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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Thanks, Chris.
Ed, the NY Times article is linked in a couple of the Dawn Wall threads.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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The Fresno Bee had a front page article and picture of Tommy Caldwell leading form a portaledge belay, with a very prominent rope. Nonetheless, the caption and article reported that they were attempted to climb the Dawn Wall "without the aid of ropes." That eight-foot horizontal dyno must be pretty interesting ropeless!
John
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Well, DMT, a reporter from the Big Apple missing a few details doesn't surprise me, but a reporter from the Big Raisin parroting the line that they aren't using ropes "except to catch their falls," implying that aid involves climbing the rope, does surprise me.
The Bee used to be sufficiently in tune with climbing to report with some knowledge about the difference between aid, free and free soloing. It even reviewed Roper's 1971 (green) Climber's Guide to the Valley in its Sunday book review in 1971. The decline of the printed medium has really hit the Fresno Bee hard. They've lost a lot of staff, and have gone from a mediocre but tolerable middle-left paper to an idiotic reactionary left rag.
John
Edit: It's funny that you mention the relation of Caldwell to the Dawn Wall. The November weekend when Harding and Caldwell were finishing the route, I was climbing in the Valley with Tommy's father, Mike Caldwell. Because of the circus on El Cap, virtually every other route in the Valley was deserted.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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without the benefit of ropes, other than to catch their falls.
i am amazed at how many peps misread that line!
i thought it a cool way describing free-climbing.
Props to the author!
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Beth gots a new boyfriend
Mr Money
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Blueblocr, the phrase "without the aid of ropes except to catch their falls" would also describe any aid climb I've done that didn't involve a pendulum or tension traverse. I think Kevin's description comes closer to the distinction.
While I don't see what's so hard about understanding what constitutes free climbing, I can sympathize with a reporter trying to describe it in a newspaper article. If I say "climbing using only the natural features on the rock," that could include a boltless aid climb, for example. Maybe we could say climbing without placing anything on the rock to move other than hands and feet/shoes, but I suspect I could nitpick that, too, so maybe I should be more charitable.
John
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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I think the public should be informed that all climbers who have done the route before used ladders to ascend and these guys are the first to do it without them. I agree. I tried to do that in a comment to the article (which was published) but was limited by the 1500 character requirement and so had to delete it. Probably wouldn't have made much of a difference anyways. People get an image stuck in their head from reading the article. That combined with the huge disconnect of what we do and what nonclimbers think we do. Until people either see or do it for themselves, it's just greek to them.
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Fletcher
Boulder climber
A very quiet place
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For the general readership of the NYT, I thought it was a pretty decent article and the misunderstandings that arise are understandable. I personally still can't figure out aid climbing. :-) It can't hurt to contact the writer or NYT ombudsman if something seems really out of wack. I think they have the intention of getting the story as factually correct as possible.
In parallel universes, for example, I'd bet that genetic scientist forums have a lot of hand-wringing and pulling out of hair when the NYT writes about the human genome and other such things. Ha ha!
Tommy and Kevin Jorgensen are posting regularly on Twitter (and Facebook) as well. I like their spirit beyond the obvious admiration for what they are doing. And climbing media and contributors like Corey Rich et al. are also posting away with some really great updates and photos.
Purely for a chuckle, I read through the NYT comments to the article. Not your average comments section, but still the same kinds of misunderstandings, broad pronouncements, and assorted puffery are present as in other venues. There have been a good share of helpful comments as well and some confused posters have even expressed thanks for the subsequent explanations. I saw at least one Supertopo poster positively helping out there (bergbryce I think).
It's all really interesting and exciting. Even in the slo-mo world of climbing!
Eric
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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"This sort of extreme sport/conquest/challenge has become the hallmark of this generation. I believe it has surfaced and reached such popularity because life is truly meaningless. Men and women need to be challenged, to be sure, and since we have no wars requiring their mortal risk ( we hire the poor to do that job). They must find other challenges wherein to risk their lives and the lives of others. On this very day in 1945 these men might have been scaling a bridge to put detonation charges in place while receiving heavy enemy fire. We all have it too easy now." -Meadows (commentary)
and in reply to Meadows...
"This is a mark of the current generation? I'd argue that in 1910, these men would have been going to the North or South Pole (where many people died.) Or in 1500, they might have been crossing the Atlantic. Or in 1969, they might have been going to the moon.
Some people are attracted to physical risk and to doing things no one has ever done. Some of those people end up doing the extraordinary. I wouldn't want to be one of them, frankly, but I think that people who take these risks are built that way -- and that they would be living dangerous lives in some other way if they weren't doing this. So good for them, and I wish them luck."
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sempervirens
climber
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NY Times should always seek concurrence from supertopo before going to print, especially regarding non-climbing topics.
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Yes, because what they are doing is sooo risky. Really? Super difficult yes, but trying to redpoint with preplaced gear even with big falls is not that risky.
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this just in
climber
Justin Ross from North Fork
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NY Times should always seek concurrence from supertopo before going to print, especially regarding non-climbing topics. HAHAHA. Nice.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Even when they try and clear things up they're still slightly off…
"Free climbing means they are using ropes and other gear, but only for safety. They are not drilling bolts into the wall, for example, to help their ascent. (That’s known as aid climbing.)"
Or this howler:
"The tip of El Capitan is about 3,000 miles up from the base. "
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Some people are attracted to physical risk and to doing things no one has ever done.
Isn't it great, we are watching Evolution in motion!! Everytime i look at a shot of them boy's up there on The BigStone my mind wants to reflect on Harding's accent of The Nose..
i'd bet both Caldwell and Harding posses the attributes in your above statement! But MAN,,
what different idea's between those two of how to scale that smooth alabaster of a bedroom wall know as ElCapitan. The leaps of what has been done on EC since Harding's accent back in 58' is a wonderful example of mans experiential learning through competition without any anticipation for reward, other than self-satisfaction. The evolution from Aid-climbing, to Free-climbing, to (Free-soloing?) is a testimony of mans determined will to shape his body and earth through work to progress the passions of one's imagination. My imagination thinks Tommy and Kevin are climbing the Dawn Wall cause they Love it!
Once they top-out, there will be need to create a new name for he birth of their new route..
How about; The Dawn of Love? or Sunset til Dawn?, since that's when they mostly climbed!
or not
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crusher
climber
Santa Monica, CA
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There was also a radio clip on this today on KCRW here in LA (it could have been an NRP piece). I caught part of it, I believe it was someone from Rock and Ice Magazine being interviewed. They did a pretty good job of explaining what was going on in layman's terms.
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