Yes, but there's a good chance you won't die if you fall off the bike.
gonads of such weight....there is no element on the periodic table.....
- Thread starter stevew
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- 5.14b douchebagery
A lot of garbage talk here from a bunch of armchair wankers who probably couldn't climb a 5.8 if their life depended on it.
Agree with his approach/methods or not, this dude just upped the game and put his mark in the history of climbing. You're all here talking about him. Who's talking about you and your accomplishments?
Agree with his approach/methods or not, this dude just upped the game and put his mark in the history of climbing. You're all here talking about him. Who's talking about you and your accomplishments?
Knowing your history, I'm calling 50/50 you were climbing sober.
Let's give him 10 years and see if he is still alive and feels the same.
And what if hes not alive and died doing what he loved most in stead of rotting away in a nursing home waiting to get his diaper changed wishin he would have done something with his life like 90% of the people who waisted their lives talking about how retarded other people are for doing what they love?
I watched his documentary free soloing half dome. Being afraid of heights myself, sometimes I almost lost it only watching it on screen.
Honnold is a freak of nature. Congrats!
Honnold is a freak of nature. Congrats!
His mum will be sad.
THINK OF THE MOTHERS!
Diarrhea kills over 2 million people annually, when it's your time, it's your time. Dude could quit climbing tomorrow and get killed driving back down to Sacramento. If he falls to his death on the next climb, oh well, we can all point and laugh and say "See, I told you dangerous things are dangerous", cool, yay us. I somehow doubt that if we met him in an afterlife he'd have a single regret, being able to live without regret is one of the most admirable things we can do in this life.
He did say he's taking some time off of free solo climbing, which leads me to believe that this was a life goal, and he may just throttle it back, not like there are that many walls left for him to free solo anyway. So maybe, just maybe, he's managed a "perfect" free solo career.
He did say he's taking some time off of free solo climbing, which leads me to believe that this was a life goal, and he may just throttle it back, not like there are that many walls left for him to free solo anyway. So maybe, just maybe, he's managed a "perfect" free solo career.
What does it matter? You are still dead.
And this wasn't something he did on whim. I read somewhere he's been planning and training for this for at least 5 or 6 years. Curious as to how many times total he climbed that route. Gotta be in the hundreds.
We all die. It doesn't matter how you go dead is dead. Choose your path and live your life as you see fit. By sheer luck and some skill I am still here despite pushing myself right to and perhaps past my limits. As I have gotten older I have backed off a bit. In reality it will not matter when or how any of us go.
It was. He started this climb several times in the past without finishing it...
I have no issue with what he's doing if he's not putting others at risk, however that's not usually the case. My wife grew up in Yosemite, and my in-laws and brother-in-law still live there. It's a very small community and everyone knows each other; as such they're friends with some of the best climbers and wing-suit base jumpers in the world. Over the past decade a handful of them have died, and a few had small kids, kids that won't know their dad. Personally I think that's irresponsible, but I know there's other arguments. In addition to that, when there's an incident SAR has to go after them. Is it fair to put those people's lives at risk? To compare this to DH seems like a stretch - the mortality rates are no-where near the same.
What did he do on those attempts? Climb down? That seems sketchy. Drone delivery of harness as bailout?
Climbed down I'm sure. I watched an interview in which he stated he "knows" he could climb down nearly every ascent he's ever done.
Which, to me, is even more impressive than going up. Then again, I'm afraid of heights and would get semi-queasy working on the roof of my 1-story ranch, so what do I know....
For sure. I try to downclimb as much as I can, but doing it at the same difficulty level is damn impressive. I can usually barely downclimb V4s/5.11s, which means nothing since every place is different.
From what I've read he rappelled down a series of fixed ropes. Down climbing several pitches like that would be challenging to say the least.
The thing is that gets me about Yosemite is that the one thing that could make free soloing safer is illegal there.
Always climbed sober. Bouldering or top roping I had been know to have lit one up, ate some schrooms or peyote way more than once. For me 5.11 A was about my limit. I was a solid 5.10 lead climber
This is indeed what he did.
there are 2 kinds of people who live without regret.
those who have never made a single mistake in their entire lives.
those who are too dumb to accept their mistakes.
havent met many of the first kind.
Not base jumping per se but a parachute is about the only safety net for free soloingBASE jumping?
But the weight and motion restriction would be a liability for the climber. You can't open a 'shute if you are bouncing off rocks on the cliff face. Would only work if the wall was beyond vertical or if the climber had the opportunity to push off and get into clean air.
That's the general idea, it's called freebasing.
I agree with the above assessments. And Kevin, you're retarded to me buddy
I don't personally feel that I'm risking death when I climb any more than when I ride a bike (and I'm such a a sissy that I don't even road bike for fear of getting hit like many of my friends). At a certain level climbing is much more controlled than riding. If you are smart and methodical and can tell your ego to STFU, climbing can be a very safe sport.
Your comparison isn't very accurate. He was on a climb that he had repeated without falling numerous times, a climb that he had memorized all the important details of, a climb that he had personally inspected for loose rock. This would be more like the dude who shows up at the dirt jumps by me on a 20" bike with no brakes and no helmet and floats big clean back flips over the biggest booters. To me it seems crazy, but he has it so dialed that it isn't really that dangerous.
Consider the following. What if you couldn't ride as fast with a helmet? What if a helmet detracted from your enjoyment of riding? Do you rock full armor and a full face on your day to day trail rides (that would clearly be the safest option)? How safe or unsafe do you think it would be to leave your helmet at home the next time you ride your favorite flowy mellow trail?
Unless you're riding carbon barz. Then you're gonna die. Every time, most of the time.Yes, but there's a good chance you won't die if you fall off the bike.
PS check out some cool coverage from the valley floor
http://elcapreport.com/content/elcap-report-6317-special-edition-honnold-free-solo-elcap
Looks pretty terrifying
It's already being done.
You can't open a chute if you are bouncing off rocks. Yes there is no known remedy for hitting rocks. If you ain't falling on them, they are falling on you...
Some perspective from another current top climber
https://www.outsideonline.com/2190306/why-alex-honnolds-free-solo-scared-me
https://www.outsideonline.com/2190306/why-alex-honnolds-free-solo-scared-me
From the man himself:
http://www.rockandice.com/climbing-news/alex-honnold-el-cap-free-solo-interview
http://www.rockandice.com/climbing-news/alex-honnold-el-cap-free-solo-interview
First sentence, "it was awesome and hes psyched."
All i needed to read, now everybody shut up /thread closed.
All i needed to read, now everybody shut up /thread closed.
Downright amazing. I'm sure there's not many single physical human accomplishments that can compare.
There are a bunch of people who live on little islands in the middle of the pacific thousands of miles from the mainland whose ancestors might disagree.
They didn't get practice runs with safety nets.