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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

#161

Post by japhyr »

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

It's worth noting that both Dan Osman and Dean Potter died in part due to park service policies.

The park service allows all kinds of activities that cater to motorized tourists, but bans specialized activities like base jumping. Yosemite is one of the best places in the world to base jump, not just because of its beauty but because the cliffs are oriented well for base jumping. The ban pushes jumpers to fly at dawn or dusk, and hide their activities, in a way that pushes the safety margins.

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

#162

Post by cgh »

blackguardx wrote: post #60
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…

Reardon's death has been attributed to free soloing on a sea cliff, but the official cause of death was drowning.

Well, he was standing around getting his picture taken when a big wave came in and washed him away. Whether he was free soloing or suntanning, it wouldn't have made any difference. Really sad, he was a massive talent and his solo of Romantic Warrior was astonishing.

http://images.summitpost.org/original/281779.jpg

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

#163

Post by ProAm »

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.

Everyone gets to live their own life and choose their own path. To each their own.

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

#164

Post by raygelogic »

tshadley wrote: post #150

Assuming Honnold has perfect ability, what are the risks of the route itself? I assume these routes are kept clean of loose rock, holds are inspected constantly and anything showing wear is communicated to the climber community.

hey, actually no one maintains the routes in an official capacity. there are groups of climbers who voluntarily will upgrade fixed protection, or individuals who do the same, but certainly no governing body. it's not like a hiking trail, for example. it's pretty wild west, but generally people work together.

as far as the objective risks, they include loose rock, broken holds, wet rock, birds spooking you, base jumpers spooking you, hornets, climbers dropping things by accident on you.

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

#165

Post by fvdessen »

legohead wrote: post #137
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.

Fear of falling is natural, and good. If yours is a bonafide phobia, that will be a challenge of course, but some people climb in order to fight their phobia. There's an interesting progression with regard to fear in rock climbing. Bouldering is fairly limited, fear-wise (if you don't count highballs). It's a great way for anyone to get into climbing, and just have fun. Top-roping a wall is pretty benign as well, sin…

Some people don't have any fear; Sometimes I forget to clip when I'm lead climbing.

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

#166

Post by dabernathy89 »

imsd wrote: post #149
dabernathy89 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Honnold can solo this route in 4 hours, why do the free climbers need to camp on it? Do they take longer? Or need more rest time between sections?

Most climbers take significantly longer because: 1) When using gear (unlike Alex), you have to repeatedly stop and insert it, referred to as "protection." This slows progress and your partner has to then stop and remove that protection as you ascend. After each pitch (think a rope length), you then have to set up an anchor and organize/sort the gear before progressing. So, using and managing gear takes considerable t…

That's a good run-through, thanks!

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

#167

Post by paddy_m »

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 thought Tim Ferriss's interview of Honnold was quite an interesting exploration of his thought process.

http://tim.blog/2016/05/17/alex-honnold/

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

#168

Post by zzalpha »

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.

To all those people attacking this guy, I think it's important to point out that free soloing is absolutely controversial in the climbing community, for exactly this reason. Heck, Clif dropped some climber sponsorships, including Honnold's, for just this reason:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/sports/clif-bar-drops-spo...

Personally, I do think that free soloists like Honnold to some extent damage the reputation of the sport by making it appear inaccessible and irresponsibly risky, while the reality for sport climbers is that the sport is really fairly safe with proper training and equipment.

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

#169

Post by hyperbovine »

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.

Do not despair: he literally does not experience that feeling (http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-wor...). It's like being bummed that you can't spray a fountain of water out of your elephant trunk. There's fundamental physiological difference.

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

#170

Post by vlasev »

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.

Apparently, meditation can reduce the size of your amygdala [1], and this reduces your fear response, so yea. I'm not saying you can become like him, but you can make some headway in that direction.

[1]: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-does-mi...

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