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Mark Force
Trad climber
Cave Creek, AZ
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Mar 21, 2015 - 05:55pm PT
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There is a huge difference between a soloist who does laps on stuff they have wired that is several full grades below their limits and someone who onsights near their limits. dude is cutting it way too close.!
Walking the edge between life and death too many times brings you more likely to the something that comes up that will push you to the wrong side of the edge. Sh#t happens. Thinking about Honnold soloing the last hard pitch of Half Dome gives me the heebie jeebies (disclaimer - I just aided it, but I remember all that little tiny dishy stuff and thought holy sh#t when thinking what it would be like to free climb. Solo? Hard to get my head around it).
He is no doubt an extreme outlier; the kind that rarely comes around.
It's his call and he is only responsible for himself.
I had fun soloing for a while when I was climbing all the time. Got into some low end 10s (nothing special and they were all locker cracks, no hard thin stuff). Then I decided to get married and went out soloing all day long the day before the wedding. After that I was responsible for more than myself.
It was fun though!
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 21, 2015 - 06:52pm PT
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The route my buddy fell on was an 11c im sure he had wired and done many laps on before. Then a foothold breaks.....
So many variables are out of control like minute geological processes of erosion and breakdown. The wasp scenario is another good example of unforeseen complications. I was almost killed myself in Potrero Chico when we were rappelling time wave zero. A party about 5 pitches up broke off a rock...sounded like a fricken meteor as it barely missed us. That's just one example of many hairball things I've experienced. When I said I should be dead already at the start of this thread I wasn't joking. I guess when it's your time to go the reaper comes calling. Must have not been my time then....
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Bullwinkle
Boulder climber
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Mar 21, 2015 - 06:57pm PT
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When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. . . Jonathan Swift
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Mar 21, 2015 - 07:12pm PT
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I climb hard ice. I have no room to tell anyone what is safe or not. that being said the bigger the holds the better the chance you can hang on if something bad happens. I remember something Donini said in a simeler thread . He mentioned that he no longer solos face climbs, Only solos cracks. I remind myself of that occasionally in the rock season. haveing a solid hand jamb gives you a chance if a foothold breaks. Soloing 11c 99.99% of climbers will fall if a hold breaks.....
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Mar 21, 2015 - 07:20pm PT
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Bullwinkle certainly knows
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crankster
Trad climber
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Mar 21, 2015 - 07:20pm PT
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I'm just amazed there's a good discussion going on without the blessing of Jim Brennan.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Mar 21, 2015 - 09:02pm PT
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You have outdone yourself Locker!
I want that house!
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SweetWilliam
Boulder climber
TheSand,Man
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Mar 21, 2015 - 09:48pm PT
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Bortherbbock, your friend was soloing in NewJack? No offense but that seems pretty stupid cause stuff breaks there all the time. Every time I go there something crumbles off even on popular routes. All those little crunchy pointy edges it's like weird stacked up nachos where the rock angle changes. The clean faces are really hard and solid but as soon as you get an edge where the rock kicks back they are usually slanting off both sides and not filled up of glue like the quarry or other louie places.
Everybody solos even if only getting to the first or second bolt on a sport climb since you'd hit the ground clipping the second on halfof em anyway. Hope your friend gets better quick and can walk and have a regular life soon.
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JOEY.F
Gym climber
It's not rocket surgery
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Mar 21, 2015 - 09:52pm PT
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. "One loose rock at the wrong moment is all it takes"
Brad Parker was soloing Mathes Crest last fall, in top shape, easy peasy for him, and that's all it took.
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 21, 2015 - 10:01pm PT
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@sweetwilliam,
Yeah new jack is a horrible place to free solo. One giant choss pile out there.
similarly, "Hondo" solos mainly to glorify the USA, to glorify truth, justice, and the American Way....therefore, he can never ever die!!
^^^ Fukn A!!
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Mar 21, 2015 - 10:32pm PT
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Nuth'in mor queer than solo'in gett'in all this publicity>
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Mar 21, 2015 - 11:45pm PT
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ur right^
It is an evolutional law/moral for EVERYONE to be able to poke fun of each individuals experience.
i can't help but to hate that.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Mar 21, 2015 - 11:59pm PT
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so was everything robin Mclaurin will i am 's said a lie?
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Psilocyborg
climber
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Mar 22, 2015 - 01:08am PT
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^ I am so confused
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Mar 22, 2015 - 07:05am PT
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every day
the future crumbles
by one
no song survives
only the sunrise
destroys the night
with loving aggression;
ride the stone wave,
whose matrix includes you.
tiptoe unto tomorrow
and you're already through.
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crankster
Trad climber
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Mar 22, 2015 - 09:13am PT
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Just needling you a bit, Jim. Sometimes you deserve it.
And yes, while I've been climbing probably longer than you I don't solo anything harder than 5.4. A rope suits me, never saw it as a burden.
And locker...one funny dude.
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 22, 2015 - 09:15am PT
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^^^Alex on Sendero blows my mind. That limestone down there is something else too. Cranking/trusting those sharp little edges so far off the deck....gnarly.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Mar 22, 2015 - 10:03am PT
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what if you get stung by a wasp?
No sh#t. I have had silverfish explode into my nose, eyes, ears, mouth all at once one time. It was freeking biblical.
I've also had two holds break on me, one second apart.
It's nice to think of Alex being a superman spiritual being, but he's subject to the same natural laws as the rest of us.
Nobody is against him Bullwinkle, don't be silly. But of course you count yourself in the non-dunce category.
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Poloman
Trad climber
Anna, Il
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Mar 22, 2015 - 12:14pm PT
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The biggest problem I find with his activities is the impression it leaves on non-climbers and beginners.
I have spoken to people that have seen the video of his exploits (which are spectacular) and believe that it is the norm.
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