I’m dripping wet from all this spray

Have you ever had a hold break in your hand while up on a route (boulders don't count) and taken a fall as a result?

Have you ever decked?

Have you taken significant lead falls, either in length, or in which you've gotten injured?

If not, you don't know what you're messing with. These are the prerequisites to soloing IMO.

If you've never had a hold blow on a route and taken a fall, you will tend to believe the rock is 100% reliable. It is not. I have had it happen a few times in many years of climbing. I rate the chance at 1/10,000. Roll those dice for every hold you ever use from now on, and consider how many handholds you use on a typical pitch. It's a matter of time before you roll snake eyes.

If you've never decked, you have no idea how bad it can be. I decked from 12 feet and had a back-breaker rock between my legs. One foot over in any of three directions and I would have had a broken back or a broken femur. It was sobering and put a healthy dent in my youthful sense of immortality. Even though the worst didn't happen, it was still bad. How do you think it will be falling a full pitch or more?

If you've never taken a long lead fall you have not experienced the forces involved. Falls like that get people injured even in vertical rock, where the toward-the-wall forces are minimal. Multiply those forces when you hit the ground and you are talking about a life changing injury or death. Add a few ledges on the way down for a really fun ride. Your mom will love what you look like.

You have a false belief that "It won't happen to me." Challenge that belief, or ask the ghosts of John Bachar, Paul Preuss, Jimmy Jewell, Derek Hersey, Dwight Bishop, Jimmy Ray Forester, George Gardiner, Akihira Tawara, Michael Ybarra, Brad Parker, Andrew Barnes, Angus Moloney, Austin Howell...

Some of these guys died soloing 5.8.

Pretty much disregard almost everything ECD H said about ice climbing.  Modern screws are super easy to place and  in good ice they are bomber.  the real reason you do Not want to fall on moderate ice  is that with crampons on your feet you will stand a very high chance of that pointy thing catching in the ice and breaking your leg..    If you are getting sketched out and clipping your tool ice  soloing you have broken all the rules of ice soloing.   Never climb into a pump soloing and always look and plan ahead so that you don't climb into a bad situation.  Everything you do must be 200% SOLID. Don't bother clipping the tool. If you decide to bail for whatever reason fire in a screw and clip that.  Soloing moderate ice makes sense because its so easy and solid and if you were leading you would be running it out anyways.  ECD is correct that soloing is less work than leading but that's certainly not the justification for soloing.  A few weeks ago.. 4 screws on the harness. 2 to make anchor, one to make V thread and 1 to drop..  6mm tag in pack . extra thread tool in pack. 

Marcus K wrote: I’ve free-soloed enough (including a 1000’ 5.10- onsight) to hopefully lend credibility to my response.

Judging by your ticklist and age, you haven’t been climbing long enough or hard enough to justify free soloing. Please consider postponing your ropeless aspirations until you have more experience; for example, when you are a competent 5.10+ onsight multipitch trad climber. By then, you should be better equipped to evaluate what you are getting into.

Bear in mind that once you start soloing, it can be difficult to stop.

Naw man, it stops really really fast, trust me.

Stiles wrote: If you fall off too low, its gonna hurt.

Brilliant bit of philosophy.  I will be stealing that in the future.

Ask John Bachar what he thinks of free soloing.  
Ask Akihiro Tawara what he thinks of free soloing.

Matt N wrote: Anyone else guess OPs age within a couple years before looking? 

Damn I was spot on

I've been climbing for 50 years.  About once every 8 years I take a fall that is TOTALLY unexpected ( rock breaks,... foot had sand or powdered lichen on it and slipped, or.... just suddenly found myself falling) Of the 6 or 8 totally unexpected falls: two or 3 were leading, the others  were seconding;  ALL BUT ONE WAS ON A MOVE WELL BELOW MY LEADING GRADE.

You do the odds. (Then again, a climber-friend has been climbing and soloing for almost as long and he's still with us.)

Mark Paulson wrote:

Nailed it!

Dang! Missed it by one year. 

But funny, when I went to check, I accidently clicked on Mark Paulson’s profile and was pretty confused for a few seconds. 

A climber I worked with at my gym said something that has always stuck with me. "Climbing, at its core, is about failure. It's about pushing your limit, it's about making mistakes, it's about falling. Before you even discuss hold breaking, soloing has removed that crucial element from climbing. You receive the ultimate penalty if you make any mistake."

There are truly far better things to do with your life then risk death or serious injury for a hobby or sport. 

Aidan Mickleburgh wrote: A climber I worked with at my gym said something that has always stuck with me. "Climbing, at its core, is about failure. It's about pushing your limit, it's about making mistakes, it's about falling. Before you even discuss hold breaking, soloing has removed that crucial element from climbing."

