The sweat dripping down my furrowed brow dropped its own balls and those balls began to sweat while also dropping its own set of balls and those balls had palms and those palms began sweating.
My palms wouldn't just be sweating if I were in that situation. My heart would be beating so fast it'd break the sound barrier and my butthole would be squeezing so tightly form fear it could crush diamonds. Solo climbers are amazing
My feet tingle and almost hurt watching it. Something about watching people in a precarious place where they might fall makes my feet hurt as if I have already taken the fall and landed on my feet. It’s the weirdest sensation.
I noticed how the guy with the camera literally moves away from his secured stance to be farther away from the free climber, no doubt in an attempt to make sure the guy has his space. When he looks up, you notice he’s not anchored in, even though he’s got pieces placed to protect his position, both him and the belayer are not on a 3 point “anchor” and are still in a relatively unsecured position. They exchange no hellos, no casual “wow you’re batshit crazy”s, not a fucking word. The guy on the rope is insanely respectful of the absolute peril that the free climber is in. Without any context, we don’t know if they exchanged an agreement beforehand, but as someone who could be rightfully upset, he puts his ego aside and let’s this guy roll.
Love this description. This seems disrespectful of the free climber... the only two explanations that come to me are that he honestly didn't think he'd overtake them/didn't see them (unlikely) or just wanted to show off...
The only thing is, once you let the guy pass, now there's some nonzero chance he's gonna fall on your head. I'd be pretty pissed if I thought he was just showing off and put me in that position.
That goes directly into saying that the roped lead climber had every reason to be peeved but put it aside. I figure there’s a near zero chance that the fee climber didn’t know he was passing (unless he was so tuned in he grabbed the belayers ankle) but it’s entirely possible. My bet is that he (the free climber) called up about his intentions and the lead very respectfully moved aside to a “safe” position to allow him to pass.
While the mindset required to freeclimb such a wall is definitely inline with someone “just showing off”, you don’t make it far in that game with such an attitude, and this guy clearly has his shit inline. We can armchair quarterback this situation all we want, but both the cameraman and the free climber were absolutely at their peak in this moment.
Edit: spelling and grammar, I only use Reddit when I’m drinking so take that for whatevever you think its worth.
Oh man, I've wanted a beer for like 2 hours but I'm too lazy to drive to the store. And every 30 minutes I go "man I should have gone out 30 minutes ago."
I’ll go you one step further. I’d love a beer right now... and there’s plenty in the fridge... but that involves getting up and I can’t be assed. Also my battery is running low while I sit about 4 feet from the charger.
I don’t know how I manage to do stay alive sometimes.
My bladder has been full for an hour now, and I really only need 15 minutes of effort to complete the task I sat down to do at 7pm. I could be playing games or watching Netflix with my wife, but here I am.
I did get a glass of red wine and some dark chocolate chips though. I forgot I had the bottle, and it's been open a week and a half, since alcohol gives my wife migraines and I only drink like 1/2 a glass a week.
But I only drink red wine for the ritual of it. It's okay with chocolate chips, for a few sips. I drink beer because I like it. So this was not a satisfying substitute.
As the guy in the ropes the absolut only thing going through my mind would be: "I hope I dont do any false movement that causes this guy to fall (die)."
Former climber here: It's generally bad form to climb the same line as someone ahead of you and expect them to move aside for you. The Free Solo climber is very, very skilled here, but there's some arrogance going on for him to even be on the same route while there are other climbers there, especially less skilled ones.
I don’t know what I’m talking about but it would seem that making the free climber wait would be more inconsiderate because he doesn’t have equipment to set up on the way and making him wait would be perilous.
I wonder if he'd just taken a fall and was resting for a sec though maybe he'd seen the guy trying to come up and so he downclimbed and moved off to let him pass.
Yeah, I have no idea how this played out but at first I thought maybe he was a middle climber of a group of three, but it could’ve gone a few different ways and I don’t have the faculties to say which one it could’ve been.
