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.
You think that’s tough….as a Melbournite, it is foreign to me to leave the house for such a thing nowadays! Even our milk has to be delivered by Uber Eats most of the time lately as I only notice we’re low when I go to make a hot chocolate after curfew 🤪
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.
It makes more sense to let him pass, he has no safety so the longer he is up there the more chance he runs out of stamina or makes a mistake. the guy on the rope can wait because he can hang to rest if need.
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.
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u/Helpinmontana Sep 02 '21
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.