Free solo OnSighting the Steck Salathe

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Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Dec 23, 2012 - 01:51pm PT

What mike m said is true, and what kid just said is funny. I agree, he is totally trolling!

peter croft

climber

Dec 23, 2012 - 02:13pm PT

Luke
As to your question comparing onsight soloing Steck Salathe vs Greg's climb of Pipeline. At the time of his ascent I could do the standard 5.11/5.12 finger cracks but could only claw my way up 5.9 off widths if there was an emergency. Even afterwards I doubt I would have had the courage to top rope it. Obviously Sentinel is much bigger but psyching up for that entails an established free route at a known grade. Pipeline could've weighed in somewhere between 5.9 and 5.12. Coupled with that, given that it was in Squamish, there was a better than decent chance that there might be at least a little dirt, vegetation and flakiness. One way to evaluate it is to look at how many people have onsight soloed the SS and understand that only a tiny fraction of those could contemplate actually doing what Greg did.

RyanD

climber

Squamish

Dec 23, 2012 - 02:21pm PT

How many people would even think about soloing pipeline now period! Was Greg's FFA the only free solo pipeloads has ever seen?

bmacd

Trad climber

100% Canadian

Dec 23, 2012 - 02:27pm PT

^^ exactly, I heard when Greg flexes his bicep it's a lockoff somewhere in a 5-9 inch width crack. Pipeline is def not a trade route.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Dec 23, 2012 - 02:37pm PT

I went to onsight Solo the West Ridge of Conness once. 5.7, how hard could it be eh? But I heard Croft said such great things about it.

I was having trouble getting oriented on my way over to the route though, and started up what seemed to be the likely route....

not even close. The higher I got, the more I had doubts until many hundreds of feet up I peaked around the corner and spotted the West Ridge on the next formation.

Fortunately the non-route I did wasn't harder than 5.8 and only in a couple places

http://yosemiteclimber.com/ConnessSoloadventure.html

You have to be on route for the route to be its grade

Peace

karl

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Dec 23, 2012 - 02:47pm PT

I know someone who's led Pipeline twice - some people never learn, apparently. But AFAIK Greg's is the only solo ascent to date. As Peter mentions, it mightn't be quite as much of an adventure now as it was for Greg, who was taking a big step into the unknown.

Big Mike

Trad climber

Dec 23, 2012 - 03:12pm PT

Peter trolling Luke... Too funny. Too bad I wasn't there Pete. I wouldn't have let the kid snub you like that... ;) hopefully we'll get to meet you at the next psyche ledge party this spring!

peter croft

climber

Dec 23, 2012 - 08:22pm PT

Hey Scott
I sort of did that link - except finishing with Arrowhead Arete instead of Snake Dyke. I really wanted to finish with Snake Dyke after but I botched the timing and didn't bring a headlamp for the descent in the dark down the Falls Trail after Arrowhead. Anyway, my got pretty bruised up stumbling my way down and when I got to the valley floor I made the mistake of passing by the Mountain Room bar. I saw some friends kicking back with beers and I stood outside for a long while dithering on whether I should suck it up and head for Snake Dyke or join my buddies, knowing I'd regret it. Eventually I opened the door and stepped in. And I was right - I did regret it.
PS Thanks for the lift! Even on solo outings it's great to have some help from your friends.

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Dec 23, 2012 - 08:30pm PT

I think you did, SS, NEB, North Buttress Middle, Royal Arch, North Dome and Snake Dike.

Is that accurate?

That's a BIG link up! I would love to do Mt. Clark, Snake Dike and Starr King some day. Would be a good challenge to me.

I was in the gym bouldering today reading an article about ethics (oh the irony!) in an old "Climbing" magazine. There was a mention of Henry Barber (the guy who put up Butterballs in Yosemite and MANY MANY MANY MANY routes all over the world) onsight free soloing Steck Salathe. Cool article, there was a good 2 pages written by Mark Twight too.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Dec 23, 2012 - 10:47pm PT

Wow did PC just say he did like 6,000ft of soloing and gets banged up walking.

eeyonkee

Trad climber

Golden, CO

Dec 24, 2012 - 01:42pm PT

Sheesh, that is mind boggling! How did you go from the nice, talented Canadian lad I met in 1978 or 1979 who could actually be impressed by somebody soloing 5.10 to the tour de force you became as demonstrated by exploits like that linkup? In a more pedestrian vein, the SS was often the very first climb I would do after getting to the Valley in the Spring. I reasoned it was a good climb to stretch the muscles and lose a couple of the extra pounds I invariably had.

10b4me

Boulder climber

Somewhere on 395

Dec 24, 2012 - 01:43pm PT

I would love to do Mt. Clark, Snake Dike and Starr King some day. Would be a good challenge to me.

that would be a few miles in itself

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Dec 24, 2012 - 01:55pm PT

Part of the free soloing I've done has been out of laziness. Couldn't be troubled to find a partner, deal with gear, wait for anybody, carry a pack, whatever....

When I hear about some of the link-ups folks have done, the hiking alone sounds inconceivable. I mean, no way, in my best times, could I have even hiked to all the summits that somebody like Croft climbed Grade 5 and 6 routes to get to in the same time. Scratch that (because I climbing is more fun and somehow easier than hiking) I couldn't even do the approaches and descents we're talking about if I had a magic escalator to skip the climbing part.

God only knows what sort of linkups would go down if basejumping was legal in the park

Peace

Karl

Largo

Sport climber

The Big Wide Open Face

Nov 14, 2013 - 11:26pm PT

Doing that link up including the North Face of Middle is impressive. That route seems like it's 100 pitches long. My feet were aching after climbing it and descending in RBs. You guys are like machines. And all that hiking.

JL