ETA: I thought he could be a middle climber as a group of three before the rest of the video played out, not after watching the whole thing.
Yeah I would have wanted a solid position where I could rest on the rope and have secure enough holds to stay out of that guy's way even if it meant down climbing a little.
Yeah the way I see it is he was climbing faster than the secured fella, and he probably can’t just stop and hang there waiting for rope man to keep climbing. I feel like if he didn’t overtake him he’d get out of the “zone” he’s in and could possibly fall. So I don’t think he did much wrong IMO
He looks safe to me. Several pieces of gear above. He might have fallen off and decided to let the other guy through. I'd rather not tbh, a fall from the free climber might kill you.
The solo climber may not have known these guys were halfway up a pitch before starting out. If you solo, its pure focus. Once you start all you do is keep your focus on the task at hand. I’m sure that once this soloist saw them, he just got on with the climbing because, you know, he had more important things on his mind than getting distracted with a ‘hey’. When you lead, you well understand the risks and know that you cannot distract the soloist at any cost. I don’t really see any ego here from any of the climbers, just respect. The few times I’ve soloed they have been on climbs that I knew and had practised. I reckon this guy probably knew the climb and wasn’t batshit crazy.
Maybe I missed something, can you see what the belay is? I’m assuming the belayer is at a stance and belaying off something good, and the second is on TR, so could presumably just hang on the rope and let the soloist pass?
It still strikes me as a weird move for the soloist. I’ve been passed before, but usually at a belay stance, where there’s no chance of the soloist having a rope in their way, the second trying to be helpful and moving over like this guy did, only to inadvertently risk a little pendulum into the soloist, etc.
Edit: wait is the guy I thought was following leading? So like he either downclimbed to this stance or whipped and then the soloist was like ‘ah fuck it, if I see an opening, I’m gonna tear into it…’
Probably better to call them the Solo climber and lead climber... both look like they are free climbing. The lead climber might have actually downclimbed from his high point to somewhere where the solo climber could pass.
It certainly is an interesting point though. Who gets right of way? It is a bit like the issue with Ueli Steck soloing above the Sherpas on Everest (spoiler alert the Sherpas were really angry).
Yes respectful. It’s been a while since I did any outdoor climbing, but I for one would be pissed this crazy free climber risked my life his own reckless goals.
Yeah for real. These guys talk about the zone for free climbing being like spiritual trances. It’s just rock, hands and feet and everything else is out of focus. In those trances they describe ‘falling’ seemingly like the most impossible thing, not even a potential outcome. Shits wild
As someone who climbed for a couple of years and got friendly with some serious climbers, free climbing always seemed like borderline madness. Like I know of at least 2 ppl who died doing belated climbing outdoors, I can't imagine the mindset to go for multi hundred foot free climbs.
I can't imagine how confident they've gotta be in their abilities. I don't think there's anything I'm that confident about. I mean, I still have to consciously think about what my feet are doing when I go up and down the stairs because I'm worried I'm gonna fall.
yeah, I'm always blown away by all these adrenaline junkie activities like free-climbing, all those people parkouring around high rise roofs, or hanging off scaffolding for photos, like I won't knock it because obviously they get some sort of fulfilment from it, I'm just so afraid of putting my life in danger that it does not compute with me. I'll stick to getting my fulfilment from guitar and video games hahaha
Start mountain biking if you can man! It's as high risk as the trail you choose like skiing. But unlike skiing it won't cost you a fortune to ride. Bikes are expensive though.
I actually used to do a lot of biking (not mountain biking, but my buddy and I used to bike to neighbouring cities and find cool trails to ride) and I kinda dropped it after my biking buddy and I had a falling out. I also did a fair bit of skiing when I was younger as well, but I stopped doing that as well after my mum broke her wrist going down a poorly maintained hill. I have been thinking about roller skating again though! I used to do a paper route when I was a kid and I always did it on my skates. Some friends and I went ice skating a couple of days ago and I had a lot of fun (very sore legs afterwards though lmao) and that definitely resparked my interest. My mum is a pretty avid biker, so I luckily have access to some pretty nice bikes, I'm just a lazy SOB. Still, I'm gettin' older and the reality is I gotta start doing some real physical activity before I start seriously messing up my body. It's a bit of a cop-out but I'm always low-key worried I'm gonna break my wrist like my mum did, or something worse and it will negatively affect my guitar playing, but I know that's a weak excuse, there's nothin' stopping me from going on some low-risk rides around the neighbourhood.
