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CF
climber
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Jun 15, 2011 - 01:46pm PT
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i saw them from cascade falls area!
looked like some photo/video guys hanging around also
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jun 15, 2011 - 01:54pm PT
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KLK: "AR in Verdon, MR on RW, HJA on eP"
Cld I gt sm vwls pls?
AR: Alain Robert?
HJA: Auer, eP= the fish route on Marmolada?
yeah, sorry. typing on the mobile encourages bad habits.
Alain Robert in Verdon (can't recall the route name), Michael Reardon on Romantic Warrior and Hans-Joerg Auer on The Fish. Each of those was a major solo that involved rapping in-- MR and HJA to repeat particular pitches just for photographs.
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Gene
climber
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Jun 15, 2011 - 01:57pm PT
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From Tom's final El Cap report:
In other news: Well there is some big doings on the Chouinard Hurbert route as Hondo is soloing it for 60 Minutes. Lots of locals are employed and it should be interesting to see what spin the editors put on the event. All the best wishes go out to Alex, one of the really nice guys in the climbing community.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Jun 15, 2011 - 01:58pm PT
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So back when JB was soloing Father Figure and Baby Apes and other things of roughly the same difficulty, were there armchair pearl clutchers like Drummond writing "open" letters pleading for him to stop instead of minding their own business?
When JB was on "That's Incredible" TV show, Gillete Razor commercials, Boreal ads soloing The Gift, and magazine shots, asked Chappy to shoot him on the Nabisco solo, etc...were there a bunch of armchair heros questioning the purity of his soloing motives?
A still camera becomes a video camera, the routes become a letter or two harder. Otherwise, what exactly is the difference between the revered soloing heroes like Bachar and Croft, and Honnold?
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Smeagol
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 15, 2011 - 02:35pm PT
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I'm leaning toward Drummond's view ( http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1122068);. Anyone else concerned about whether Alex will still be with us in 5 years? When cameras, sponsorship and fame are the rewards for risking your life, the end result seems almost inevitable.
I've met Alex and watched him climb. I've never seen a more fluid and confident climber. In my opinion, when he solos... it's no different than when you or I are walking along the edge of a cliff, or traversing a knife-edge ridge. You know you won't fall, because you don't want to die. It's that simple. That's the level he's at.
Many more people do much more dangerous things in the mountains with high levels of objective danger; soloing on glaciers, climbing along cornices, attempting peaks in winter conditions, etc. Yet we rarely criticize them for the level of risk or label them "suicidal."
Also, many of us have climbed butt-puckering run-out pitches far above our gear, where a fall could easily become fatal. Does it really make a difference when the consequences are the same?
Anyways... Props to Alex!!
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frog-e
Trad climber
Imperial Beach California
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Jun 15, 2011 - 03:03pm PT
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Radical solo! Props to Alex.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Jun 15, 2011 - 03:24pm PT
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Yet we rarely criticize them for the level of risk or label them "suicidal."
Or course we do. They just aren't public figures, so most people don't hear it, but their friends and families do talk to them about the dangerous things they do. Cautioning them to be careful, to maybe not do some of the things they do. It happens all the time. Its just a persons circle of family and friends is small, and once that person becomes famous, then more people feel a bond with them and care about them, so more people speak up. Thats one of the prices of fame. You can make money by being famous, but you also have a spotlight on you, so more people care about you, and more people feel free to speak up.
My buddy Walter was a speed freak. Nothing made him happier then to ride his motorcycle as fast as he could. His friends and family spent a lot of effort trying to keep him reigned in. It just wasn't public.
