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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

#451

Post by bbctol »

kbenson wrote: post #306
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…

It’s all too easy for headlines about climbing to lean on clichés about the climbers themselves—that these people are daredevils, thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies. But to most climbers, nothing is quicker to trigger the gag reflex. Climbing is an intimate relationship with our world’s most dramatic landscapes, not a self-boasting fight against them. I don’t claim to understand the inner workings of Alex’s mind, but…

It's about not being encumbered by all the extra material. People can feel more fulfilled by just experiencing themselves and the mountain, not themselves, the mountain, and a whole mess of carabiners and leveraged ropes.

Honnold's no thrill-seeker, he just prefers doing things alone.

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

#452

Post by [deleted] »

hluska wrote: post #374
kbenson wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s all too easy for headlines about climbing to lean on clichés about the climbers themselves—that these people are daredevils, thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies. But to most climbers, nothing is quicker to trigger the gag reflex. Climbing is an intimate relationship with our world’s most dramatic landscapes, not a self-boasting fight against them. I don’t claim to understand the inner workings of Alex’s mind, but…

I have a couple of things that might help you a bit: 1. Alex Honnold's brain is atypical. His amygdala simply does not respond to stimuli the way that it does in most people. To learn more, read this (excellent) article: http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-wor... 2. While I am (at best) a mediocre climber, the section you quoted rings true to me, particularly this section - "Climbing is an intima…

[deleted]

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

#453

Post by kem »

jedberg wrote: post #64
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…

Survivorship bias (of the most real kind). You can only be great if you live. :)

Survivorship bias needs to be taught in schools at a young age, like in kindergarten. It's so insidious.

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

#454

Post by kem »

AcerbicZero wrote: post #129
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.

In the end it is his choice.

I had a similar reaction. The headlines might as well been "extremely skilled climber makes wildly risky bet and lives to tell the tale."

Sure he's skilled; sure he is strategic. What I want to know is could he do this over and over again without dying? My guess is not. His odds would probably be higher than most others' but still risky.

But in the end, if it's what he wants to do, so be it. To me it's interesting but not something I'd like to do, regardless of the risk. Spending my time climbing rock walls is just not appealing to me, even if it's out in the wilderness, which I love.

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

#455

Post by justin66 »

YokoZar wrote: post #444
hervature wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that this is probably the biggest misconception about Alex. Pad your estimates of death with a couple of 0's, that is, 0.01% (even less) chance of death. From this article others have posted https://www.outsideonline.com/2190306/why-alex-honnolds-free... : > “It would be so easy for you—you know you wont fall on 5.12,” In essence, he is so good at climbing, this is like going up a really long ladder for the a…

On what basis do you think his odds of death on a given climb are less than 0.01%?

The guy has done the route many, many times with a rope. You could sort of work out a probability based on how many times he has had to save himself with the rope. (I'm not sure he ever has)

downvoter: justify yourself. Do you object to making the calculation this way, or what?

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

#456

Post by idlewords »

vanderZwan wrote: post #418
tvelichkov wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I understand you, its like having a sex with or w/o a condom ;)

I think more like with or without the neighbours knocking on the walls telling you to keep it down

It's like having sex without falling three thousand feet to your death.

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

#457

Post by idlewords »

petertodd wrote: post #329
hluska wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree with that. In fact, I wear a helmet whenever I am near a wall because I have seen way too many formerly solid looking rocks fall, even on granite. Heck, a few years ago, a 2000 ton slab of rock fell off of Half Dome, which is a famous granite dome in Yosemite. I can't find the article now (of course), but I read a great article about how rock expands and contracts with the heat of the sun, water gets in…

You're missing a very important distinction though: for a solo climber the main thing out of their control that's different from normal rock climbing is holds breaking unexpectedly. For that risk, having lots of people climbing the rock helps increase the chances that such unexpectedly weak holds will have been broken already by someone else; obviously loose rock isn't so much of an issue, for the simple reason that…

This is an exceptionally interesting comment. Thank you!

It occurs to me that this phenomenon will also be a big risk factor in lunar exploration, if people ever go back up there.

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

#458

Post by idlewords »

ForHackernews wrote: post #193
paddy_m wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Did he ask him if he uses BrainQuicken (tm) to achieve his success?

Honnold is clearly a Four-Hour Climber. Story checks out.

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

#459

Post by [deleted] »

kbenson wrote: post #306
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…

It’s all too easy for headlines about climbing to lean on clichés about the climbers themselves—that these people are daredevils, thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies. But to most climbers, nothing is quicker to trigger the gag reflex. Climbing is an intimate relationship with our world’s most dramatic landscapes, not a self-boasting fight against them. I don’t claim to understand the inner workings of Alex’s mind, but…

[deleted]
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