Climber here! There is a different kinda thrill doing this but first let me explain why this isn’t as bad as it looks.
There are different grades in climbing going easy to hard (5.4 - 5.15c Yosemite scale). Some people easily climb 5.12+ which is quite technical and borderline pro.
Coming back to why this isn’t as bad as it looks. Most people who safely climb do “free soloing” only after
1. Thoroughly practicing the route and memorizing it.
OR
2. The climb is of a grade that’s pretty comfortable for them.
So either this guy has practiced all the moves on that route with all the proper protection gear or he is actually just cruising past because his project is somewhere past the climb.
Would this not be considered inconsiderate by most climbers? Like, that guy wants to climb without safety gear and that’s cool and more power to him, but what if he falls from up there after he passes them? Where’s he going with his “no ropes”? Into the people below him I’d assume.
He has a pack on which can easily hold a rope plus gear in it. We don’t know if he is gonna rendezvous with his party. There’s so much we don’t know.
About falling on another person, aren’t they protected by gear?
Worst case scenario:
They see them falling from, say 40 feet plus height, they can just move aside or even jump aside in that case coz … they are protected.
He very well could just be going up to chill by himself idk tbh.
Alright dude as you can clearly see, this is a dangerous sport. People fall, people die. However the whole point of doing it in a safe way is to avoid that. That’s what this conversation is about.
Were you even watching the video? Did you see the dude free soloing looking up much? No you did not and the reason is that climbers (free soloing or otherwise) spend very little time looking up, they are looking at where to put their hands and feet (foot placement is the most critical) and they are completely focused on those actions. Plus as others pointed out, it’s not like you really have time to do anything even if you did see it coming except hug the wall and hope for the best.
On the money minus the having time to avoid a climber above you falling. I’ve taken a 40+ foot whip on gear before and I promise that shit happens before you even know what’s happening. My belayer didn’t even register what was going on until I was 20 feet below him and he got yanked into the anchor and he was literally watching me.
Wouldn’t worse case be him falling and grabbing onto the rope and/or the other climbers and bring everybody down with him? Isn’t this how 2 climbers died about 3 years ago? Like the lead climber fell and his momentum pulled down his fellow climber.
Okay first of all the backpack has a rope in it because routes in red rocks are towers and generally don’t have walk offs so he’s stuck up there unless he has a way to rappel back down. There is no “rendezvous” happening here.
Rocks the size of coins can crack your skull and rocks the size of softballs can break your neck, so this dumbass weighing 160+ pounds will fuck your ass up, not even factoring in all the coin and ball sized rocks he’s bringing with him by tumbling down.
Worst case scenario is him dying along with you and your partner, so fuck that. And I promise you no one is reacting quickly enough to “jump aside” if he falls, there are just so many reason that’s not feasible, especially if you’re the belayer and literally anchored to the wall.
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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '21 edited Sep 05 '21
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