Can Free-Soloing Be a Dick Move?

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Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Mar 9, 2010 - 07:13pm PT
99% of the time it's a total dick move. If they are your buddies, then you can do anything you want. But if you solo up to a party and ask to pass, even soloing up to them is a dick move. What are they going to say? "No, down climb the f*#ker"? Of course they'll let you pass simply because they are freaked and want you gone.
I thought soloing was supposed to be all spiritual and oneness with the rock? Where does that come in when soloing past a party?
Soloing past a party is pretty much an egotistical dick move.
caughtinside

Social climber
Davis, CA
Mar 9, 2010 - 07:33pm PT
I've had people freesolo by me a handful of times on some of the moderates at the Leap. Never thought it was a Dick Move. Maybe they just wanted to get a bunch of mileage on some easy routes, which I happened to be roped up for. It's not uncommon to see those things get lapped all day long.

I did something similar a month ago at Jtree. A party was toproping the Eye. I know the Eye is super hardman rad at 5.1, but I like soloing it, I probably do it once a visit at least. One climber finished and lowered, and I asked if I could solo through, they said sure. I was totally looking to impress them with my manly 5.1 solo. I had no idea it was rude.
WBraun

climber
Mar 9, 2010 - 07:34pm PT
Hudon -- "I thought soloing was supposed to be all spiritual and oneness with the rock?"

That's what you thought/think, but is not necessarily the real truth.

You can't judge it since you ultimately don't know.

Mental speculation is not the truth ............

WBraun

climber
Mar 9, 2010 - 08:02pm PT
I'll be waiting for Coz to come free soloing up to me and give him a high five.

If it its someone I don't know then they get a high five too ....
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Mar 9, 2010 - 08:05pm PT
Free soloing, depending on the context, can be a dick move- it also can be a last move.
Hawkeye

climber
State of Mine
Mar 9, 2010 - 09:31pm PT
wes,if it were a chick would it be a cl*t move? i would rather get into that...
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Mar 10, 2010 - 07:25am PT
some of You guys seem to put free soloing into some kind of soul searching desperate revalation holy ground status where you can only be cool if you go off in the desert and do it alone. Maby that happens for some folks, might even happen to me on a few extreemly and increasingly rare ocasions.

For many soloing is simply a clutter free way of climbing and getting a bunch of verticle feet in without the hassels of rope, harness, gear etc. Do you call boulderes dicks because they climb without ropes?

The biggest dick move in my book is camping out all day on several climbs with a bunch of people,dogs,booze, drugs, litter and noise.
Or how about bringing a group of 20 beginners to the crag so you can make a paycheck yet no one else can get on a moderate climb that day.

I don't see the soloist who is 200% solid and polite and asks to have a turn at the only moderate climbs available as being a dick. Its just someone who wants to get some climbing in despite the fact that you have the climb tied up all day.
Stewart Johnson

climber
yo mama
Mar 10, 2010 - 10:10am PT
early eighties, west crack on daff dome.
there was three of us noobs hanging on the first pitch anchors, racking for the next pitch, when here comes john bacher soloing through, doesnt care to ask "mind if i climb through?" he just does it!
free soloists should have the right of way! please step aside!
eeyonkee

Trad climber
Golden, CO
Mar 10, 2010 - 10:32am PT
Ask Dick.
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Mar 10, 2010 - 10:59am PT
there was three of us noobs hanging on the first pitch anchors, racking for the next pitch, when here comes john bacher soloing through, doesnt care to ask "mind if i climb through?" he just does it!
free soloists should have the right of way! please step aside!

Total dick move.

Aren't there other routes around that he could have soloed?

Free soloists don't have the right of way if they are coming up behind you. You have every right in the world to tell them to wait or down climb and go do something else, go impress someone els.
Bullwinkle

Boulder climber
Mar 10, 2010 - 11:09am PT
wow, sure are alot of judgemental hardons on this thread. . .
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Mar 10, 2010 - 12:06pm PT
Let me be clear and honest here, I'm totally guilty of the Free-Soloing dick move. I've done if four or five times. Twice, it was no big deal, I soloed right by someone, they thought it was cool. No big deal. Once, I soloed up to a couple, a guy and a girl and they didn't say anything but I could see that they were a bit freaked. Another time, I was soloing past someone and the guy mentioned that it was unsafe and he really didn't appreciate it. I told him that I was Mark Hudon and that it was no big deal and to not worry about it. He mentioned holds breaking, me falling and involving them in my ensuing clusterf*#k. I told him to not worry about, he called me an as#@&%e, I told him to f*#k off, etc, etc...