Said the gym/sport climber. Not in my world.

Keith Wood wrote: Have you ever had a hold break in your hand while up on a route (boulders don't count) and taken a fall as a result?

Have you ever decked?

Have you taken significant lead falls, either in length, or in which you've gotten injured?

If not, you don't know what you're messing with. These are the prerequisites to soloing IMO.

If you've never had a hold blow up on a route and taken a fall, you will tend to believe the rock is 100% reliable. It is not. I have had it happen a few times in many years of climbing. I rate the chance at 1/10,000. Roll those dice for every hold you ever use from now on, and consider how many handholds you use on a typical pitch. It's a matter of time before you roll snake eyes.

If you've never decked, you have no idea the forces involved and just how bad it can be. I decked from 12 feet and had a back-breaker rock between my legs. One foot over in any of three directions and I would have had a broken back or a broken femur. It was sobering and put a healthy dent in my youthful sense of immortality. How do you think it will be falling a full pitch or more?

If you've never taken a long lead fall you have not experienced the forces involved. Falls like that get people injured even in vertical rock, where the toward-the-wall forces are minimal. Multiply those forces when you hit the ground and you are talking about a life changing injury or death. Add a few ledges on the way down for a really fun ride. Your mom will love what you look like.

You have a false belief that "It won't happen to me." Challenge that belief, or ask the ghosts of John Bachar, Paul Preuss, Jimmy Jewell, Derek Hersey, Dwight Bishop, Jimmy Ray Forester, George Gardiner, Akihira Tawara, Michael Ybarra, Brad Parker, Andrew Barnes, Angus Moloney, Austin Howell...

Some of these guys died soloing 5.8.

This.

It's interesting to see this pop up. I recently had two things happen that really made me reconsider my ropeless aspirations.
1- I took a friend out to do their first lead on gear on one of the easy casual routes at our local cliff, it happens to be one of my favorite short routes to do laps on without a rope. I followed on toprope and cleaned gear while critiquing their placements. Out of nowhere, a footchip broke and I fell completely unexpectedly. Its a bit spooky to think how that could have gone down differently.
2- at the same crag, I took a day to go out by myself and get a few solos in. I decided to get on a route I had done with a rope many many times and never fallen off. I arrived at the crux and found out that a pretty key hold had been ripped off by someone else. That was the first time I had to make a few moves without a rope that I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to reverse.
Maybe I need to quit soloing our local choss or maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. Either way, you really need to consider if you're ok with the consequences of fucking up. What was said earlier about taking huge falls / decking while climbing with a rope is right. You should understand what happens when you fall for a long time. If you're asking other people if you should solo, you shouldn't solo. It's a pretty personal thing

for posers. 

Bouldiban TK wrote:

Hey Pat, I started a response then realized I was doing it under my real name and switched to my troll account, mostly because now matter how much I would try not to have it sound like bragging, talking about soloing on this forum is going to come off that way to most. I took your question to be real, so I'll answer it truthfully and from my heart. Currently I am only a boulderer and I love semi-higballs (meaning a fall will maybe mean a trip to the ER{not good right now, obvioulsy}). I also use to solo a fair amount and even got to within 1.5 number grades of my redpoint grade on routes less then 50 feet tall. I loved doing it. I use to say there are only two times I have ever done something where I exclusively focused on one thing and nothing else for an extended period of time: soloing and sex. I had an experience where I botched a sequence and was forced to do an unplanned and unrehearsed deadpoint: i barely kept it together and have never done it since. Too much bad shit can happen and eventually will. Its just not worth it. Much love and take care out there.  

Haha thank you for a real response! Thank you everyone else on MP for putting me in my place haha! Was definitely not humble bragging but I see how that came off. Thanks for the insight!

I now see why so many people use throw away accounts. Learned a few good things from this one!

Pat Marrinan wrote:

Haha thank you for a real response! Thank you everyone else on MP for putting me in my place haha! Was definitely not humble bragging but I see how that came off. Thanks for the insight!

What’s real about boulderban tk’s post to me is that it demonstrates a real disregard for life.

Carolina wrote:

What’s real about that post to me is that it demonstrates a real disregard for life.

I normally agree with Carolina on most things, but I’ll defend the OP here.

There’s a continuum of risk in climbing and soloing rehearsed routes well within your limits is safer than some other styles of roped climbing.

While the OP certainly lacks experience, I wouldn’t describe his post as characterized by a real disregard for life.

There is no rush quite like being unroped several pitches off the deck.

Hopefully, that rush is not the air through which you are plummeting.