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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Jan 28, 2013 - 07:59pm PT
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is the day I pull my motorized wheelchair up to the crag and send a 5.3
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 28, 2013 - 09:03pm PT
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There's guys already around that can free solo any route on El Cap.
They won't do it though.
They don't want nor need to be reveled.
It would fuk all you people up ......
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jan 28, 2013 - 09:10pm PT
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free soloing with a base rig This is another armchair fantasy. Reality is that the El Cap routes that go free have too many features to hit long before a chute would open. Even on the Salathe Headwall, there's Sous Le Toit and slabs for a few hundred feet below it in the way. The Nose upper dihedrals are a giant low angle drainpipe with numerous ledges. If it could be done with a reasonable level of sanity, I think it would have been attempted by now, for sure.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jan 28, 2013 - 09:11pm PT
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Just back from the OR show. Most notable change for me since i worked in the outdoor industry was the amazing number of incredible climbers who were there as "atheletes" or " ambassadors" for outdoor companies. There were also a ton more who were looking for sponsorship.
There is now intense competition for a limited amount of sponsorship dollars. To stand out from the crowd you have to do more and more outrageous things. A few years ago Alex Honnold was nowhere in the sponsorship arena and now he is a corporate darling....and for good reason. His accomplishments speak for himself and he's a great guy to boot.
Take home lesson....young climbers are wondering how to make that jump to stardom.....soloing El Cap comes to mind. Something like that should be uniquely, unqualifiedly PERSONAL. Other motives portend trouble.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Jan 29, 2013 - 12:20pm PT
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It has been free-soloed, sort of. I saw it on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Kirk is free-soloing but is startled by Spock in "jet boots" and falls.
So I guess it has not been free-soloed.
BTW, while I have always liked the original Star Trek series and some of the subsequent films with the original cast members. I am not a Trekkie. I just remember that scene, probably because it was shot in the Valley.
I never saw any of the other Star Trek offshots (perhaps watched a couple of minutes, and at an Actor's Masterclass at the Galway Film Fleadh, Colm Meaney was the featured talker and spoke some of the series he was in).
Though I liked the latest movie with the new young cast.
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looks easy from here
climber
Ben Lomond, CA
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I doubt Freerider will ever get soloed Maybe Freerider in our lifetimes... My vote is still with Freerider.
2 out of 3 right ain't bad. ;)
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Deuce4 called it, rather accurately, in January of 2013:
(sitting comfortably in my armchair): I reckon the Nose solo within the next 15 years. Perhaps the first El Cap free-solo within the next 5 years.
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Jackityjack
climber
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Jun 18, 2017 - 06:55am PT
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turns out it doesn't matter because the nose just got naked'd... that's naked aided for those not in the know .. am sure I didn't want to be in the valley for that
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Jun 18, 2017 - 10:42am PT
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It'll be Alex's apprentice in 3 years.. You know some young gun is out there getting psyched on his style right now and dreaming of the next big thing.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Jun 18, 2017 - 02:16pm PT
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Right. Deuce was pretty spot on:
(sitting comfortably in my armchair): I reckon the Nose solo within the next 15 years. Perhaps the first El Cap free-solo within the next 5 years.
I think it will still be quite a while before the Nose gets soloed. I remember soloing a route that I had totally wired, but would still fall about 25% of the time. I up and soloed it one day. Never again, though. It had a micro smear in a lunge. I couldn't even do it until sticky rubber showed up.
The Changing Corners is a boulder problem, and I believe Lynn came back to do it in a day with no falls. Am I correct about no falls?
If I got it down to 75% or better, I'd be tempted. Good thing that I am too old and fat to free much of anything these days.
As for it being personal or not, I still hold firm that why one does something, especially soloing, is nobody's damn business.
Also, the BASE rig thing is a sham most of the time. If it isn't perfectly vertical or overhanging, you are gonna bounce before you get into clean air. It was good for the Rostrum, but we had been jumping the Rostrum since 1985.
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WBraun
climber
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Jun 18, 2017 - 03:07pm PT
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I still hold firm that why one does something, especially soloing, is nobody's damn business.
You just made it your business unknowingly ......
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Mill Valley, Ca
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Jun 18, 2017 - 03:15pm PT
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BASE104 wrote:
I remember soloing a route that I had totally wired, but would still fall about 25% of the time
How would you fall 25% of the time on a route that you had "totally wired"?
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Jun 20, 2017 - 09:45am PT
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I knew exactly how to do the move. Still, my foot would skate about 1 out of 4 times. Like a boulder problem, I knew exactly how to do the move. Pulling it off was a little more problematic. You had to hike your left foot up really high, smear on a little dime edge, and then use it on a long lunge in one smooth motion. The smear was microscopic.
Like I said, I couldn't do the route in EB's. When Fire's showed up, I could do it. Barely.
It would be very dishonest to say that I on-sighted it, or anything along those lines. I'd done the route probably 25 times before I soloed it. Maybe more. That was why I said that I had it wired.
You can have it wired and still fall.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Jun 20, 2017 - 09:51am PT
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You just made it your business unknowingly ......
You know what I'm talking about, Werner. People complain about soloists for all sorts of reasons. WHY they do it is their own damn business.
Honnold soloed it past several cameras, some were fixed and unmanned.
Does that detract from what he did? Would it have been better if he had done it quietly, and just showed up in the cafeteria saying that he had soloed it, or should he have done it and kept it totally quiet?
It is a can of worms. Why someone climbs something is personal on so many levels.
Anyway, I HATE it when I see people question the motives of someone. Who gives a sh#t? It doesn't affect the deed.
You used to tell us that you were heading down to solo the Gripper all the time. I never thought that you were spraying. It was an easy route for you. You just liked it, it seemed to me.
I've done the same thing. Most of my solo's were nothing but fun. Some were competitive. Who cares?
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Jun 20, 2017 - 02:35pm PT
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I climbed until I had falling wired... it was landing that never went so well.
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