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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

#421

Post by Ntrails »

breatheoften wrote: post #419
kbenson wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are certain things we humans can do which give us access to unique highly desirable mental states. Sure. If cheating death is the path to that state for some people, that's understandable , and not really something new. I'm not judging him, this isn't some roundabout way to say people shouldn't free-solo. I'm literally trying to figure out if there's something else to it I'm missing, because the way it's stat…

I've free soloed easy routes (long 5.4-5.6 routes in tahquitz -- I regularly climb in the 5.12s). Soloing something that you are comfortable with is enjoyable precisely because you _dont_ feel like you are cheating death. It feels like a fun romp -- quickly up and down -- you move faster, you don't have to stop and deal with belays, and often you can downclimb the route and avoid a lengthy walk-off. To the extent tha…

> Soloing something that you are comfortable with is enjoyable precisely because you _dont_ feel like you are cheating death. It feels like a fun romp..

Up until that slightly exposed bit where you suddenly get buffeted by some wind and spend 30 seconds panting slightly whilst re-organising your thoughts. It is, without question, the most pure/fun form of climbing. To my simple brain staying calm and on point for a 4 hour free solo is just inconceivable

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

#422

Post by yread »

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.

He also planned to solo the Free rider

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

#423

Post by vanderZwan »

lflux wrote: post #29

Some great pictures from the climb: http://elcapreport.com/content/elcap-report-6317-special-edi...

I'd love to see a picture of the entire wall, with rectangles showing which tiny part of it we're looking at for each photo, just to get a better feeling for how high the climb is.

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

#424

Post by Angostura »

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…

I'm not a climber, but I imagine that there could be two things going on here:

1. The sheer pleasure of doing something unaided - people enjoy doing crosswords without referring to computer screen that will tell them all 7 letter words ending in g-something-t.

2. The pleasure of feeling yourself as part of nature. The walk in the woods wearing shorts and a T-shirt, rather than racing through it on a motorcycle.

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

#425

Post by test1235 »

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…

Andy Kirkpatrick is another climber who solos (but aid climbs, not free solo) and mentions a few times in his books that he does so because he doesn't want to deal with the faff of other people.

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

#426

Post by theparanoid »

scottcha wrote: post #352
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 think the main thing you need to realize is that is climbing with ropes there is a lot of overhead involved to do it safely. I'd say about 1/8th of the time is climbing the other 7/8 is spent with the logistics of the rope management, partner management and placing protection in the rock. With free soloing you can focus entirely on the climbing and not on the logistics. I honestly think its more about this focus an…

I free solo'ed small stuff, mostly 5.6/5.7. It's a rush, the desire will always be there.

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

#427

Post by erkkie »

tmh79 wrote: post #342
kbenson wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you really want to understand just how impressive this was: I have no doubt it's impressive. I'm impressed. I'm not trying to diminish that in any way. > you could say the same thing about top-roping vs lead climbing (placing protection from the ground up). Yes, top-roping is much safer, but the experience & sense of achievement is just not the same. My question is why is the sense of achievement not the same. I…

Free soloing is "inherently easier" in the physical sense when you abstract danger from situation, climbing with ropes slows a team down significantly. That is one of the reasons AH was able to climb the route in 4 hours as opposed to the usual 4 days. In your hypothetical scenario the answer is yes, if there is no danger, the achievement of climbing without ropes is lessened. The experience of free soloing is to sma…

"unique clarity of mind, a change in ego, a confidence game" - as an climber with some mildly risky free solo experience, this is a very good description.

It seems to me with no consequences of falling, that ultimate level of focus and control is impossible (hard?) to achieve, although one can get close with varying levels of more risky but less deadly climbs (lead climbing with a super long run-out and so on).

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

#428

Post by andyjohnson0 »

On a message board I use there has been some interesting discussion [1] of whether elite climbers are being subject to pressure to take unreasonable risks due to the need to stay visible on social media, the commercial requirements of sponsors, and increasing interest in climbing by media orgs like Nat Geographic. I climb at a very modest level and don't feel qualified to judge in this case, and I certainly don't want to imply that Alex isn't making informed judgements about what he does, but I suspect these concerns may have some validity.

But an awesome achievement, nevertheless.

[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=665201&v=1

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

#429

Post by breatheoften »

Ntrails wrote: post #421
breatheoften wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've free soloed easy routes (long 5.4-5.6 routes in tahquitz -- I regularly climb in the 5.12s). Soloing something that you are comfortable with is enjoyable precisely because you _dont_ feel like you are cheating death. It feels like a fun romp -- quickly up and down -- you move faster, you don't have to stop and deal with belays, and often you can downclimb the route and avoid a lengthy walk-off. To the extent tha…

> Soloing something that you are comfortable with is enjoyable precisely because you _dont_ feel like you are cheating death. It feels like a fun romp.. Up until that slightly exposed bit where you suddenly get buffeted by some wind and spend 30 seconds panting slightly whilst re-organising your thoughts. It is, without question, the most pure/fun form of climbing. To my simple brain staying calm and on point for a 4…

Completely agree -- however if it wasnt inconceivable it would be very cool for reasons other than the grandparents postulated satisfaction of defying death.

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

#430

Post by carsonbaker »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #361
cynicalbastard wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i used to think that, but now i'm not so sure. his free climbs are basically choreographed down to the inch, well ahead of time. that is a completely different thing than just going up because he's in a good mood and thinks he can do it.

That is like saying you can flip 50 coins and have them come up heads every time because your flips were choreographed. Every single move he makes, every fingerhold, every foot placement, everything, must be perfect every time. The rock can't crumble unexpectedly,the sun can't momentarily blind him, hell, a butterfly in the Peruvian Andes can't flap its wings just so. There must be thousands of such points in his cli…

Your comment doesn't make sense. You can't choreograph the result of coin flip, but you can definitely rehearse a rock climbing sequence so that you always nail it. I can promise you there weren't thousands of moments on this climb where chossy rock, the sun, or chaos theory had anything to do with his success or failure.
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