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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 10, 2010 - 07:47pm PT
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Mark Wilford's solo of the 1938 route on the Eiger sounded memorable.
I almost forgot about Michael Reardon's solo of the Pirate (.12c).
Charlie Porter on the Dawn Wall after dropping all his bivy gear.
Hermann Buhl's solo of the Cassin Route (lots of 5.9 and .10a) in a pair of mountain boots.
Robbins' first solo ascent of the Captain (the Muir).
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Nov 10, 2010 - 08:08pm PT
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Isn't there a story of Bachar on Last of the Mohicans, a route in Spain?
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Maysho
climber
Soda Springs, CA
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Nov 10, 2010 - 09:25pm PT
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Lots of rad solos here...
Levy, Howdy! Just to give a bit of correct history...
I too am really impressed with Honnolds' solos, and the Crucifix is rad, but the whole thing was freed way back in the day except for 20 feet at the start that was a dripping garden of ferns, and moss. Yes a number of hotshots of the day (my humble self included) yarded through it while freeing everything else, but mostly because we didn't feel like putting in the work to clean it. When I did it I had to dig through inches of mud to find the fixed pins, and like others I thought for sure it would go free, but someone would need to spend some time with a trowel. So Peter C. did exactly that, spent an afternoon cleaning it on aid, then sent it from the ground the next day, and as we all expected, it turned out to be a short bit of 12b once the crack was unearthed.
What the heck, not in the league with today's crazy solos, but I will nominate for the ballsy list one of the few I did, the Silver Strand Ice Climb, onsight, 1984. I had the day off, the thing formed up for the first time in years. I was fit, partner bailed, and it seemed like a good day to go for something rad. I borrowed some lousy tools, and had an adventure I will never forget.
Peter
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Nov 10, 2010 - 09:29pm PT
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Eric Jones, Eiger Nordwand
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Nov 11, 2010 - 12:35am PT
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me in the Tetons:
1961 Direct Exum Ridge
1962 Irene's Arete
1963 Grand Teton North Face
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Nov 11, 2010 - 01:25am PT
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Tomaz Humar's nine-day solo ascent of the South Face of Dhaulagiri remains one of the raddest climbs ever made in the Himalaya.
http://www.planetmountain.com/English/ice/himalaya/Humar/
He sent me this photo of the M7+ dry tooling he did at 7700m - makes my hands sweat every time I look at it:
Crazy bugger was so tough he pulled out his own abscessed tooth with a pair of pliers.
When he came to Yosemite to solo Reticent Wall, nobody would give him a topo! So I gave him a copy of the one I had annotated:
As he had never soloed a big wall before, I thought it prudent to hook him up with a copy of Chongo's book:
After a few mini big wall tutorials, like how to build a 2:1 haul system, he sent of course. Check out Tomaz' Euro-style aiders, which hang on a fifi, and are attached with long 5mm daisies:
Super nice guy, I miss him for sure.
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Johnny K.
Mountain climber
Southern,California
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Jan 23, 2011 - 11:55am PT
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Ohh look a climbing thread =) up
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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John Vawter :
Did anyone mention Greg Cameron's solo of Lost Arrow Chimney in 1978 or '79? Found this entry on the LAC "beta" thread, username: Grug,
"Sitting here recovering from shoulder surgery and going through this site is bringing back a flood of memories. Only a few friends know this hopefully interesting free-solo story - so here it is.
The inspiration, really, was Henry Barber's free solo of the Steck Salathe - in 1977, I think. I was intrigued by this, and in 1978, I too, free-soloed the Steck-Salathe. I did it the same way Henry had done, I brought a long sling and a carabiner with me to protect the one scary piece of face climbing. The whole climb took about an hour and a half to complete.
