hanging out there. His accomplishment is really amazing and the Dawn Wall is so damn blank! No idea how these people get so good!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alex Honnold has done the fastest aid climb of the Nose. It's the same height as the Dawn Wall but much easier difficulty wise (5.8 vs 5.14d).
It's also worth mentioning that 95% of the Nose can be free-climbed by just about anyone that really trains for it. It's hard, but it's not that hard. The Dawn Wall, in contrast, is basically off limits for your average free climber -- especially the middle pitches -- unless you're among the best of the very best. You can check out the topos for each climb. This is the nose ( http://www.supertopo.com/topos/yosemite/t…
It's much, much harder, particularly when you realize
that the Yosemite Decimal System progresses like the
Richter scale, in the sense that a step from 5.13a to
5.13b (an increase of 1 grade unit) is leaps and bounds
harder to achieve than improving from, say, 5.8 to 5.9.
Climbing grades don't follow that, nor do they follow a linear pattern, (although they follow MORE closer to a linear pattern...). It's just that 5.10 is harder than 5.9; 5.13b is harder than 5.13a.
There's no mathematically exactitude over it. A 5.13b climb just "feels" harder than a 5.13a climb, and a consensus has been reached. YDS is after all, open ended. If it was logarithmic like the Richter scale, going from 5.13 to 5.14 (5.13a, b, c, d, then 5.14a) would be 100,000x more difficult, which obviously it is not. The original YDS from 5.0 to 5.9 were based on benchmark climbs (not in Yosemite, strangely enough).
Grades afterwards were added as things were getting a little crazy to be calling them, "5.9", so "5.10" was born. This also gives you the peculiarity where established 5.9 climbs are, "harder" than newer 5.10 climbs, and this repeats for 5.10d/5.11a; 5.11d/5.12a, as the scale kept going up.
Then you gotta remember that all the climbing areas in even just this country are geographically isolated, so a 5.9 in Eldorado Canyon is different than a 5.9 at Devil's Lake. Yosemite itself is known to be pretty stiff. Unless you're good at a particular style, then...
Anyways, it's a big mess, and it'll never be fixed. What Ondra is doing is pretty hard. Let's remember he's only 23.
Plug for Valley Uprising (on Netflix) if you're interested in climbing. The progression of difficulty and (mostly friendly and supportive) competition between climbers is inspiring. Amazing feat! PS: Would be happy to take anyone else's recommendations for videos or books too.
I just finished Alex Honnold's book (Alone on the Wall) and it's a fun read. Gives you a bit of backstory to the media frenzy that surrounds him at times.
In terms of videos, the Reel Rock film tour is amazing. They cover some really awesome climbs. And "Meru" is on Amazon Prime Video in a lot of countries (a short version was in Reel Rock one or two years ago).