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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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Mar 28, 2010 - 01:54pm PT
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I am surprised no one has mentioned Tobin Sorenson yet ...
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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Mar 28, 2010 - 01:57pm PT
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we find skeletons all the time in the bottom of devils canyon.
LSD climbers. they would test the acid by taking a hit and then climbing at night.
you could here the midnight screams for miles.
no wait...that was the Free Love Draft Dodgers organization, hamming it up.
i made a hash pipe out of patty hearst's femur.
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Mar 28, 2010 - 01:58pm PT
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"As a culture, it seems we sometimes lose sight of the fact that all roads lead to death.
We try to live long lives, we try to live full lives.
We do the best we can."
Elegantly put Roy.
ps, it's Guokas, not Goukas.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 28, 2010 - 01:59pm PT
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Free soloing has several quite different meanings to climbers, but not to the public. We all free solo at times, that is to say climb unroped on relatively moderate terrain. Particularly at the start and finish of climbs, and on descents, and in the mountains. Class 3 to perhaps mid class 5, or a bit harder. We all do it - those who say they never free solo are being economical with the truth. The climbing may not be difficult, but is often a bit loose or wet, and exposed. A fall on such ground is usually just as fatal as a fall from 200 m up an unroped 5.11, which is another kind of free soloing, where difficulty and commitment are added to the mix.
Many climbing deaths occur during the first type of free soloing - just read accidents in North American mountaineering. "Scrambling" deaths. Relatively few (in absolute terms) occur on the difficult climbs. But then probably thousands of metres of 5.2 are soloed for every hundred metres of 5.10.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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Mar 28, 2010 - 02:01pm PT
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anybody who has ever ridden an escaltor at the Big E has done a fee solo.
we used to slide down the banisters and launch into the perfume dept.
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Bullwinkle
Boulder climber
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Mar 28, 2010 - 02:03pm PT
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Tobin was not free-soloing, he was roped soloing. . .
edit; what Pud said
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Chief
climber
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Mar 28, 2010 - 02:49pm PT
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Well said Roy and some great perspectives from others.
It seems hard to find examples of people falling while intentionally soloing difficult climbs. Most of the time good climbers have perished after taking the rope off or while moving on casual ground. Diana Hunter and others come to mind.
I wouldn't for a moment diminish or call into question someone's sincere desire to climb unroped. Peter, John and others made it look perfectly natural. As Peter said,(I might be paraphrasing here) "If you find yourself flapping through space after falling off and you did it so people would notice, you've made yourself the victim of a cruel joke".
Have fun, be careful but remember, this ain't no dress rehearsal.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Mar 28, 2010 - 03:03pm PT
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Thanks Roy for your well thought out and eloquent words.
And, yes -- as Mighty Hiker observed, even the most cautious climber will free solo as part of the climbing experience.
Life is a free solo, we often delude ourselves in thinking otherwise.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Mar 28, 2010 - 05:04pm PT
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Life is a free solo, we often delude ourselves in thinking otherwise.
Good one!
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Karen
Trad climber
So Cal urban sprawl Hell
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Mar 28, 2010 - 05:14pm PT
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A very dear friend of mine and very experienced climber always told me to watch out while in third class territory, seems that can often be where trouble goes down. He'd say "third class kills"
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spacemonkey77
Trad climber
TX
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Mar 28, 2010 - 05:43pm PT
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Jimmy Ray Forester
November 2006 in El Potrero Chico Mexico
He was an amazing climber who was passionate about the sport and all that it involved. He is sorely missed!
http://friendsofforester.com/
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Chief
climber
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Mar 28, 2010 - 05:43pm PT
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Words of caution to most climbers, myself included; "Be careful, it's real flat here."
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Mar 28, 2010 - 06:45pm PT
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On the suicide note, for what it's worth, for it's worth EVERYTHING in my book:
"...and the Truth shall make you free." - from John 8:31-32
Now the big question, "What is the Truth?"