Before the internet these things played out in the newspapers and magazines.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jun 15, 2011 - 04:07pm PT
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moosie, the point is that there's something particular about soloing on rock climbs that triggers the sort of response we've seen from ed ward drummond.
folks drop like flies on 8000ers, but there's not a huge thread on ST or wherever with a famous climber weighing in to say that no one should ever climb annapurna.
i do find that contrast really weird. my very first alpine season, climbing with and around folks pushing the envelope, i learned that there was basically nothing anyone could do on good rock in good weather that even approached the dicey ness of many alpine classics let along cutting edge and high-altitude stuff.
phoenix is an impressive solo, and i personally would never deliberately rap into a solo (i always hated free climbing out of aiders-- rap-hard solo is way worse!), but i just don't see it as anywhere near as dicey as the sort of stuff folks are running right now in cham.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jun 15, 2011 - 04:17pm PT
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^^^^yeah, but that was a mix of sherpa and guided-climb bashing.
i have yet to see a serious thread in which someone like conrad anker weighs in and says ueli steck shouldn't climb annapurna. or cho oyu. or that the giri-giri boys shouldn't go out and tick their next rig.
whereas somone soloing on good rock in good weather elicits all sorts of handwringing. some of that is just that most of the posters here are rockclimbers and dont know jack about mountains, of course. but it's clearly more than that. and it goes beyond ewd.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jun 15, 2011 - 04:49pm PT
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hey there say, ken... thanks for sharing with us...
thanks for the links, from various folks here too...
me, not being a climber, well: i'd never have had any idea climbers really did this, until i learned from such, here at supertopo...
i just had only heard of the old climbing guys, and all their gear, etc...
i've sure learned of the vast whole skill-range of climbers, here...
yet, of course, my prayers will stil be with them all...
congrats too, to alex (had only learned of him, through here, as well)...
:)
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murcy
Gym climber
sanfrancisco
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Jun 15, 2011 - 05:04pm PT
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Maybe it's partly because the danger of soloing a protectable line seems gratuitous, a little like bouldering a V.easy with hands and feet coated with Crisco and a tub of razors under you. In mountaineering it's a little easier to see the risk as regrettable but essential to some other reasonable goal rather than as the very point of the exercise.
That's not obviously a valid reason to find Honnold's feat more objectionable than an equally risky mountain climb. There are many obvious differences between his amazing climb and a Crisco boulder ascent, and no doubt some mountaineers are danger junkies too, but it at least shows that the difference in people's attitudes towards them is not bizarre and inexplicable.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Jun 15, 2011 - 05:18pm PT
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Jeez louise.
It's really no different than any other solo, except that it is.
Everybody has their own comfort level, limits, and calculated risk.
Progression in an open ended pursuit.
Climbing is F*#king awesome!
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jun 15, 2011 - 05:59pm PT
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dingus, yeah, but i was surprised to see the ewd thing, too.
murcy, yeah, i think that's part of it.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Joshua Tree
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Jun 15, 2011 - 06:01pm PT
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Wow- that is pushing the ropeless envelope. I have never been on Romantic Warrior but Phoenix is much, much harder than Equinox (probably the equivalent of 2-3 laps, and much more technical, especially where the crack goes diagonal).
Excellent job Alex!
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poop_tube
Big Wall climber
33° 45' N 117° 52' W
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Jun 15, 2011 - 06:35pm PT
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respect
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MisterE
Social climber
Cinderella Story, Outa Nowhere
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Jun 15, 2011 - 06:38pm PT
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My friend Chris Schlotfeldt, aka "Snickers" red-pointed it back in the 90's, and he describes it as follows when I asked about the crux:
"Overhanging, right-leaning (barn-doory), tip-locks, dime-sized feet, 7-8 solid moves long and the crack is angled at a 45 degree angle upward into the rock so it's really awkward to get the right body position. The first 25-30 feet would also be crazy - solid 5.12 pin scars that are widely spaced in a very shallow corner - smearing for feet. After the crux it's full on endurance for 100 feet or so of overhanging, right-leaning, off fingers."
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Jun 15, 2011 - 06:44pm PT
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Way to go Alex! Enjoy yourself and be careful up there.
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Jun 15, 2011 - 07:17pm PT
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I'm with klk
I met alex on the pizza deck last year- and all I said was- Keep doing what you're doing. That kind of passion is what fuels inspiration for others.
I love his answer to the 12 yo in telluride- "We're all going to die. Might as well go out big."
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WBraun
climber
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Jun 15, 2011 - 07:19pm PT
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Falling off a free solo and dying is not "Going out big" .......
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