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Non-climber surprises me with her take on Honnold's soloing
that guy named seb wrote: Not to be a dick, but you are clearly wearing a harness in the photo above. You're saying you're free-soloing that climb? --- In any case, I maintain that (to me at least) if you are soloing multi-pitch 5.11s, you are a high-end soloist. Only a handful of people have soloed the Rostum and Astroman in Yosemite (Peter Croft, Dean Potter, and Alex Honnold), which are both multi-pitch 5.11 crack climbs. Soloing the Naked Edge, a 5.11b here in Colorado, qualifies as well in my opinion (and a number of people have soloed it, including Rolo Garibotti, Brad Gobright, Derek Hersey, Jim Collins. I think this is "high end" free-soloing. But I never said that high-end soloing gets you on magazine covers. A lot of people solo 5.11 or even 5.12 and 5.13 near the ground (sometimes calling it "high balling" since the line is somewhat blurry). But if you are climbing 5.12 way off the deck, you are likely going to get noticed. This is what sets Honnold apart: he climbs 5.11 and 5.12 climbs in very committing positions. His Freerider solo including a lot of 5.11, some 5.12 and a short insecure 5.13 section on freaking El Cap. Brad Gobright is no Alex Honnold (by his own admission) but has soloed some very scary insecure routes here in Colorado, including Hairstyles and Attitudes (5.12c) on the Bastille. Cedar Wright's film, "Safety Third", documents some of Gobright's exploits. Should be out within a year. |
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I don't see a rope in his picture ^ |
John RB wrote: I forgot to take it off at the bottom i had a quick micro trax before I solo'd it but here is some proof in the form of a mildly amusing video. IDK who to call an idiot my friend who decided to start filming in portrait or youtube for not recognizing it as portrait. |
John RB wrote: I really think you put too much into this idea of you will just get noticed, the only reason Honnold got sponsored was because a friend told a friend who worked at TNF as things go with most things. Now would i whore out and do exactly what Honnold is doing? Fuck yeah i would, i would happily let people film or take pictures of me while i climb I let my friend take some pics so letting a pro do it is no real difference, doesn't mean I'm after the limelight it's the lifestyle that you get from the crumbs of fame. |
that guy named seb wrote: I sincerely believe that Honnold would have gotten noticed even if he didn't have a friend of a friend at TNF. Soloing Moonlight was very ground-breaking, and Half Dome even moreso. And that was in 2008 before his Piolet d'Or, the solo triple, three-free, Sendero, and then the biggest by-far... Freerider solo. He's not simply "a bit better" than the other soloists around... he's 5 standard deviations above everyone else. |
that guy named seb wrote: Equal parts amusing and scary! I knew you weren't gonna fall because you're posting the video. Friend prolly filmed in portrait to get length of rock while making you as big as possible. I merely turned my phone to get the true orientation. I appreciate any friend who videos/photos me while climbing as I have so few pics of myself climbing that aren't selfies or butt-shots. Sometimes I forget to take my harness off before bouldering after roping up also. So a harness (or three) is no indication of being roped up. Although my personal risk acceptance is much lower, I enjoyed both that guy named seb's pics and video, and john rb's vintage pic. |
John RB wrote: I feel the date is taking on a different picture now. At dinner, the conversation starts innocently enough as you two share your hobbies- hunting, line dancing vs climbing, and free soloing sneaks its way in. You start talking about your hero Alex, and as you begin to talk more fervently, your date becomes more and more put off by this Alex she doesn't know. After 10 min of your extoling his praises, she, in a fit of annoyance, snaps "I wish he would die!" At that point you are shocked to attention and ask her to explain herself. Backtracking, she stammers because it would save lives. The date ends with no sleepover and you come onto MP to find validation that she was a bad person anyway. |
John RB wrote: How does he get noticed if there is no one to notice him? Companies like TNF don't have eyes everywhere somebody has to tell them about him and who is to say he would of been able to solo the triple or solo freerider or el sendero without the support of his sponsors? He might have got stuck working 5 days a week taking people up 5.5 as a guide in Yosemite, now this is of course speculation but you have to admit without his support he would have been quite a bit less likely to be able to do these route not necessarily because he couldn't climb them but he simply would not have had the time or resources to put into such taxing endeavours, if you watch when he does it (RR7 i think) he has an entire crew not just to film but to drive him around, make sure he has food, shoes, it's kind of a logistical nightmare and to do that without support would be extremely difficult if not impossible. |
sherb wrote: If I were dead and you were trying to reconstruct some event, based on your limited knowledge and your understanding of human behavior, it would be reasonable to construct a narrative based on your best guess and reasonable inference. But if I'm not dead (which I claim is in fact the case) you could simply ask me. I don't know why anonymous people on the Internet feel motivated (and competent) to psychoanalyze people they don't know, often in uncharitable ways. I don't understand it, I don't engage in it, but it's clearly very attractive because I see it quite often. --- If it matters, your story above is completely wrong. For example, I knew her hobbies and she knew mine based on chats online prior to our first meeting. Anyway... carry on... |