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." - John 14:6
Now, that's quite a statement for someone to put their reputation on wouldn't you think!
You have a secret, a stronghold, a problem with a stigma associated with it like I do and you're looking for help, a way out, the truth behind it, the answer to life? Well, there's your answer, there's my answer!
http://www.reformu.com/
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Mar 28, 2010 - 06:59pm PT
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Thanks to Tarbuster for an excellent post above, thinking through how all soloing is not the same and all risks are not equal.
In this and Ed Drummond's thread and others, we often hear from climbers whose perspective has mellowed with age, so certain risks no longer look well justified. I don't think I've written that myself, but I certainly could.
There's another new perspective life brings around too, that doesn't get as much play on these threads. Every falling climber had a family.
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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Mar 28, 2010 - 07:17pm PT
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"And is the world of man not more predacious yet? The way of the world is to bloom and to flower
and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the
onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his
darkening and the evening of his day. He loves games? Let him play for stakes."
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TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
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Mar 28, 2010 - 08:19pm PT
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Clint & Rokjox!
For reasons unknown, Jim Adair(age 19)chose to traverse out to the right edge/lip of the ramp(with huge exposure to the Valley floor)and boulder a few moves upwards rather than stick to the more secure corner(left side)of the ramp. There was mention of a loose handhold breaking according to his partner.
This happened on the well traveled approach ramp to the S/S & C/H routes on Sentinel Rock. It came as a chilling/sobering reminder(coming just a few months after loosing Bobo)of the uncertainty of our provocation to climb, and the brevity of life in general.
Sadly, he was featured on the cover of Climbing Mag. that same month(April/May/June? 1978), on the FA of a 5.11 trad route he named "A Dare by the Sea" on the East Coast of Maine.
EDIT: The magazine came out a few day's after his "accident". Like I said, a chilling reminder of the brevity of life. Climbing rags were anxiously awaited and read over and over again...bitd.
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adventurous one
Trad climber
Truckee Ca.
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Mar 28, 2010 - 09:49pm PT
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Vic Hendrickson
That's a name I have not thought about in over 25 years. I went to high school with him. Didn't know him real well but had a few classes with him and remember him as being quite and a good skier. In 1981 I had only known two people who had ever died, both quite old. He was the first person I knew to die who was not old. Still remember it having a profound effect on my young realization that death can come at any time. It was a sobering time for us to reflect on our own mortality, many for the first time. In my early climbing years I would think about him whenever I considered soloing up something. May have even deterred me from doing something stupid in my reckless youth.
If I recall correctly his dad was a doctor at the Yosemite clinic.
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mountain dog
Trad climber
over the hills and far away
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Mar 28, 2010 - 09:49pm PT
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A very morbid thread. I am reluctant to post but I will. I remember hearing about a young woman falling and dying while soloing Incredible Hand Crack in Indian Creek. She was trailing a rope to set up a t.r. for her friends but placing no protection. I think in '01 or '02.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Mar 28, 2010 - 11:12pm PT
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The great Montana climber Dwight Bishop. Fell linking up the free solo of the major Tetons in a push. In fact it was his second time doing it, but he wanted to see if it could be done in the winter and was just re-familiarizing himself with it again in planing and preparation for doing the first Winter Free solo of all of them, which had never been done. Although he had soloed the North Face of the Eiger and Free soloed 5.13, he was found at the base of a 5.8 route.
I figure -Tetons......hmmm, a rock probably took him out, he was too good to slip on a 5.8. Good guy, I love what his buddies did. They donated all his gear to SAR and then finished the guidebook using his notes, and gave him the credit as author. Some of those Montana and Wyoming dudes....amazing. And so quiet about it too.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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Mar 28, 2010 - 11:15pm PT
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if nobody is there to help you, then you can get stuck.
this is a panic situation that has to be controlled.
so route choice is way important. unless you like panic attacks.
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