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ashtond6
climber
Sheffield, UK
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 19, 2014 - 03:26pm PT
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Rumor has it, whittaker flashed freerider
Anyone know?
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Oct 19, 2014 - 03:27pm PT
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Just saw on Facebook. Gnarly. Those guys are the real deal.
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nah000
climber
canuckistan
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Oct 19, 2014 - 05:59pm PT
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tom and pete posted about it on their wide boyz blog
congrats to both of them on another great team effort!
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Oct 19, 2014 - 07:34pm PT
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That's proud. Congrats to Pete.
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go-B
climber
Cling to what is good!
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Oct 19, 2014 - 07:37pm PT
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Cheers to the wall boyz, Pete!
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mikeyschaefer
climber
Yosemite
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Oct 19, 2014 - 07:54pm PT
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I'm a bit confused at exactly what happened up there. It appears they rapped to the ground after the first day which in my book is an interruption of a continues free ascent which is something I consider fairly important in bigwall free climbing. But maybe this is just a rule I set for myself.
The below quote from their blog also makes it sounds like they did indeed fall which isn't exactly a flash. As far as I know a flash is starting from the ground and going to the top without falling. Doesn't sound like that happened. Maybe the brits have a slightly different definition that I'm not aware of?
I narrowly missed flashing the problem falling from the last move after not spotting a crucial hold. I was really annoyed as I felt as though i could have done it. I made a quick redpoint to make sure I still had a ‘safe tick’ of the route on the cards. The holds are quite thin on this pitch and as it got warmer Tom couldn’t quite claw his way up in the increasing heat.
Damn good effort though!
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nah000
climber
canuckistan
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Oct 19, 2014 - 08:04pm PT
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^^^^
where the route has two variations they first tried the huber variation. when they fell on this they went back down and then continued up and pete flashed the teflon corner variation...
when it comes to big wall free climbing this is a bit of a grey one... i'd bet most people would consider the "flash" on the route as a whole to be lost at this point.
the other thing that wasn't made explicit was whether pete flashed every pitch on lead [as yuji and others have attempted to] or whether he "flashed" some of them while seconding...
regardless probably the only legalistically correct way to describe this is as they do at the end of their post: "[Pete] managed to climb the whole of Freerider [via the teflon corner pitch] without taking a fall"
to call it a "flash" would seem to be a bit of a stretch when after they fell they just turned around and tried another variation...
still awesome though...
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mikeyschaefer
climber
Yosemite
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Oct 19, 2014 - 08:19pm PT
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Definitely an impressive effort and one step closer to a proper no falls ground up ascent of El cap.
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RP3
Big Wall climber
Twain Harte
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Oct 19, 2014 - 11:23pm PT
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WOW! Very impressive effort. A ground-up no falls flash is right around the corner!
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Oct 20, 2014 - 05:46am PT
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What exactly is the Brit definition of flashing? Full moon on Freerider?
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Port
Trad climber
Norwalk, CT
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Oct 20, 2014 - 06:44am PT
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Not a flash... But impressive!
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nah000
climber
canuckistan
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Oct 20, 2014 - 07:30am PT
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while i personally disagree with characterizing this ascent as a flash, it's not as black and white as some seem to imply...
to most people, redpointing every pitch constitutes a redpoint for a big wall free ascent, [except to the hubers, who don't accept just returning to the last belay after falling] why wouldn't the same logic apply to a flash ascent...
in this case pete did flash every pitch on the teflon corner variation of freerider...
point being i can see how someone would call this a flash, even though it's a definition that doesn't work for me...
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Oct 20, 2014 - 07:50am PT
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I met these guys in Camp 4 last month and they mentioned they had big plans. Good to see it's working out for them. I was also heartened to see on their blog that they thought the 5.7 chimney after the Hollow Flake was as hard as I did.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 20, 2014 - 08:25am PT
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When I was on the Salathe in the Spring, Ethan Pringle attempted to flash the Freerider. He had one fall, I believe, and redpointed one of the crux pitches, but aside from that did it all free with just one bivy. That was super inspiring to witness. Him and his partner were really fun to climb around too. Fun times.
Inspiring cliff, from Saturday:
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Oct 20, 2014 - 08:51am PT
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. . . at least there were no hood ornaments used in this ascent.
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Trashman
Trad climber
SLC
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Oct 20, 2014 - 09:38am PT
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Seems like another astrisk flash, albeit a proud one. Serious question, does leaving the valley during the trip down change things? Personally I think the previous trip up the salathe by the Anderson brothers is a bigger issue, but coming down mid ascent seems like a bigger issue in the case of the wide boyz. http://www.climbing.com/news/twins-free-el-cap/
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stormeh
climber
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Oct 20, 2014 - 01:05pm PT
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It is sort of hard to tell exactly what happened from their narrative, but it seems to me that this is a flash for Pete. Quoted from the blog "Tom had managed to free his second big wall on El Cap and somehow I’d managed to climb the whole of Freerider without taking a fall."
Grats Pete and Tom! Another one for the history books...
Quick question, is the "Huber Variation" or the "Teflon Corner" considered on the route proper or are both variations to a pitch that is considered the standard for the Freerider?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 20, 2014 - 01:21pm PT
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Freerider is essentially defined as finding the easiest free variations to the Salathe' Wall.
So it skips the p19 corner via the Monster ow,
and it skips the headwall by traversing left at the roof.
As for the Boulder problem vs. the Teflon Corner,
The Teflon was used on the FFA, but it is often wet in the spring.
So the Hubers found the Boulder problem.
Most people have used the Boulder version of this pitch,
but then a hold broke.
So the Teflon Corner may be the easiest way now, at least when it is dry.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Oct 20, 2014 - 01:22pm PT
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Cedric Lachat and Mike Anderson both had "sort of, almost" flashes. Lachat did essentially the same thing as Whitaker, tried one version of the crux pitch, fell, went to the other and sent.
If I recall correctly, Stephane the canadian who rope soloed it also flashed it or came close.
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Grippa
Trad climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Oct 22, 2014 - 08:30pm PT
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SOOOOOOO inspiring. Falls or no falls they crushed the route. I'm training for a flash attempted of Astroman next spring. PSYCHED!!
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