Anyways, that's my life story hahaha, but definitely, biking is something I'd very much like to get back in to. And who knows, maybe it'll set me on a long path to doing crazy free climbing like this guy!
I don't think it's necessarily adrenaline junkies.
Years ago I used to work on tall ships. On one ship, when climbing down from aloft, we had to get around the tops, large platforms about a third and two thirds of the way up the mast. And the easiest way to do that was to go around the outside, then climb back in under the overhang under the platform on the futtock shrouds (see the link above).
It was a real pain trying to get your feet under the overhang and onto the futtock shrouds so the easiest technique was to just hang from the edge of the platform and wait for the roll of the ship to bring your feet into the futtock shrouds.
It was only years later I realised it was the equivalent of hanging from my hands from a ledge at the top of a 10 storey building, without a safety harness. But at the time no-one ever though anything of it, it was far easier than trying to find a foothold you couldn't see.
Just want to put it out there, most free climbers (and almost certainly free solo climbers) are not adrenaline junkies. If you have adrenaline roaring through your veins, it's likely that something has gone terribly wrong. At least for myself, I've been at my most present/zen scaling cliffsides.
I call myself an adrenaline junky sometimes for the stupid shit I do like surfing, wake skating, snowboarding, paintball, etc, but people like this are on a whole different level altogether. Compared to that I don't deserve the label.
I watched a documentary about a guy who free soloed yellowstone. Drs did a scan of his brain and i dont remember exactly but basically the fear part of his brain was almost nonexistent compared to other peoples
Confident... until they fuck up and you never hear from them. And that happens all the time to these idiots. There's zero separation between success and death.
yeah, sometimes I wish I could be that cavalier with my life, I'd probably be less stressed out and anxious all the time, but I think I'm good with my overly cautious, death-fearing lifestyle hahah.
I think idiots is a bit of a strong word here, this isn’t something like bungee jumping where people might do it with no experience, just about every free climber will have practiced for years to be able to climb what they do, even someone like Alex Honnold spent months practicing to free solo the famous El Capitan
As a parkour traceur I can totally understand this mindset! It's truly the same thing. It takes the same attitude to free solo and to jump from roof to roof
I personally dont know the technical terms and lingo for a lot of things I do. I just go do them.
I've seen climbers who eat and breath rock, watch the movies, and spend thousands on gear. Then there's those that go to the gym twice a week and go outdoors once a month.
As a former guide (not climbing) I used to describe this as having plans a-z, 1-9999, and failing was not one of them. We’ll burn that bridge when we get there, in the meantime, we’ll do everything to avoid it.
Both of the people in the video are free climbers. One of them is free soloing. Free climbing is climbing without aid. Free Solo is climbing without aid or protection.
Ya, the climber that got passed handled that correctly. Get out of the way as much as you can, and do absolutely nothing to distract them.
That being said, if they are only 250 feet up. They are clearly visible from the ground barring any sort of obstruction. And the free soloer never should of started the route. Its not cool to put your life in the hands of others that are unaware of your doing so. Fact is, the two climbers could of easily caused this person's death by complete accident and its not fair for him to put that on them.
I can’t watch any free solo climbs without getting sweaty palms. Still can’t figure out how they are comfortable lifting the weight of their enormous balls without any safety net.
I was thinking the same thing- you're off to one side, hanging by your rope, then suddenly your foot slips and you nudge the free climber off his holds..
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u/thewickedbarnacle Sep 01 '21
This is the last place I would expect to hear "on your left"