As a climber, I wish this were less widely publicized. Free soloing is extremely dangerous, and dozens of climbers - including experienced ones die doing it every year.
I am not a climber. What's the chalk for ?
Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
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Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#62Proper Planning and Practice Prevents Piss Poor Performance. and DEATH. In all seriousness, Alex's mental and physical conditioning to achieve this goal should be lauded, examined, written about, and taught.
(You missed "Prior" on the front, there)
Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a fairly experienced climber, this is a very difficult route; one that only the most elite climbers can free climb. But, free climbing it isn't necessarily rare and even as Honnold did this free solo, other parties were camping on the wall. There's little data on this sort of topic, but I'd estimate that less than 0.25% of climbers achieve the level of physical skill and technical expertise required to free climb…
Agreed, the other replies to this question seem to understate the difficulty of the route. It's a lifetime achievement for almost any climber. I'd ballpark that it's been free climbed by 100-300 people?
gotta be more than that,
100-300 per year maybe, on the lower end.
300 people total means like 10 people per season, I personally know more people who've climbed the nose.
Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#64As a climber, I wish this were less widely publicized. Free soloing is extremely dangerous, and dozens of climbers - including experienced ones die doing it every year.
Amongst the legendary free soloist rock climbers, here's the spread: John Gill, alive at 80 Peter Croft, alive at 60 Alain Robert, alive at 54 Catherine Destiville, alive at 53 Steph Davis, alive at 43 Alex Honnold, alive at 31 Dan Osmond, died at 45, not free soloing Dean Potter, died at 43, not free soloing Michael Reardon, died at 43, not free soloing John Bachar died free soloing at 52 It's a very small field, no…
Survivorship bias (of the most real kind). You can only be great if you live. :)
Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#65As a climber, I wish this were less widely publicized. Free soloing is extremely dangerous, and dozens of climbers - including experienced ones die doing it every year.
I am not a climber. What's the chalk for ?
it's 50% placebo, 50% soaks up the sweat so you don't feel like you are pulling on a sheet of glass.
My ratios may be wrong, adjust to taste.
Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#66Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#67Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#68Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not a climber. What's the chalk for ?
it's 50% placebo, 50% soaks up the sweat so you don't feel like you are pulling on a sheet of glass. My ratios may be wrong, adjust to taste.
Agreed, dries hands and magically builds confidence. The ratio depends on weather and grade of the climb.
Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels
#70As a climber, I wish this were less widely publicized. Free soloing is extremely dangerous, and dozens of climbers - including experienced ones die doing it every year.
Amongst the legendary free soloist rock climbers, here's the spread: John Gill, alive at 80 Peter Croft, alive at 60 Alain Robert, alive at 54 Catherine Destiville, alive at 53 Steph Davis, alive at 43 Alex Honnold, alive at 31 Dan Osmond, died at 45, not free soloing Dean Potter, died at 43, not free soloing Michael Reardon, died at 43, not free soloing John Bachar died free soloing at 52 It's a very small field, no…
adding John "Yabo" to that list.... but I couldn't find how he died, (suicide iirc?)