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Gunkswest
climber
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Dec 12, 2015 - 04:44pm PT
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Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
(reportedly the tallest coastal mountain range in the world)
NE Ridge of Pico Ojeda 5.5 AI2
FA (free solo) Todd Swain 01-1984 with two bivis
Climb the very prominent NE ridge of Pico Ojeda (18,012 feet; 5,490 meters). The first ascent involved a bivi about 500 feet up at an obvious tower and then another atop the ridge and about 1,000 feet below the summit.
The rock crux was at roughly mid-height on the ridge and involved laybacking up a right facing corner and then mantling onto a down-sloping ledge that was covered with powder snow (while wearing plastic boots and carrying a pack - 5.5 never seemed so hard). The most difficult ice was mixed climbing around some free-standing towers on the ridge that were below the rock crux.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2016 - 12:13pm PT
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I was recently reminded of this one.
Jon Krakauer accomplished another free solo first ascent in addition to The Big Hose in the Bugs.
In 1977 he made the first ascent of the East Ridge of the Devil's Thumb, after first attempting the (still unclimbed?) North Face. It is one of the all time great, "way-out-there" climbing adventures, described beautifully in his book, Eiger Dreams.
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couchmaster
climber
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Jan 15, 2016 - 02:15pm PT
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Earl Wiggins free soloing the second ascent of Scenic Cruise in the black and getting off route and doing a 10D FA variation ranks up there:-) What a mench. I'd heard of an outrageous Solo FA that Messner did in the Dolomites. Supposedly a 2000' unclimbed face that Messner called (ie translated to 5.9) but was much harder, but haven't been able to confirm it via internet and the guy who told me the story isn't around, but I suspect it's true, Messner was a good rock climber in his youth.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Jan 21, 2016 - 04:29pm PT
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Hey so I just saw this thread for the first time (and you probably thought I was just being bashful). I'm glad, of course, that fellow climbers still look up to my Pipeline ascent. Funny thing about those Canadians that Rick mentioned is that one of them had recently climbed Wild Turkey, my other FA at Squamish, and he was also employed by one of my best climbing partners from BITD, Rob Rohn.
Anyhow, all I want to say is this: Offwidth climbing is easy, comedy's hard, and Earl Wiggins on-sight (2nd) ascent of the Scenic Cruise, though technically not qualifying for the subject, is the most amazing rock climbing feat of this kind in my book.
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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Jan 21, 2016 - 05:09pm PT
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Pipeline looks sick. And I guess if you are a mutant ( :) ), off widths are easy enough to OSFS.
33 years ago I did this (see link below), but it probably qualifies more as a high-high ball. I did a couple others, but that one filled whatever void I was trying to fill.
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/stone-they-rejected/105825119
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Jan 21, 2016 - 07:04pm PT
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Since this thread has been bumped up again, I'll follow up on an earlier post from the OP. OK, the Bonatti Pillar isn't quite the same, having been a roped solo. But I'd dispute that standard as applied to, say, Jeff Lowe's Metanoia. Roped maybe, but belayed? I doubt if anything would have held. Sort of like a long version of Perilous Journey, given the medium.
Probably most of the notable rock routes in the category have shown up here by now, but the title says "mountain" so I'd tip my hat again to tons of real mountain solos that may not have entailed the level of technical moves, but certainly required every bit as much mental focus and physical staying power: Jeff Lowe on Pumori (I think it was), don't know if his climb of Ama Dablam was an FA, Nicolas Jaeger on Taulliraju, many of them.
I've read something about the Messner solo in the Dolomites that is mentioned a couple of posts ago. It's real, just can't remember the route or even the mountain. But huge, and with plenty of alpine VI on it if I recall correctly. His route on the Droites was hard in all realms, and moreover those alpine routes are subject to stone fall.
Great idea for a thread.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Jan 22, 2016 - 11:48am PT
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2016 - 12:13pm PT
I was recently reminded of this one.
Jon Krakauer accomplished another free solo first ascent in addition to The Big Hose in the Bugs.
In 1977 he made the first ascent of the East Ridge of the Devil's Thumb, after first attempting the (still unclimbed?) North Face. It is one of the all time great, "way-out-there" climbing adventures, described beautifully in his book, Eiger Dreams.
if I recall correctly, it was the first solo but not the first ascent, despite what Jon says in Eiger Dreams.
FA of the east ridge was Beckey et al. in 48?
FA of the integral east ridge was Culbert, Douglas, Starr in 74? Early 70s anyway. Cats Ears may have been 74 and this one a year or two earlier
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 24, 2016 - 08:12pm PT
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How about Tomo Cesen supposed solo of a new route on the South Face of Lhotse? Did he ever admit it was a lie? Even though he aided a part, per his account.
