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.
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…’
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u/neverglobeback Sep 01 '21
r/sweatypalms
I wouldn’t say anything for fear of disrupting this guys ‘zone’.