Years later, when my ego finally grew up, I realized that he was right and that I was imposing "MY" sense of safety and "MY" sense of freedom upon them.

Total frikken dick move.
klk

Trad climber
cali
Mar 10, 2010 - 12:20pm PT
None of us has a clue what the original context was. One possibility: I'm spending a mileage day at the local crag, planning to cool-down with a quick run up a favorite moderate, two n00bs toss a tr on it, so I ask if I can get in a quick run while they are tying in-- they say, "yeah," so I run it.

This was and has been a standard practice at the N. American places best known for soloing training, from Little Smoke Bluffs to JTree, as developed by folks like Croft, Bachar, and then the rest of us hackers.

I gather that almost half the posters to this thread say that should never happen, that that practice was (in hindsight) f*#ked up, and we should end all public soloing.

F*#k that. We are way past the time when it was possible to find complete solitude at the average crag. If you can't stand to be around/below/above other folks climbing or soloing, then you'll never, ever climb a single popular summer route in the frickin Alps. I've spent way more time rescuin deckin n00bs than I ever have dealing with bad outcomes from competent soloists.

Now if the context were more nearly the one Maysho described? Then it would be a dick move.

atchafalaya

climber
Babylon
Mar 10, 2010 - 12:44pm PT
Maysho, was the slab Bastille slab? Or were tr's set on the kindergarten cracks?

Last summer, some guides would rig tr's on all 3 kindergarden cracks and camp on them for hours with a group around 10-15 people. Total dick move.



Rhodo-Router

Gym climber
Green Cove slabbage BITD!
Mar 10, 2010 - 01:19pm PT
Two variables, both unknowable:

-intent of soloist
-response of TRist


You want a straight answer out of this equation?

Good luck.

Inbox will look like a bucketful of as#@&%es, one from everybody.
Fat Dad

Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
Mar 10, 2010 - 02:01pm PT
I haven't chimed in in a while and I too am surprised by some of the harsh judgment being flung around. Maybe people just become more judgmental and less forgiving in their old age.

Twenty years ago I was on the NE Butt of Higher Cathedral when Werner came soloing by. The thought that he was a dick did not nor has not ever entered my mind. It was just Werner soloing by. We got out of our way as best we could so as not to mess with his mojo and that was that.

When did everyone become so uptight?
pda2540

climber
Mar 10, 2010 - 02:35pm PT
According to Urban Dictionary:

11. Dick Move (August 7, 2006 Urban Word of the Day)

Its when a guy behaves in a certain way to look better than his fellow guy friends, it might be done just to impress a gurl

===

This was a Dick Move.
kev

climber
A pile of dirt.
Mar 10, 2010 - 04:43pm PT
So here is a real DICK move. 5 or so years ago drc, myself and the babe du jour were simuling the arches. We were hung over and started late. About 1.5 hours after we started we (a party of 3) caught a party of 2 around p6 or 7 who started 3 hours earlier. We asked if they minded if we past. They said no. THAT WAS A DICK MOVE. So we followed the a-holes.

Next time I'll happily pass right on by. Call me a dick or whatever you want but I won't hear their crys for very long as they flounder around below.

kev
Chinchen

climber
Anacortes, wa
Mar 10, 2010 - 05:43pm PT
Ian, climbing above anyone without a rope is a dick move. That pretty much sorts you. I sure dont want to be hit in the head by a 180 lb flying sack of potatoes....would you?
klk

Trad climber
cali
Mar 10, 2010 - 06:05pm PT
chinchen-- what makes you think the roped parties above you aren't coming off or trundling blocks?

when i think about nightmare scenarios on trade routes, the one that comes to mind is a roped party simul climbing-- or just poorly anchored --coming off high up on east butt or w. ridge of one of the cathedrals and cleaning off all the parties beneath them.
Messages 61 - 80 of total 126 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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