The Steck-Salathe was a climb I had done several times before, and, frankly, free-soloing it did not seem to be such a big deal, in retrospect. It occurred to me that an on-site free-solo of a Yosemite classic would raise the stakes. I don't remember what made me think of the Lost Arrow Chimney - it wasn't a climb that was really on my radar or anything, but I was very confident in the wide crack arena and figured there was no way that I couldn't free-solo 5.10a.
So, sometime in the late Spring of 1979, I let some of my friends in on it and told my buddy Alan Chase that if I didn't show up for dinner the next night, to walk up the Falls trail the following morning and throw a rope down to the notch so I could prussik out.
I left in the morning, excited, of course. I brought a paperback book, "The Myth of Sysiphus", that I stuffed in my cotten warmup pants, just above the ankle. The climb went quickly and rather uneventfully. Because I figured that I might have to hang out at the notch all day anyhow, I took my time - hanging out at certain ledges - but still the whole climb took only about 3 hours. Like on the Steck-Salathe, I took a long runner and a carabiner. I used the runner on a fixed pin at the scary, flakey section discussed in this post, and then abandoned it.
When I topped out on the notch, there was a party setting up to do the tyrolean traverse of the spire. Two clearly inexperienced guys were at the notch, and one guy in particular, was really spooked and could not believe that I had soloed up to that point. I asked if I could use their ropes to get out. Both guys ended up jumaring up to the top of the wall. I was expecting that maybe they would send jumars down for me, but after the second guy went up, nothing happened for like 15 minutes, in spite of my yelling. So I got out two small cords and prussiked their rope to the top of the wall.
I hiked back to Camp 4 with little fanfare. I do remember John Long congratulating me the next morning." http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=372567
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Aug 25, 2011 - 12:29am PT
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Didn't some guy solo the W. Face of Leaning Tower without a rope, just clipping fixed gear and such with a small loop of rope?
El Cap/ Half Dome solo link-ups, certainly rad. You know that a bunch of those pitches are sans rope.
However, once NWFHD gets a free solo, other things kinda pale, even though they are totally badd-asss.
PS. That Tomaz H. post is inspiring. Sad read of his bio.
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wstmrnclmr
Trad climber
Bolinas, CA
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Aug 25, 2011 - 01:24am PT
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Mark Wagner......The Edge, Thaquitz around '96
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Aug 25, 2011 - 04:26am PT
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Yes Jim Collins free soloed the Naked Edge, as did Derek Hersey,
and probably others by now.
To free solo is a mind thing. You need to be a good climber,
but there are lots of phenomenal climbers who don't have the
temperament or desire to free solo. In England, where Derek
was growing up, it was often cold, and no one wanted to stand
around and belay, so they would solo routes one after another,
side by side sometimes at Stanage, for example. It became so
natural to Derek's experience, and he became so confident at it,
he readily took to it here. Strangely many climbers could do much
harder single moves than Derek, but he could solo near his limit.
One time, and I think I've told this story somewhere else,
he and I went to climb Country Club Crack. Derek had not done it
before, and he had a lot of trouble figuring out those first
delicate moves, what some people now say might be closer to 5.12
than 5.11. Anyway, he couldn't do it that day. But returning,
he managed it. As soon as he could climb it, he was ready to
solo it and did free solo the route not too much later. When I
have soloed I have wanted to keep a much wider margin of safety....
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Aug 25, 2011 - 02:21pm PT
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Frank Jourdan was mentioned earlier. Anyone who has done a big limestone North wall in the Cdn Rockies knows it can be a cerebral experience even with a partner and modern gear. 5.9 is not like anything else you have ever climbed. This is an old report but highlights the man's energy and skills
David Dornian wrote the following about Frank Jourdan's summer for the Calgary Mountain Club World News' alpine report in 1994.
A stiff little reminder of what can be accomplished when you put a few caffeine pills into your butt bag, hang a couple of ropes and your shoes off your harness, and get out whilst everyone else is still "waiting for things to come into condition"
What did YOU do on your summer vacation? In July, visiting German alpinist Frank Jourdan managed a quick two-week trip to the Canmore/Banff/Jasper corridor to finish off a North American tour.
