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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

#91

Post by kareemm »

Lordarminius wrote: post #78
specialp wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a big Alex Honnold fan, but no matter how much your skill, free solo climbing will kill you one day. Alex Honnold is not the first free soloist, and won't be the last. He is great climber, and has no fear of heights it appears. Your average person or climber is not going to try to replicate what he is doing due to their desire to preserve their life. We do not see many people jumping gorges in rocket sleds like…

> A large number of them have died. Paul Preuss (October 3, 1913) died during an attempt to make the first ascent of the North Ridge of the Mandlkogel free solo, fell a thousand feet

Man. According to Wolfram Alpha[1] it'd take 7.9 seconds to fall 1000 feet, with a final velocity of 170mph (77 m/s).

[1] - https://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+to+fall+1000ft

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#92

Post by [deleted] »

Zanta wrote: post #45
imsd wrote: post #30

Earlier 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?

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#93

Post by bthallplz »

bogomipz wrote: post #8

If you are interested in this or the history of climbing in Yosemite and and El Capitan I highly recommend the documentary "Valley Uprising." Even if you aren't necessarily interested in climbing its a beautiful documentary. It's available on Netflix. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3784160/

It is very good. I watched it by chance because it happened to be on at a friend's house, and I got hooked almost immediately. The blend of personalities, history, and beautiful shots of Yosemite is wonderful.

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#94

Post by jabl »

A couple of years ago it was in the news that a couple a blokes (Caldwell & Jorgeson) had freeclimbed El Capitan.

So for those of us who know next to nothing about rock climbing, what's the difference here? Apparently Caldwell & Jorgeson were using ropes for safety although not for the climbing per se (hence why it was freeclimbing?) So this guy does it all alone, without any safety ropes, and in frickin 4 hours? Waaaat?

Or was it a different route? The Caldwell & Jorgeson stories mention "Dawn Wall", is that something else than Honnold climbed now?

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#95

Post by Lordarminius »

robotresearcher wrote: post #81
Lordarminius wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lauded, examined, written about - I agree. Taught - Not so sure. Alex Honnold is an extreme outlier. We mortals may marvel but Im not sure his feat can be replicated so easily. I may be wrong. The guy is simply rad. I couldn't stop laughing at this: A lighter moment came later, Honnold said, when he passed some climbers who had spent the night on a ledge. He did his best not to wake them. "I woke up one guy and he so…

Are you sure he was coming down?

Had to read the relevant paragraph again. He was going up. Thanks.

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#96

Post by blackguardx »

tmh79 wrote: post #63
Zanta wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People are referring to free climbing this particular route, Freerider, which is 5.12d/5.13a. It gets done, but it is hard enough there are usually blurbs about it in magazines and in the climbing media when someone completes it without aid.

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#97

Post by [deleted] »

tmh79 wrote: post #63
Zanta wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#98

Post by [deleted] »

jabl wrote: post #94

A couple of years ago it was in the news that a couple a blokes (Caldwell & Jorgeson) had freeclimbed El Capitan. So for those of us who know next to nothing about rock climbing, what's the difference here? Apparently Caldwell & Jorgeson were using ropes for safety although not for the climbing per se (hence why it was freeclimbing?) So this guy does it all alone, without any safety ropes, and in frickin 4 hours? Waa…

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#99

Post by PKop »

vkou wrote: post #4

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.

So he should not get wide publicity of this amazing accomplishment because some people are idiots, and we should cater to their idiocy?

Couldn't disagree more with this mindset.

Re: Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels

#100

Post by gk1 »

jabl wrote: post #94

A couple of years ago it was in the news that a couple a blokes (Caldwell & Jorgeson) had freeclimbed El Capitan. So for those of us who know next to nothing about rock climbing, what's the difference here? Apparently Caldwell & Jorgeson were using ropes for safety although not for the climbing per se (hence why it was freeclimbing?) So this guy does it all alone, without any safety ropes, and in frickin 4 hours? Waa…

Freeclimbing is when you're connected to a safety rope. Free soloing is when you're not connected to anything at all.
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