121–130 of 153 posts
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I suspect a lot of this is habituation due to repeated practise. As long as one climbs well within one's abilities, the actual level of danger is comparatively low. But the fear is still there and needs to be trained away.
I don't think it required much training for Alex, I think he just has an under active amygdala or something
https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...
I need to share a video [0] which helped contextualize Alex Honnold for me by contrasting him with another climber I've watched for years: Magnus Midtbo. In this video they're solo climbing a fairly simple and safe mountain, and Magnus is visibly stressed out while Alex calmly shouts encouragement all while recording. When watching Alex Honnold in Free Solo, I understood there was a exceptional aspect to him, but it…
I suspect a lot of this is habituation due to repeated practise. As long as one climbs well within one's abilities, the actual level of danger is comparatively low. But the fear is still there and needs to be trained away.
https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you forgot that architects count the wind forces in, not just the weight of pieces hanging onto the facade. Give them dynamic spikes of factor 10, so it looks more like 1000lbs. Only once you can get your engineers to agree on only factor 2, you can build much much lighter structures.
No I didn’t, you’re talking about big sheets of stuff, which probably won’t have anything to hold onto on it. I’m talking about the fiddly little bits that he’s likely to be holding onto. A little bit of flashing around a window has a wind load approaching zero.
I know nothing about climbing. beyond the straight flex of "I could die if I make a mistake", is there a point to doing this without safety equipment?
Money! He has a family to provide for and his unique skillset is "climbing below his grade but with no support", so that's the service he offers the world. (I get that there are more motivations underneath free soloing in general, but I doubt Taipei 101 with a million cameras is the climb he'd choose if it were not for the money.)
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Do you know if there was any guidelines to not "disturb" during his climb? Was shocked by how many people tried to distract him during that climb
They kept most folks pretty far away, you needed a pass or to work in one of the offices to get really close. I was also terrified when ppl would engage with him directly lol
Do you have any photos on social media?
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He was able to practice El Capitan over and over, though. Was he able to in Tapei?
Yes. You can see him here climb with ropes: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/24/world/video/alex-honnold-... It would be insanely reckless to free solo without practicing first.
I need to share a video [0] which helped contextualize Alex Honnold for me by contrasting him with another climber I've watched for years: Magnus Midtbo. In this video they're solo climbing a fairly simple and safe mountain, and Magnus is visibly stressed out while Alex calmly shouts encouragement all while recording. When watching Alex Honnold in Free Solo, I understood there was a exceptional aspect to him, but it…
I suspect a lot of this is habituation due to repeated practise. As long as one climbs well within one's abilities, the actual level of danger is comparatively low. But the fear is still there and needs to be trained away.
(Source: I'm also a climber. Not remotely close to Alex's level. But frequent exposure significantly changes how your brain processes these situations)
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I'm wondering if this is because El Capitan is a much more technically difficult climb and thus posing much more risk than Taipei 101.
>Climbing star, 23, dies after falling from Yosemite's El Capitan [this past Wednesday] >Balin Miller, 23, was live-streamed on TikTok ascending and subsequently falling from the monolith on Wednesday. >Details of what caused the incident are not clear, but Miller's brother Dylan told AFP he was lead rope soloing - a technique that enables climbing alone while still protected by a rope - on a 2,400ft (730m) route nam…
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Alex Honnold: No free soloist ever died doing anything cutting edge. Nobody died doing something really hard. A handful people died doing things that are easy. Most soloist died in different types of accidents...base jumping, rogue wave. Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9WWUNDb_S0o
Factually inaccurate, the Wikipedia page for free solo climbing has an entire section on prominent free solo climber deaths. In my view this guy is pretty irresponsible especially for promoting a “sport” that is unnecessarily dangerous in the most preventable way imaginable. A bunch of kids and stupid adults watched that live stream and a non-zero amount of them now think they can try the same thing without anywhere…
I have a fascination with this kind of stuff. Taking risks is sometimes necessary and worthwhile in life, but seriously, risking your life just so you can say you realized a specific feat is really dumb. Especially when we have the technology to do the thing just fine with no problem whatsoever. I think those people live too comfortable lives and try to feel something. They could apply those skills to some meaningful work, but of course it doesn't get the same recognition.