Were there many other solo first ascents on 8000m peaks?
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Jan 24, 2016 - 09:02pm PT
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I bite my lip.
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Jan 24, 2016 - 09:18pm PT
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There's a one pitch route on Moro Rock in Sequoia called "Guitar Man." 5.10a, originally a free solo by a guy named Jackson in 1987 and then four bolts were added later. It's a popular TR area now.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 24, 2016 - 10:19pm PT
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I bite my lip.
I read a giant article about it in an old magazine. Very well written, without picking a side but providing a lot of information which makes the whole Lhotse climb seem like a big hoax. Along with the North face triple and the 'solo of the Jannu's North Face.' In an article about the Russian route on Jannu, the Alpinist does not mention his route... http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP08/climbing-note-jannu
But as far as other 8000m peaks, how many major first ascents were done solo?
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smith curry
climber
nashville,TN
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Jan 25, 2016 - 08:15am PT
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Jello has done a number of big FA's unroped
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smith curry
climber
nashville,TN
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Jan 25, 2016 - 08:16am PT
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Seems like Charlie Fowler was on a tear as well in the years preceding his death
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Ian Parsons
climber
UK, England
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Jan 25, 2016 - 11:55am PT
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I've read something about the Messner solo in the Dolomites that is mentioned a couple of posts ago. It's real, just can't remember the route or even the mountain. But huge, and with plenty of alpine VI on it if I recall correctly.
This, possibly?
http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=187788
It starts at the ledge atop the first 16 pitches of this:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=162663
His FA account suggests the odd bit of backroping on the upper wall, and some aid on the VI+ pitch near the top - so not entirely free solo; damned impressive, nonetheless - especially in big boots in 1969. "Damned impressive", of course, is sprinkled liberally throughout Dolomite climbing history! There's a piece about Messner in Rock & Ice #115 - May 2002 - wherein the author, Dougald MacDonald, describes his own weather-aborted attempt on the route.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 25, 2016 - 12:24pm PT
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Jello has done a number of big FA's unroped
Elaborate! This is the thread for it :) Maybe post a link to a few stories if they are not only in the old magazines, but in online format as well.
Over the last several months I have been skipping through a lot of the older magazines. A TON of SUPER cool stuff in there. Stuff one does not expect to see...
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smith curry
climber
nashville,TN
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Jan 26, 2016 - 05:22am PT
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Asteroid Alley Mt Andromeda (Canandian Rockies)
S Face Ama Dablam (not positive it was free solo)
I'm sure these's a bunch others--- Maybe Jeff can elaborate...
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smith curry
climber
nashville,TN
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Jan 26, 2016 - 05:24am PT
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Mugs did a couple of big FA's in Antarctica solo
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rick d
climber
ol pueblo, az
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Jan 26, 2016 - 06:02am PT
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Vitaliy
8000 meter solo WITHOUT oxygen (but with team on lower section) was Herman Buhl on Nanga Parbat in 1953, 25 years before Messner's repeat of Everest. Plus, he bivied overnight above 26K ft standing on a ledge with no bag/tent,
Then went on to do the FA of Broad peak (sans O2) in 1957.
Set the pace for fast and light decades early.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Jan 26, 2016 - 06:17am PT
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And,
as a younge man - Herman Buhl on a bicycle, soloing the spires of the Dolomites,
This is a foggy memory
from years ago, things that I read - out loud to - to cure my stutter,
at the insistansce & on the knee of Fritz W....
Edit: I missed it. So I added at the same time as Survival,
Stories of Paul Pruess also.
Paul Preuss (climber) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikipedia › wiki › Paul_Preuss_(climber)
Paul Preuss (spelled Preuß in German; pronounced Proyce) (19 August 1886 – 3 October 1913) was an Austrian ...
Mountains
Johnny Watermam?
rock
Derek Hersey?
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Jan 26, 2016 - 06:17am PT
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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?).
My thought exactly as I started this thread.
Actually, I think the whole idea is way more common than suggested in the OP. Just thinking of history and how climbing has evolved. I think many of us qualify in some way.
My own certainly didn't turn into great classics, but there was one on a wall at Horse Ridge in Central Oregon, where my friends below were certain would be my last moments. Also a beautiful little basalt cliff above the Deschutes River that I wrote up in N00b Near Death Thread, and also a tottering mud tower at Smith, while on p..p..p..pp.pp..pp..PIZZA TOPPINGS in the moonlight that no sane person would climb in daylight.
Of course the routes that compare to Pipeline, or the Reardon thing in the Needles...now that's rare air!!
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