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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

#51

Post by specialp »

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.

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 Evel Kneviel although he was massively famous. Of course some will try to replicate but they are also special people that are daredevils as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_solo_climbing has a list of free solo climbers. A large number of them have died.

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

#52

Post by rgzn »

takk309 wrote: post #36
tuna-piano wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea of how many people have free climbed this route? I'm really curious to know if Honnold is a one-of-a-kind climber or there are similar skill level climbers who just aren't willing to risk it without ropes? Either way he's amazing, but I'm curious to know how amazing.

This route, called the Freerider, has been free climbed by a lot of people. It is arguably the easiest free climb on El Cap. That being said it is out of the range of most climbers. I will assume you are not familiar with climbing grades, here is an overview: http://www.coloradomountaineering.com/2012/01/guide-to-yosem... The Freerider is rated at 5.12d. This is a grade that most people will struggle to attain withou…

Honnold climbed the boulder problem variation, which is 13a. The Teflon Corner at 12d is slightly easier but less secure, so worse for soloing.

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

#54

Post by praneshp »

KboPAacDA3 wrote: post #18
justinator wrote: post #2

Proper Planning and Practice Prevents Piss Poor Performance. and DEATH. In all seriousness, Alex's mental and physical conditioning to achieve this goal should be lauded, examined, written about, and taught.

I google him about once a year to see if he is still alive, and I'm surprised each time.

Ha ha, I always find it difficult to choose between your joke, and the fact that someone sells this: https://www.rei.com/product/869679/maxim-alex-honnold-signat...

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

#55

Post by Fricken »

rgzn wrote: post #35
tuna-piano wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea of how many people have free climbed this route? I'm really curious to know if Honnold is a one-of-a-kind climber or there are similar skill level climbers who just aren't willing to risk it without ropes? Either way he's amazing, but I'm curious to know how amazing.

Also, there are many climbers more skilled than Honnold at climbing hard routes. Honnold is not even in competition for climbing the hardest grades. However, there is no one close to him in his confidence and security off-rope on difficult grades.

Climbing has many different disciplines, lets not confuse marathon runners with sprinters. Honnold is the best big wall speed climber out there, hands down. Of course, to set speed records these days you not only need to be in top physical condition, you've got to compromise or abandon altogether your reliance on safety gear.

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

#56

Post by masterj »

Zanta wrote: post #45
imsd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fairly experienced climber, this is a very difficult route; one that only the most elite climbers can free climb. But, free climbing it isn't necessarily rare and even as Honnold did this free solo, other parties were camping on the wall. There's little data on this sort of topic, but I'd estimate that less than 0.25% of climbers achieve the level of physical skill and technical expertise required to free climb…

Agreed, the other replies to this question seem to understate the difficulty of the route. It's a lifetime achievement for almost any climber. I'd ballpark that it's been free climbed by 100-300 people?

> I'd ballpark that it's been free climbed by 100-300 people?

If you restrict that to people who've done it in a day you're probably down to a couple dozen at most.

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

#57

Post by DarkTree »

> "I woke up one guy and he sort of said, 'Oh, hey.' Then when I went by, I think he discreetly woke up his buddies because when I looked down they were all three standing there like 'What the f*?' "

What an awesome story for a climber: "I was woken up on the wall by the first guy to free solo El Cap"

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

#58

Post by dabernathy89 »

imsd wrote: post #30
tuna-piano wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea of how many people have free climbed this route? I'm really curious to know if Honnold is a one-of-a-kind climber or there are similar skill level climbers who just aren't willing to risk it without ropes? Either way he's amazing, but I'm curious to know how amazing.

As a fairly experienced climber, this is a very difficult route; one that only the most elite climbers can free climb. But, free climbing it isn't necessarily rare and even as Honnold did this free solo, other parties were camping on the wall. There's little data on this sort of topic, but I'd estimate that less than 0.25% of climbers achieve the level of physical skill and technical expertise required to free climb…

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?

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

#59

Post by shriphani »

About Alex Honnold, there's just one thing that comes to mind - Unbridled Ambition.

That same spirit that Caesar's men harnessed to build a bridge across the Rhine in 10 days, that led NASA to get to the moon in a decade, that led to the empire state building being erected in slightly over a year.

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

#60

Post by blackguardx »

Fricken wrote: post #41
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.

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.
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