Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 527 posts

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

#111

Post by maxxxxx »

avar wrote: post #90
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…

> free solo climbing will kill you one day > [...] [Wikipedia] has a list of free solo > climbers. The Wikipedia article you're linking to does list a bunch of people who've died doing it, but also famous free solo climbers in their 60s and even 80s.

There are plenty of chain smokers and drunk drivers in their 80s. It's still not a good idea.

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

#113

Post by mindcrime »

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…

what's the difference here?

Free-climb - uses ropes for safety in the event of a fall, but does not use ropes for assistance climbing.

Free-solo - no ropes at all. Just hands, feet and chalk, basically. IOW, you fall, you die.

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

#114

Post by maxxxxx »

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.

I agree. This is not something younger climbers should aspire to.

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

#115

Post by Touche »

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.

I couldn't agree more. If you want to risk your life, fine, but don't take a camera crew with you.

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

#117

Post by gnarcoregrizz »

Fricken wrote: post #41
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.

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…

Dan Osman still died by falling off a cliff.. equipment failure though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6YsM5Rh0Y

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

#118

Post by maxxxxx »

takk309 wrote: post #22
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.

I understand your position but I disagree. Honnold is well aware of the risks and has prepared as necessary to accomplish this feat. The media needs to better report on that aspect.

There will be people trying to imitate this who don't know what they are getting into. In my view he could have shown the same level of accomplishment in a safer way and set an example.

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

#119

Post by mindcrime »

chrisBob wrote: post #108
PKop wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, he should not get wide publicity of this amazing accomplishment because HE is an idiot. The fact that he succeeded (survived) just means that he is still an idiot.

He's an idiot because he has different values and priorities than you? I'd say that's pretty damn presumptuous. Who are you to tell him (or anyone else) how to live (and die)?

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

#120

Post by ejvincent »

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…

> 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?)

Aid Climbing = using ropes to assist with going up

Free Climbing = only using yourself to climb up, but still using ropes to catch your fall

Free soloing = climbing with no protection or assistance

> Or was it a different route?

Different route on the same mountain. They did the 'Dawn Wall' (which Honnold has also done), and his recent record was on 'Freerider'.

Here's the dawn wall: http://www.rockandice.com/dawn-wall-el-cap-yosemite-topo. Don't see a good topo for Freerider yet.

Edit: Turns out I was mis-remembering on the dawn wall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold#Selected_notable_... has a list of his notable climbs.

Post reply on HN