Try to name one thing harder than Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan with no ropes.

DontFeedTheTroll wrote:

YMMV wrote:

That's been done by three people already. Pretty much zero risk of death.

So? The question was to name something harder, not more dangerous.

The Dawn Wall is a much, much, much harder climb.

As I said before, "Silence"

One of the most dangerous things I've seen wrote:

Would argue that making a pro sports league in the US (NFL, NBA, NHL) is probably harder because there is much more competition to get past to make it to the top.

A high school basketball player has about 0.03% chance to make the NBA. The chances of making the NFL (0.09%) and NHL (0.4%) are higher.

If this is the standard, there are many things harder than making an NBA team.

Chuck Odette quotes Conrad Anker - who would know a lot better than you as thus:

As Conrad Anker once confided in me when I caught him climbing at a local sport crag, “Anyone can slog up a mountain. This sh1t’s hard!”

choss wrangler wrote:

He might argue that he has done harder climbs. As one poster said, it’s so far below his max as to not be that big a deal. Setting makes it a grand achievement. To put it in context, it’s like telling Kipchoge to go run 5 min pace for 26.2. Very little risk he fails.

Yeah but with a truck right behind him that runs him over if he falls off pace.

what was harder was my dick watching him do it

DontFeedTheTroll wrote:

I've got to confess that I don't really see what is praiseworthy about free soloing. Free climbing is obviously impressive as all hell, but free soloing seems to me like riding a motorcycle without a helmet. It's no harder than riding a motorcycle with a helmet, the difference being the consequences if you have an accident. I don't think people who ride motorcycles without helmets are worthy of praise and I particularly don't think people who ride that way particularly fast or on hard roads deserve my admiration. So why is this particular feat by Honnold so impressive?

I find it fascinating that there are people willing to climb up extreme mountains without ropes where the smallest misstep results in their death. It is almost a matter of time until they make the mistake and fall to their death. Like the wingsuit jumper, Graham Parkinson, he was as good as they get. But, ultimately, he was killed during a dive in China.

John Bachar died free soloing in 2009, after 30 some years of free soloing. Had announced free soloing since then? Lots of wingsuit jumpers have died since then.

YMMV wrote:

macklin wrote:

This is the truth. Have been wanting to see this for months. How is an oscar nominated documentary that came out months ago simply not available for online viewing? Someone dropped / is dropping the ball on this in a major way.

But even having not yet seen this, I've seen the dawn wall and feel certain it's the better picture. Was the better feat, too so I guess it should be.

I rarely see movies in-theater, but if you don't see this one in a proper theater, you are a fool.

I saw both on consecutive evenings and they are of equal quality.

What an arrogant, snarky statement.

Has anyone not had announced

YMMV wrote:

Due to a personal stalker-troll on this site, I will have to be vague and just say that it was an alpine climb, only 5.9 in difficulty, but a first ascent with lots of loose rock. I also soloed a number of routes in the 700-1500' range, also first ascents, up to 10+/11- often with loose rock as well. This was mostly in my late 20's to early 40's. These were all well within my technical capabilities (I was climbing 5.12 trad/13+ sport at the time). Alex has climbed 13+ trad/14+ sport so 13- is not at his limit at all. Nonetheless a fantastic achievement.

Are you saying you onsight free solo'd FA's to 11-? That's out there and impressive. Eldo? Reardon's OS free solo of Romantic Warrior was and is mindbending, assuming he actually did it.

Why am I not surprised by the level of insecurtity found on LRC? I'm pretty confident that none of the posters here, have ever free soloed. What Alex did is really special. It's on par with the sub-4 minute mile. To those saying that making into the NBA or NFL is much more difficult, that's comparing apples and transmission fluid containers.

THIS:

It was a matter of executing the plan without mentally losing focus.

He did it like a Zen master.

Once A Rnnr wrote:

Are you saying you onsight free solo'd FA's to 11-? That's out there and impressive. Eldo? Reardon's OS free solo of Romantic Warrior was and is mindbending, assuming he actually did it.

There was a longish alpine route I did where I onsighted an 11- crux only to run into loose rock, and had to reverse the moves. That was the most sketched-out I have been on a solo. I recovered my nerves and finished the climb with a few more 5.10/10- cruxes (12 pitches total) before the weather moved in and slammed the door. That was my last hard solo, many years ago.

Reardon must have been near his limit on RW. The other guy who used to do that was wild man legend John Yablonski. He was as out-of-control as Bachar was in-control.

Marriage.

End of thread.

Liking Jamin

Impressive, but performing neurosurgery for 18 hrs consecutively requires more focus. Also, didn’t you know that >50% of this board has run a sub 4 mile? =)

YMMV wrote:

There was a longish alpine route I did where I onsighted an 11- crux only to run into loose rock, and had to reverse the moves. That was the most sketched-out I have been on a solo. I recovered my nerves and finished the climb with a few more 5.10/10- cruxes (12 pitches total) before the weather moved in and slammed the door. That was my last hard solo, many years ago.

Thanks for sharing. That's a memory worth looking back on again and again. You might like the video of Steph Davis soloing Pervital Sanctuary, always gets me psyched before diamond season.

Running 1:40.91

And one more wrote:

Proving to an Atheist that God exists.

Proving to a zealot that the gospels weren't written by anyone who ever new Jesus and that they were "written" 100 years after he died.

After watching the Alex "the movie" climb, it is obvious he cheated along parts of the route.

No ropes is not the same as the pure free-climb Honnold claimed. A free-climb means absolutely no use of man-made elements along the way--including special, climber-made, gouges made in the rock along the way.

The original intent was to film him crossing the hardest parts. But while they were filming the practice across those parts Honnold could not do it. He outed himself saying he cheated using a man-made grip someone added along the path that the cameraman did not catch. Honnold claimed the filming made him too nervous to succeed. So, there would be NO camera crew waiting along the route. Filming was only to be from the ground using super-telephoto lenses.

After waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for days, for Honnold to finally decide when the time was right to climb ... he went off on his own, insanely early, and he did not tell anyone he was on the way up. By the time the camera crew realized he was going up, it was too late to film him on the super hard part on the lower climb. They wouldn't have been able to film any micro-handholds anyway.

The other thing to notice that Honnold did during his practice runs, was that he chalked the hell out of the climb. He marked and remarked the handholds.

It was a stunt climb. Impressive. But not the 100% free climb that Honnold has claimed that it was.