The Mountain Unicorn: Free solo First Ascents

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Rick A

climber
Boulder, Colorado
Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 26, 2015 - 11:01am PT
I had a fun trip to Indian Creek with Greg Cameron last month and we met a couple of guys from Vancouver on the crack next to the one we were on.

The subject of Greg’s legendary first free ascent of Pipeline at Squamish came up and one of the Canadians said it is still considered an intimidating test piece, probably underrated at 5.10 d.

All the more remarkable since Greg free-soloed the route, on- sight back in 1979.

It got me thinking about how few solo first ascents there are and I could only think of the following, offhand.

• Greg Cameron: FFA Pipeline . Squamish
• Jim Erickson: FA Blind Faith, Eldorado Canyon.
• John Bachar: FA Edging Skills or Hospital Bills, Tuolumne
• Pete Cleveland: FA original route on Superpin, Black Hills
• John Yablonski: FA of Spiderline, Joshua Tree

Others?
Flip Flop

climber
Earth Planet, Universe
Nov 26, 2015 - 11:19am PT
Didn't Conrad Kain OSFS Bugaboo Spire?
rick sumner

Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
Nov 26, 2015 - 11:23am PT
JGILL probably has a lengthy list.
wbw

Trad climber
'cross the great divide
Nov 26, 2015 - 11:47am PT
Probably not quite up there in the realm of Pipeline, but Mick Fairchild's on-sight free solo of Smoke and Mirrors was very impressive. Located at nearly the very top of Redgarden Wall, looking up at that featured face and going for it sans rope seems to me very committing. It has since had a bolt or three added with Mick's blessing, and when I repeated it several years ago, my hands were sweating pondering doing the route in that style without knowing how good the features on that face would be. Turns out it's .10a but the features are obviously small when viewed from below.

I've asked Greg what he was thinking when he did the FA of Pipeline, and he basically said he was confident it would go, and if not he could down climb. Says a lot about the wide crack master Greg is to even believe what he told me. My buddy who just wrote the crack climber's technique book has told me that Pipeline is probably .11a, and while the crux is short, it apparently is steeper than vertical for several moves. I haven't done it, but it is another onsight free solo FA that has a position that makes me sick to contemplate.
john hansen

climber
Nov 26, 2015 - 12:11pm PT
How about David Breashears ,Perilous Journey?

He was tied to a rope, but placed no pro.

Does that count?
dhayan

climber
culver city, ca
Nov 26, 2015 - 12:17pm PT
Tobin Sorensen did Tobin's Dihedral at dome rock. Didn't Reardon do some notable ones?
looks easy from here

climber
Ben Lomond, CA
Nov 26, 2015 - 12:19pm PT
Alan Nelson: FA of Granite Garden, Dozier Dome, 5.9, 3 pitches if you were to use a rope, 7/86
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Nov 26, 2015 - 12:37pm PT
Michael Reardon did a free solo 5.12 at the Needles, Shikata Ga Nai.
Here's his email which describes it:

Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:11:08 -0500
From: michael@freesoloist.com
To: Clint Cummins <clint@stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: Shikata Ga Nai at Needles
Hi Clint,
Thank you for the kind words! It's always great to hear from others who enjoy the Needles as well.
"Shikata Ga Nai" is a project that I've been looking at for a couple years now, but had to train up accordingly.
The name is Japanese and translates basically to, "there is no other way". It's located to the right of "Predator"
and follows the obvious line/arete under "Nautilus". It starts with 100+ feet of 5.10 scrambling through bushes/trees
with the occasional smear move. At the big ledge, follow the 250+ foot gorgeous arete
(Thomas Kranzle repeated this pitch on a 300 foot TR and was a littled annoyed that I rated it 11d,
which is why I'm willing to go to 12a). No cheating and going onto the face holds with buckets (not to mention that
there are a few loose holds there). After that, you'll be right near the base of "Nautilus".
Follow 100 foot arching low angle crack (5.9?) to a ledge. From here, stay on the ledges until reaching the base
of an obvious line of tufas that stretch for 200+ feet up to 5.11.
That final pitch is about 200 feet to the left of "Iceberg"/"Lifeboat". You top out on the other side of "Shazam".
A really fun line and except for the second and last pitches, easy to protect.
BrassNuts

Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
Nov 26, 2015 - 12:56pm PT
The onsight free solo FFA of Sooberb on the West Ridge in Eldo by Jim Erickson is quite impressive - the 5.10c crux 3rd pitch is funky and burly!
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
Nov 26, 2015 - 01:29pm PT
Wasn't the Casual Route first free soloed by Charlie Fowler?
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
Nov 26, 2015 - 02:40pm PT
Great thread. One could add with or without being intoxicated on some various controlled substances at the time.

looking sketchy there...

Social climber
Lassitude 33
Nov 26, 2015 - 02:40pm PT
Josh, as you would suspect, has quite a few of these given the oft short nature of the climbs.
Tails of Poodles 10a
Fatal Flaw 5.9
Nuts Are For Men Without Balls 5.8
and tons more.
mongrel

Trad climber
Truckee, CA
Nov 26, 2015 - 02:52pm PT
Well, I'm sure there's a long list of these by Paul Preuss in around 1911-13. His Wikipedia biography states he made 1,200 ascents, 300 of them solo, and 150 FAs (many of those solo?). Alas, he fell off an attempt at a solo FA. Walter Bonatti solo FAed the Bonatti Pillar on the Dru (which, in an ironic twist, almost the whole route fell off the mountain later). It was a roped/And some others.

Expanding the scope a bit beyond modern short rock routes, there's always Hermann Buhl, Nanga Parbat; Rheinhold Messner, solo FA of a new route on the north or NW face of the Droites and any number of other mountain routes I'm sure.

Lots of them when you start to think about it. Probably the earliest known isn't an FA but a solo first descent, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who got down Scafell via the Broad Stand, a ledge/gully system with some actual climbing moves, in 1802. Supposedly he got lost and once he realized this wasn't the trail he was committed (to continuing).

Not only were all these early soloists using really poor equipment, they didn't have the mental advantage of knowing what is possible, or not.

That said, Perilous Journey and Reardon's e-mail up a few posts really are cause for a change of diapers.
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Nov 26, 2015 - 04:14pm PT
Blazing Buckets, 5.10 Reeds Pinnacle, Yosemite FA solo
Rick A

climber
Boulder, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 26, 2015 - 06:51pm PT

Greg
Greg Barnes

climber
Nov 26, 2015 - 08:23pm PT
It got me thinking about how few solo first ascents there are
There are piles in Tuolumne, Vicious Thing was really early on. Good number of other multi-pitch like Solitary Confinement and the 3 Alan Nelson solos right of that. Alan Nelson did others, Terrorist is a 5.10 free solo on Lost Wall, Fool's Gold is a long 5.10a slab (later retrobolted into Plagiarism - that slab left of El Condor - I don't think Grant knew about the previous free solo FA?). Lots of shorter (more in the 80' range) free solo FAs by various folks (especially Alan Nelson) if you look at the FA list...
Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber
San Francisco
Nov 26, 2015 - 09:35pm PT
I soloed this thing as a possible OS FA. Not a 5.10 though! Sketchy rock and an exposed mantle that is likely a tad harder than 5.5. But who knows, if I had climbing shoes maybe it would feel easier?
https://www.mountainproject.com/v/east-rib---north/108185498
KP Ariza

climber
SCC
Nov 26, 2015 - 10:32pm PT
I did the unroped FA of "West Side Story" 5.10b and "Jughead" 5.8 off of a large terrace up and left of the five open books in Yosemite Valley. Bolted, led and named two years after the fact by Tucker Tech.
RyanD

climber
Nov 27, 2015 - 07:50am PT
Pipeline finally received its second free solo this year by young Marc.
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Nov 27, 2015 - 08:07am PT

here is that - from the, very Fly, V.M.

Vitaliy M.:
I soloed this thing as a possible OS FA. Not a 5.10 though!
Sketchy rock and an exposed mantle that is likely a tad harder than 5.5.
But who knows, if I had climbing shoes maybe it would feel easier?


https://www.mountainproject.com/v/east-rib---north/108185498
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