Discovered sleeping in his car at the ACC clubhouse parking lot in Canmore, he was taken into town by staff, coffeed up, and the following amazing tale was extracted in halting English.
It seems that a few days previously, Frank had driven north to the Columbia Icefields where he soloed a route he referred to as "Skyladder Direct" on Mt. Andromeda. He then descended the line, crossed the glacier to the northeast, and ascended "The Shooting Gallery". From there, he traversed the summit of Andromeda, climbed down one of the "Practice Gullies" and moved across too the base of "The Andromeda Strain".
In the dark now, he ascended the "Strain" by headlamp, carried on past the Andromeda/Athabasca col, over the summit of Athabasca in blowing conditions and what he called "...very strong snow" and arrived back at the parking lot 45 hours after he had left.
There's more.
Moving north a bit, Frank then soloed the Robinson/Arbic on the North Face of Cromwell.
And more...
Next, he attempted the North Face of Alberta. Going up without a rope, Frank decided he didn't like the inconsistent nature of the rock band above the icefield, and so he traversed off the face and descended the NE ridge. As a consolation, he bagged the peak by the Japanese Route before returning to the highway.
And still more...
He drove to Jasper and had a look at the North Face of Edith Cavell, coming down because of wet rock and unconsolidated snow.
And finally.
Returning south past Mt. Kitchener, where he soloed the Grand Central Couloir - "Only to be climbed ven zer's eis..." - apparently spending over an hour tunneling through the summit cornice.
Wait...
After resting and cragging around Canmore for a few days, Frank decided that he wanted "...perhaps one more peak" before he headed home to Germany. When he showed up at Acephale around noon on Sunday, looking for Todd, we mercilessly insisted that he have a go on Mirror Stage 12b. Heh, heh. After all, we pointed out to this quiet little guy in the pilled fleece, there was already a rope on it; he might as well give it a shot. Protesting that he was "probably quite tired...", he dutifully pulled on a pair of shoes and sent the rig first try. A little while later, he did the same to Bleu du Ciel 12b, loosing his feet during the hideous sloper match at the crux and simply pulling up and locking off while he reached across for the next crimp edge in the sequence.
Now willing to let him be our friend, we engaged Frank in conversation. Turns out he had spent the day before climbing the Blanchard/Robinson on the North Face of Howse Peak, avoiding the A3 chimney and block via the ice in the gash out right (which he admitted was slow going and "very technical" [and which Peter Arbic, the only other person to go that way, reportedly characterizes as "Death" - ed.] and had been forced to sleep on the mountain that night, prior to descending and running up to meet us at the crag.
Dave Dornian
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go-B
climber
Sozo
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Aug 25, 2011 - 07:57pm PT
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Subject: The Italian Virginity Test
Mario is planning to marry and asks his father how he could tell if his bride-to-be is still a virgin.
His father says, "Mario, all the Italian men I know use three things for what we call a Do-It-Yourself Virginity Test Kit - - - A small can of red paint, a small can of blue paint, and a shovel."
Mario asks, "And what do I do with these three things, Papa?”
His father replies, "Before you climb into bed on your wedding night, you paint one of your balls red and the other ball blue. If your new bride says, 'That's the strangest pair of balls I've ever seen!',
. . . you hit her with the shovel!
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Johnny K.
climber
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Sep 22, 2011 - 10:28pm PT
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lets keep this moving along...
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Stewart Johnson
climber
lake forest
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Sep 23, 2011 - 11:16am PT
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guy lacelle for soloing most of the ice in north america!
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matty
Trad climber
under the sea
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Sep 23, 2011 - 01:47pm PT
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Honnold on Phoenix!
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Sep 23, 2011 - 01:54pm PT
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Has anyone mentions Honnold's solo of Moonlight? That was the most impressive solo ever made IMO.
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