John RB wrote: LOL if you were dead and I were to reconstruct your first date. Obviously I have no idea what happened on your date. If I were to ask you about it, I'd have to interview her also to get both sides- like a divorce has two sides. But I don't know you, I don't know her, and I am not sure why I care about your date except my possibly inaccurate hypothesis/sketch makes it more interesting to me. I apologize for the uncharitable picture, but I did not intend it that way. Having been on many first dates myself, each datee is often clueless to his/her own faults, myself included, and that is somewhat endearing. There are more first dates than any other dates, and most first dates are inconsequential. |
that guy named seb wrote: Yosemite has a fairly tight-knit community. The SAR guys all know each other, the badass locals are tied in with them, as are the YMS guides and weekend warriors from the Bay who drive up every Friday night. If you start advancing the limits, people find out pretty quickly and it spreads through the community fast. There are some people who have tried to embrace "anti-spray" culture and keep things to themselves. Steve Gerberding is on of the most badass aid climbers the Valley has ever seen, yet few people know who he is. He put up "Reticent Wall" (where "reticent" was used to indicate their reluctance to talk about the route). This had somewhat of a Streisand Effect, ironically. Peter Croft is the most soft-spoken and private guy I've ever climbed with. He never just randomly brings up what he's up to, yet still, by the mid 80s, word got out that he was soloing very hard routes in the valley and he started getting sponsorship deals. I'd be pretty hard to go free-solo (say) the Nose and have no one notice you. Alex knows what he's doing is rad and mind-blowing and he clearly has no problem telling his friends what he's done. Telling anyone who makes films (Eric Perlman, Cedar Wright, Josh Lowell, Jimmy Chin) and they'll want to film you and then it's big news pretty quickly. However, in order to gain the spotlight right now you'd have to out-do Honnold and that's just not going to happen, I don't think. --- Who knows... maybe there's someone out there right now quietly soloing the Dawn Wall without anyone noticing. And she'll just keep it to herself forever... |
sherb wrote: Ah, ok, well if you're finding it interesting and fun to make conjectures, then I won't get in your way. :) She just texted me asking if I want to get a drink tonight. I thought "double texting" was a 21st century sin? This is like 6 in a row from her without any answer from me. I have to admit, her persistence is flattering... maybe I'll go have that drink. |
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I love climbing. I do Not want to make a liveing fron climbing for the simple reason that I do not want to burn out on climbing. Of course I would not be able to make a live doing something glamerous like just climb really cool stuff. If i were to make a liveing climbing it would be through the grunt work of guideing. Have had a few opertunitys and ran away every time... |
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Shag her rotten , take her climbing and turn her into a free soloist.. unless you don't really like her. If you don't like her, run like hell. |
John RB wrote: Just because you tell a friend doesn't mean you will get noticed in any reasonable way, what if honnold's friend just didn't know the guy from TNF? Honnold would have just kept doing sick sends but nothing like what he has been able to do in recent years. |
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Seb, well done making this thread all about you. |
highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote: He considers me a "high end soloist" and then makes all encompassing comments about "high end soloists" so if anything he made it about me. In all seriousness he's basically talking shit about a group of people and then someone in that group calls him out on it. The funny thing is i wouldn't consider myself part of said group I have done nothing ground breaking, new or hard, it's only when you use super loose terms like 5.13 single pitch and 5.11 multipitch that all of a sudden tons of people are suddenly high end soloists, a 30ft 5.13 is nothing compared to a 90ft 5.13 and a 2 pitch 5.11b is nothing compared to 11 pitches of 5.11c and to suggest i'm in the same league is ludicrous. That being said I would totally be psyched for soloing astroman, get a bit less shit first though... |
John RB wrote: Stop playing coy and go have a drink with the lady.
That slipping-harness-off while soloing thing was new. I consider you high-end, but perhaps my standards are low. |
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you've got to ease some folks into the concept, risk, and benefits of FS, before having them try to wrap their mind around the most impressive FS to date, only logical thing to do now is marry this women and fs El cap |
sherb wrote: I think soloing sort of has the same thing as when you get into climbing except change the words around a bit, you start out not soloing so you look at it as some mystical thing that means anyone who solo's above 5.11 must be some super slick climber, then you solo and your like oh that wasn't that bad i reckon what Honnold is doing isn't that bad either then you do more and start to realize holy shit i suck, these soloists are fucking legends.
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