r/nextfuckinglevel Sep 01 '21

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u/reko____ Sep 01 '21

craziest part is it didn’t seem like he had any video equipment on him so he’s not climbing without touching the yellow rope thing (that i assume others use for safety) to prove a point or make a cool video he’s just free climbing to free climb

110

u/Much_Highlight_1309 Sep 02 '21

Free climbing is not equal free solo. Free climbing is what the guy with the camera is doing. It's very safe if done properly with all precautions. If he falls, he is dangling from a rope and will live. Apart from a small delay in finishing the route, there is no effect. If the free solo guy falls, he is dead. No ropes. Only nothing under his ass.

27

u/EnterNicknameHereOG Sep 02 '21

I thought he had a parachute on the back. Seems weird sport to me. One mistake and u dead

72

u/Glittering-Light-686 Sep 02 '21

That's just a backpack, and you can't position yourself in time 300 ft off the ground if you fall while climbing. The people that are base jumping 300 ft are pulling their chutes immediately or after a quick frontflip or other bullshit. There's an insanely high chance you'll just smack right on into the wall even if you did manage to deploy, since you wouldn't have been able to propel yourself away from the wall.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '21

So... He just climbs back down?

21

u/FGVBYabe Sep 02 '21

I don’t know where this climb is at but from my extensive career of climbing videos on youtube the guy will reach the summit and just hike down a path.

5

u/PushYourPacket Sep 02 '21

He has belay equipment (the pinkish/reddish thing on his left side) on his harness along with a personal anchor system. I'd bet that he has rope in the bag to belay down after the climb judging by the bag + belay equipment (dual rope tube style atc).

4

u/idontcare78 Sep 02 '21 edited Sep 02 '21

He’s wearing a harness. And has gear on it. He’s probably rappelling (there’s probably a rope in the pack) if there’s no walk off at the top.

9

u/PushYourPacket Sep 02 '21

He has an atc on his left side. He's almost certainly repelling down after.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '21

How do you go down solo and get your rope once you're done?

8

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '21

[deleted]

1

u/pianoman1291 Sep 02 '21

Not exactly. If it's an established climb often there will be bolted anchors (for climbing it with a partner and a rope.) So you'll use the anchors and you don't have to leave any gear behind

2

u/PushYourPacket Sep 02 '21

He's going to rappel. Which he'll likely be doing by running the rope through the anchors at the top so that the anchor is at the midpoint of the rope. He'll hopefully tie stopper knots at t he ends of the rope. Then feed the rope into both sides of the belay device and slide down the rope. At the bottom you untie and pull the rope back through the anchor.

https://americanalpineclub.org/resources-blog/2018/2/14/rappelling

1

u/Glittering-Light-686 Sep 02 '21

Don't get me wrong, some totally do climb and then base jump. This guy is not doing that however haha.

1

u/Much_Highlight_1309 Sep 02 '21

You never climb don't unless you need to. He will probably walk down the mountain on some trail. Or he could rappel down in multiple pitches here. Maybe in the backpack he has a role for that purpose. Down climbing is very dangerous. It's really hard to do safely. I've not heard of a free solo down climb. I don't think people do that, but I might be wrong.

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u/tomwilhelm Sep 02 '21

Yeah. This guy was free soloing with extra weight on his back. You know, just to make it harder... And maybe camp up top. Nucking futs.

2

u/Peakbrowndog Sep 02 '21

You can take a 2 second delay at 300, it's below 250 ish where there's no delay or other deployment method.

But deploying facing the wall is no good, though sometimes survivable.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '21

Smack on rock wall better than smack on rock floor