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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

#151

Post by psyc »

jonah wrote: post #136
patejam wrote: post #130

By far the best article I've seen to supplement this: https://www.outsideonline.com/2190306/why-alex-honnolds-free... As a climber, there are very few people that I trust to have a more useful opinion on all this than Tommy Caldwell, a close friend and long time climbing partner of Honnold. It's so out there for most people that most jump to conclusions without proper knowledge of the subject. Caldwell is in an inter…

One of the most striking quotes for me was: "Alex once told me that he had never fallen completely unexpectedly—meaning without at least some prior inclination that it could happen. When I told him that I had unexpectedly fallen at least ten times, he looked confused, like somehow that didn’t compute." It really illustrates what a professional Alex is and how in-tune he is with his skills and his craft.

I take the same thing from that quote. I have a good friend who has become one of the top competition paraglider pilots in the world. A lot of paragliders see him as doing terrifying, reckless things. He's told me that he considers himself a conservative pilot, and that he doesn't take risks. I agree with his self-assessment. I've known him a long time, and saw him ascend through a long, well-ordered series of incremental challenges.

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

#152

Post by zzalpha »

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #89

The thing that I've most loved while following Alex's exploits over the past few year is how he talks about his mental preparation. He always seems very well prepared for whatever route that he is climbing. To me, the biggest evidence of that is the fact that he quit doing this exact climb a few weeks ago because he felt conditions weren't right. That's really hard to do with media, etc. on your tail, even IF your li…

That's really hard to do with media, etc. on your tail, even IF your life is literally at stake.

Except they weren't.

Honnold and his team very deliberately kept this thing quiet. Other than the crew and close friends, no one knew of the ascent until it was done and announced.

Which is brilliant for exactly the reasons you mention.

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

#153

Post by maolt »

AcerbicZero wrote: post #135
mindcrime wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)?

In the end it's his choice.

"at his incompetence" ? Your nickname is aptly chosen, yet the same can't be said of the words in your post.

Honnold climbs without a rope because he can afford to do so. He may well one day lose his life, but he knows it, and puts much more care in preparing and then stays concentrated on his climbs than most people do when driving a car.

I encourage you to read articles about him, they should help give you some perspective.

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

#154

Post by cgh »

tuna-piano wrote: post #7
justinator wrote: post #2

Proper 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.

Alex is famous because he does "free soloing" - which doesn't use any ropes or safety at all. More people do "free climbing" which uses ropes just in case of fall. Anyone have any idea how often free climbers end up falling and needing their ropes? Could many good free climbers do what Honnold did, but just like the added bits of safety?

When working moves, you fall constantly. I was out on Saturday working on my latest project and I probably fell twenty times. Honnold worked Freerider extensively and no doubt fell a lot while getting it all dialed in.

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

#155

Post by cgh »

24gttghh wrote: post #11

It's things like this that make me ask myself, "Why don't I climb rocks more?" Then I remember I have a fear of falling to my death. It's a vicious cycle.

Climbing is quite safe and certainly less injury-inducing than eg snowboarding or skiing (as my damaged MCL will attest).

Go to a climbing gym and learn how climbing works. You'll see there's nothing much to worry about and you can focus on having fun. Climbing is the best thing there is, in my horribly biased opinion.

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

#156

Post by jonny_eh »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #141
patejam wrote: post #130

By far the best article I've seen to supplement this: https://www.outsideonline.com/2190306/why-alex-honnolds-free... As a climber, there are very few people that I trust to have a more useful opinion on all this than Tommy Caldwell, a close friend and long time climbing partner of Honnold. It's so out there for most people that most jump to conclusions without proper knowledge of the subject. Caldwell is in an inter…

I've read an article recently - someone actually scanned Honnold's brain and it turns out his amygdala does not respond in the usual way to inputs that in most people would elicit fear. In colloquial terms, he's "fearless". If true, that would explain a lot.

Honnold needs the following to do what he did: Absolute fearlessness, talent (most couldn't ever do what he did even with years of practice), and discipline (to train like crazy).

People like Honnold are pretty rare.

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

#157

Post by Fricken »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #117
Fricken wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Potter also died falling off a cliff, in a wingsuit. If only they had stuck to more sensible pursuits, such as free soloing!

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

#158

Post by zzalpha »

tomsthumb wrote: post #109
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…

The Dawn Wall is the hardest rated route on El Cap in Yosemite, and additionally the most difficult big wall route ever done (when considered on the basis of the moves alone). Honnold free-solo'ed a (different) route called Freerider (also on El Cap), which is still stupidly difficult and would be a career highlight for most people to climb at all, likely over the period of several days.

The BBC buggered this up in an article when they covered it.

Comparing it to the Dawn Wall climb completely misses the point and illustrates how misunderstood the sport is. Freeing a previously seemingly impossible-to-climb route is not the same kind of achievement as solo'ing an established route that, in the case of Honnold, he'd already climbed a dozen times or more.

They're both astounding, but for different reasons. It's a shame the media is comparing the two, as it would seem to diminish Jorgeson and Caldwell's achievement.

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

#159

Post by FrojoS »

lordnacho wrote: post #139
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 have the same question for this as I do for batsuit flyers. How on earth do you practice it? You can practice bench pressing by pressing a small weight. You can practice boxing by sparring. You can't just climb up to a deadly height - which isn't even very much, as people regularly die from falling out windows - and work your way up from there. You can't just do a little batsuit jump, either. You have to be going f…

For BASE jumping, many start with sky diving or jumping from relatively easy exits like bridges.

Most free solo climbers climb with a rope for the majority of their climbs, although exceptions like Paul Preuss exist. They often rehearse free solo projects many times on rope before going free solo, although there a notable cases of 'onsight' free solos like Hansjörg Auer's 'Weg durch den Fisch'. In the case discussed here, Alex Honnold apparently climbed Freerider around a dozen times on rope and rehearsed the crux pitch many more times. He did take several falls on the route, one of them spraining his ankle last summer.

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

#160

Post by [deleted] »

FrojoS wrote: post #145
takk309 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honnold has not free climbed the Dawn Wall. Adam Ondra did last year for the second free accent. [edit: fixed Adam's name]

Correct. The hardest pitch on the Dawn Wall is rated 9a and in addition the climbing is of a very particular style (slabs) that does not suite most 9a climbers. It is quite possible that the Dawn Wall won't be repeated for a long time. Alex Honnold has never free climbed any 9a but recently stated that this is one of his next goals.

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