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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

#231

Post by dota_fanatic »

cbtacy wrote: post #207
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…

Speaking as a former sponsored, professional climber who happens to have been one of the first Americans to solo 5.13... sorry but I'm still alive and kicking. Listen... soloing is obviously very dangerous. Nobody who is out there soloing as a pastime is unaware of this. But comparing soloing to trying to jump gorges on rocket slides isn't doing justice to a complicated and nuanced subject. Soloing is a personal deci…

What would you estimate his chance of death was in doing this climb? 1%? 5%? Most people would call someone who takes on that kind of deadly risk for nothing more than accomplishment and legacy, ie by choice, a daredevil.

If free soloing is not usually thrilling, or adrenaline inducing, but something you approach with care, methods, and preparation... what's the point of the induced-risk? Why not take on a similar challenge that's more difficult, minus the non-trivial probability of dead, like most other climbers do?

Gamers find themselves introducing more and more arbitrary challenges to make their accomplishments more difficult to achieve. The difference between gamers and free soloers, is that when gamers fail, they don't destroy, to various extents, the lives of all the people that loved and supported them as a side-effect of their failure, all because they thought it was a good idea to introduce deadly activities into their lives.

How is this not daredevil behavior?

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

#233

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

DoubleCribble wrote: post #191
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also presume that from a physical perspective he must be above average in ways that matter for this sport.

Indeed. Tall, skinny, gangly, and very big hands & fingers with incredible power. Imagine doing 10 sets of reps of pulls-ups but hanging on with only one finger at a time to get an idea. As if one-arm pull-ups weren't hard enough, pinky pull-ups are on a whole different level.

I won't call him gangly. He isn't even skinny in the sense most people assume (no muscle, stick figure).

He seems to have a lot of lean muscle (http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/06/05/ap_17155772401614...)

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

#234

Post by pcmonk »

vlasev wrote: post #170
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sounds like a bad idea to me. People like Alex have a pretty short life expectancy.

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

#235

Post by ChicagoBoy11 »

zzalpha wrote: post #152
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.

I had in mind just the support people around and the assumption that sponsors/etc prob. were aware of it, but I absolutely take your point. Agreed that the fact that it was kept this hush is another sign of the quality of his process

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

#236

Post by fiter »

maxxxxx wrote: post #111
avar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The population sizes are vastly different between chain smokers and free soloists.

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

#238

Post by komali2 »

pcmonk wrote: post #234
vlasev wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sounds like a bad idea to me. People like Alex have a pretty short life expectancy.

But what a life they lead.

Considering you and I have a 100% chance of death anyway, I see the attraction.

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

#239

Post by briandear »

crikli wrote: post #121
takk309 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, dries hands and magically builds confidence. The ratio depends on weather and grade of the climb.

And the type of stone. There are places in Colorado where I don't bother with chalk because it's sandstone and is so gritty that chalk is ineffective.

On Chamonix-area granite, chalk is essential for me. Makes a huge difference. Definitely depends on the rock and the amount of sweat your hands produce.
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