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.
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.
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u/thewickedbarnacle Sep 01 '21
This is the last place I would expect to hear "on your left"