Gobright on the Salathe

Just saw on Jordan Cannon's and Brad's IG story that Brad freed the Salathe wall in 13 hours. Im not entirely sure but i think that beats Tommy Caldwell's time by 3 hours. Pretty incredible. 

Brad is so sick.

Absolute mutant.

In awe of the speed of this lad. Absolute unit

Just doing El Cap that fast is impressive, but then free?! Way cool

When folks talk about freeing the Salathe is that in reference to the "normal" Salathe route and not Freerider, which I understand mostly takes the normal Salathe route?

Abdullah Mourad wrote: When folks talk about freeing the Salathe is that in reference to the "normal" Salathe route and not Freerider, which I understand mostly takes the normal Salathe route?

When people say the Salathe, they mean the Salathe.

Peter Foster wrote:

When people say the Salathe, they mean the Salathe.

Yes, but it's not like the free Salathe route follows the exact aid line either, at least not by most parties who claim to have freed Salathe.

Peter Foster wrote:

When people say the Salathe, they mean the Salathe.

Mind. Blown.

Fair enough. Learned something new today.

Well, yeah, but a lot of people who free climb the Salathe avoid the 13 b/c pitch above the Ear and climb the Monster Offwidth 11a instead.

Personally, I believe you need to climb the 13b/c pitch to truly call it the Salathe. No one has ever claimed a Salathe Wall free ascent and avoided the headwall but numerous people have avoided that pitch and called it a free Salathe ascent. 

In a group of reasonable fit people, you would pick Gobright out as the guy who won his high school science fair. 

Brad continues crushing. He just keeps getting better!

Avoiding the Headwall by climbing the cracks left and around the corner is officially Freerider. People have climbed the Monster and the Headwall and have called it the Salathe. I wouldn’t call it that. I believe the Salathe has had only five or six real free ascents since most parties do avoid the pitch above the Ear.
Avoiding a solid 5.13 pitch and a pitch that by most is considered the crux of the route doesn’t warrant calling it a Salathe Wall free ascent. IMHO of course.

Many parties have claimed a Salathe free ascent but have avoided the pitch above the Ear. When Skinner and Piana did the Salathe free they free climbed all of the original route aside from the Teflon Corner (which is a bit left of the original Salathe) and a pitch off of Long Ledge on top of the Headwall. Alex Huber, who did the second free ascent followed their line but free climbed closer (but not exactly) to the Salathe when he free climbed “The Boulder Pitch”. He then went left under the Headwall roof and freed those cracks on the FA of Freerider. 

Mark Hudon wrote: I believe the Salathe has had only five or six real free ascents since most parties do avoid the pitch above the Ear.

Do you know who else besides Skinner, Piana, and Alex Huber have freed it this way?

I know of only Jim Herson. I’m just assuming a few others. 

Mark Hudon wrote: Well, yeah, but a lot of people who free climb the Salathe avoid the 13 b/c pitch above the Ear and climb the Monster Offwidth 11a instead.

I was being deliberately nebulous, but yes, that's what I was alluding to. The teflon corner vs boulder problem preference at least mostly comes down to route condition, although only stating MO @ 11a is a bit misleading too as it's very physical and and adds a 12b traverse.

Ha! Yeah, I forgot about that section. It’s rated 11+ but I’ll take 12b!

Mark Hudon wrote: ...the Monster Offwidth 11a instead.

One of the best offwidth climbers on the planet seems to disagree: instagram.com/p/BMcIWrtg0UX…

I met Pete after he soloed Freerider and he mentioned that he didn’t think the Monster was 11a but he never gave it a rating.

Equally valid is the fact that I’ve done NO significantly difficult offwidths in the last 25 years and I’ve done the Monster twice and didn’t think it was too bad. And I’m way too old to care about sandbagging anyone!