The Nose in Under 2

Imagine you sit down to watch the new Deadpool movie, while at the same time a couple of your buddies plan to make a technical climbing ascent of a 3,000 foot vertical rock face. Who do you think would finish first? If your buddies are Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell, they would. The scale of this achievement is inconceivable.

With safety gear, I hope? None of this crazy free climing stuff?

Seems like El Capitan was just in the news the other day for someone falling off. But these guys that climbed it, that’s impressive.

A terminology note: free climbing is any climb where the climber ascends using only their body and the rock. Free climbing is the most popular kind of climbing and most (by far) free climbers use ropes, harnesses, and pro(tection) (cams, bolts, nuts, etc), but for safety only. Free climbing is opposed to aid climbing, where climbers are “pulling on gear”: using ascenders, aid ladders, pendulums, pitons etc–relying on equipment to aid the climb. Free climbing without safety protection is called “free soloing”. One of the guys here, Alex Honnold, is the world’s best free soloist (he has soloed El Capitan, but not this route), but this climb wasn’t a free solo.

Honnold and Caldwell were using gear, even aiding sections (so it’s not free climbing) but as minimally as possible. Most of the time, they were simulclimbing, which means there’s no anchor, no belay, just a rope stretched between them with a few pieces of pro (placed by the leader and removed by the follower) in case one of them falls. This is what the team who fell last week were doing too, either without any pro or with bad pro that ripped out, so the leader’s fall pulled the follower off the route as well.

That sounds scary as fuck, but I’d love to read about that climb.

Feature length documentary (Free Solo) is currently in post-production. Should be released later this year.

This short clip showcasing his solo ascent of Sedero Luminoso in Mexico will make your palms sweat.

I think 3 guys have died free climbing there this season. Two were together at the time.

3 guys have died in Yosemite this season. The 2 who died on El Cap were mentioned upthread. The other one fell off the cables on Half-Dome. (I’m doing that hike in September. Gulp.)

That’s right, the third guy did fall off the cables. The local paper did a story with a history of that afterwards. I have never done that, I don’t like heights, but my younger brother has done that several times.

Yeah, 2 died on El Cap earlier this week in fact, between the first Honnold/Caldwell speed run last week and the second one a few days ago where they probably would have broken the record except for one incident cost a few minutes. They are basically not free-climbing but using a form of paired climbing with minimal equipment. The two that died were using the same method. I’m sure there will be talk about their mindset especially considering what had happened just a few days ago (Honnold did not know them at all) but they were supposed to be pretty experienced on what was considered an easy climb, but the way the minimalist system works is that if one falls the other will too unless a quick arrest is made.

The first death in Yosemite was indeed on Half Dome. However, the climbers made the choice to go up in with thunderstorms around. This is utter madness. You’re on an impossibly slick, steep rock surface and completely exposed to the elements with only some wooden planks and wire cables to really keep you from going off of the face. Plus you’re basically connected to a long chain of lightning rods on top of a giant lightning rod.

The previous deaths that occurred on Half Dome also happened because people went up, against advice, with stormy weather around. It’s basically a form of summit fever–you made this epic hike to get there (it’s not easy to do), you have to have a permit you randomly got months ahead of time for the climbing season, and when you get to the base, you have to turn around because of some storm? And if you don’t do it that day, you won’t be able to go up the next. Permits are for that day only. So yeah it sucks but… man, it’s not worth it.

— Alan

Thanks for the links. Qt3 is awesome that way.

And that clip… holy moley. Definitely going to be on the lookout for the documentary you mentioned.

That’s actually a pretty fascinating article. There are implications there for everyone. A couple of months ago, I took a minor “fall” at the gym. I was roped into the wrong route, so when I weighted the rope at the top, I swung over (unexpectedly) 10 feet or so and ended up flailing upside-down, 50 feet above the ground with a climbing harness on. No harm done, but I was surprisingly shaken by the experience. For weeks afterwards, I’d get halfway up a climb and get atypically, but unavoidably nervous about completing it. I’ve been reluctant to weight the rope, reluctant to try moves where I might fall, etc. It’s taken a conscious effort to push past that stuff and relearn how to trust the climbing rope. But it’s worked. I’m not 100% where I was before the fall, but I’m like 95% there. Other climbers I’ve talked to relate similar experiences. And it’s easy to see how it applies to non-climbing.

Trailer:

And here’s a 360° video of parts of Honnold’s ascent. You can use the mouse to drag the view in any direction. If you have a mobile VR unit like the Daydream or Gear, you should be able to just look in any direction. Pretty breathtaking.

I am not afraid of heights. In fact I quite like them, and love spending time on top of mountains.

Watching footage of him free soloing makes my spine tingle. Holy hell is that crazy.

Using this thread for general climbing news. A dude just free rope soloed the Nose on El Cap.


It’s hard to appreciate the scale of this. The Nose has only ever been free-climbed by 4 (or 5) people, first by Lynn Hill in 1993. This dude not only free climbed it, but rope soloed it. That is, he climbed it without a partner. Rope soloing logistics are pretty insane. For each pitch (of which there are more than 30 on The Nose) the climber has to anchor the rope at a belay point and then lead the route, using a modified Gri-Gri or ascender or something as a fall arrestor. (These function similarly to the seatbelt arrestor on your car. But none of the devices used for this are intended for this purpose and have to modified to allow the rope to be played out through the device as the climber climbs.) Then, when they reach the top of the climb, they anchor the rope there and rappel down to the bottom of the pitch to undo the bottom anchor. Then they have to ascend the rope again to the top of the pitch and haul all their gear up. They traverse every pitch 3 times. It’s (apparently) exhausting and just alot to keep track of.

OMG, that was yesterday, and today a 15 year old has freed the Nose:

What is going on? Until 2 days ago, only 4 people had ever done this in the last 25 years. Now 6 have.

Some movie came out, now everyone wants to be the next freesoloing star. I predict a death pretty soon.

— Alan

Sadly this is exactly what I’d expect