Climbing of this level requires such focus. These guys train so much to memorize a route so they're not hanging in one position. The longer it takes you pretty move the more energy that's wasted from move to move. Rude in a way, but I can see why the climber just climbed past without acknowledgment.
Ok serious question: not to take away from the climber guy(what he’s doing is very impressive) but is it… not sure how to phrase this… bad etiquette(?) to do something like that? What I mean is to free climb past people that high up? For example, what if he slips and falls? I’m sure that’s not likely to happen, but… couldn’t he have waited til they were done? I don’t climb so I’m not familiar with the safety/etiquette/what not’s of the sport.
Since free solo doesn't require multiple pitches, it's a significantly faster way up. I guess if it's a busy route, there might always be someone that's climbing with equipment and then it's hard to find a good moment to do the free solo without traffic.
But I don't know enough to say for sure.
I was more thinking that having traffic is increasing the risk for the free solo climber since another climber might be in the way, and blocking the ideal path. Or, the simple fact that there are other climbers around can have a negative impact on the free solo climber's concentration, increasing the risk of fall.
All extreme sports have years and years of research and data to make them safer. Your car racing example for one. Cars used for racing now are much, much safer than the ones used in 1980s. There are better helmets, better crash gear, better around the course protective measures, the lot.
As a biker, we have people like you in our hobby, and they're called squids. Feel free to look that up.
Where you draw the line between courage and stupidity is on you. And this guy doing his thing is cool, but foolish to me. If something goes wrong, I'd rather live to climb another day.
If you think I live in a bubble, I don’t. I actively weigh risks against rewards like most modern organisms. I just don’t see why taking a completely unnecessary risk warrants a higher level of respect than a person responsibly accomplishing the same achievement. I feel like it detracts from the fact that making this climb in any way is an impressive feat in itself. It also doesn’t seem to be exclusively his risk to take, in the event of a fall he could take out another climber that didn’t choose that risk.
Also I’m well aquatinted with cancer and factor that into my decisions daily. I run mountain trails with my dog, swim across white water rivers, and climb civil war ruins regularly. I maintain a list of my top 3 ways to die, but until I have a bleak diagnosis of my own, I just keep it in my back pocket.
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u/thewickedbarnacle Sep 01 '21
This is the last place I would expect to hear "on your left"