Cancel Free Soloing

Here's an excerpt from my book Advanced Rock Climbing on free soloing that I wrote back in 2018:

Early in my career as a climbing school manager, a client gave me some honest feedback. He told me that when his guide free soloed in front of him to set up and take down his toprope anchor, it gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was worried about what would happen if his guide fell. I assured him that despite its dangerous appearance, free soloing by an experienced climber was indeed very safe, and that among the top free soloists, no one had ever fallen. 

That was many years ago, and sadly, I can’t say that now. Among those who have fallen to their death free soloing, several have been my friends. You could say they died doing what they loved, but they left this world too soon, without saying their proper good-byes. When a friend called me on June 3, 2017, and asked, “Did you hear about Alex Honnold?” I got that same bad feeling in my gut. 

But I was relieved when he said, “He just free soloed El Cap.” Honnold’s free solo of the 3,000-foot Freerider route (5.13a) was the first route up El Cap’s massive main facade to be climbed rope-less. Climbing pundits called it rock climbing’s greatest achievement, some heralding it as the greatest singular achievement in sports, period. You can’t really top that one. Alex commented after the climb that he was thinking about focusing on hard sport climbing. 

While free soloing can ultimately be the most exhilarating and purest form of rock climbing, I wouldn’t say it’s the most relaxing. Unexpected things can happen; a seemingly solid hold breaks, a bird flies out of a crack, a bee stings you on the ankle, a foot slips on lichen. And there is a fine line that you don’t want to cross—that line between the pure joy of fun-in-the-sun rock climbing, moving smoothly and flowing up the climb with nothing but air beneath your feet, and the sudden shadow of fear that can sweep over you as quickly as a dark cloud eclipsing the sun. It’s happened to me, when things got a little too bold and airy, the sky a little too close, my heart beating a little too fast. 

The free soloist faces the possibility of the ultimate irony: falling and dying as a direct result of not wanting to fall and die, knowingly risking life for the pleasure of pure, unfettered freedom of movement in the vertical world. If you’re contemplating free soloing, do it for the right reason: for yourself, not to impress others. Start easy and work your way up the grades, on climbs you’ve done before. The great free soloists do the same routes over and over, like boulder problems, getting the climbs ruthlessly wired, becoming intimate with every hold. And allow yourself enough margin for error so that you’re not approaching that fine line.

Edit: And don't free solo a route when there's a party already on it.

Read through this thread and listened to the podcast.  Is Chris K really that much of a pompous dumbass?  That’s the lamest take out of everyone here.  And Andrew just nodded and yupped along as if there was even a shred of sense to that blather.

Before we all start clamoring for some of Burchey’s latest knives, let’s clarify and narrow the argument.  I don’t think anyone gives a rats ass about soloists per se, and they are free to practice their craft wherever they wish.   The only issue or point of order is when one unilaterally climbs past you on a route with no discussion or communication.  This basically says “my immediate goals and wants are more important than your life” so just suck it up.  Totally different as in the recent MPB accident where he asked the party if it was cool to pass.  Or wait for a good safe transition point to pass.  No  problem.  Big difference.  

Arguments that it’s just part of the risk of climbing are not valid at all.  A sudden free soloist above you is not the same as “guys drop gear all the time” or “people take lead falls”, get real.   It’s about common courtesy to your fellow climbers and not putting them in a risk situation they have no control over or decision in.  That’s were the conflict is.  

Whenever I have free soloed, I never dreamed of going up a route that others are on ahead of me.  It just would never occur to me to put someone else’s life in the balance based on my skill. Or if something in a gray area like say a trade route like the upper Exum, friendly communication and discussion and route selection and timing sets everyone at ease.

So, free soloing is a legitimate and accepted part of the sport.  Probably everyone will engage in it at some level or at some time in their climbing careers.  All cool.  Being a self entitled prick who thinks everyone is finally climbing their bucket list and you’re just cruising it as a throwaway free solo and they are just jealous of your awesomeness is not cool. 

Bob Gaineswrote:

 The great free soloists do the same routes over and over, like boulder problems, getting the climbs ruthlessly wired, becoming intimate with every hold. And allow yourself enough margin for error so that you’re not approaching that fine line.

Good one, Bob.  And so I'll never be a great free solist ... opting instead to do on-sights of really really easy routes. :)

Edit:

Mark Pilatewrote:

Whenever I have free soloed, I never dreamed of going up a route that others are on ahead of me.  It just would never occur to me to put someone else’s life in the balance based on my skill. Or if something in a gray area like say a trade route like the upper Exum, friendly communication and discussion and route selection and timing sets everyone at ease.

Agree.  And a step further, I felt bad a few weeks ago, without endangering anyone, that maybe I made someone feel uncomfortable.  Definitely influenced what I might solo in the future.

^ actually BASE jumping is the funnest and fastest way down from a big climb.  That freefall is so free and exhilarating 

• Years ago I used to encounter soloists when taking friends up easy routes in Eldo that I had soloed myself. It seemed to me that in those instances there was quite a bit of ego stroking going on. “Hey look at the noobs I can climb right past without  a rope ...” I would never free solo a route with someone on it. Seems like it would be way easier to maintain the needed concentration without having to deal with other climbers on the route. 

Glen Priorwrote: Nobody soloing gets past me or my belayer on any trad or sport route if I can prevent it. Period. Just like I'm never pulling over on a trail to let some wanker on an ebike pass me.

This is one of the most badass things I've read on here. Respect.

Bob. your last statement is a bit too broad.  It really depends on the route. if its long enough and has big enough ledges to hang out on while waiting for the best opportunity to pass safely I don't see the problem.  doing it on a hard climb with no room to get around safely and no big rest ledges would be nuts INMOP. certainly there are climbs where its normal to share the rout with lots of other folks. soloists included.  owen spaulding,upper exum etc.  

  Moby grape on cannon also comes to mind. its almost impossible to get on the thing these days after all the climbing mags called it one of the best 5.8s in the country.  heck I have even encountered a party bivying at the base. fountunatly they let us start first as they then got passed by every party that climbed it that day which was a lot of partys.   I have been passed by soloists on Moby myself and it was not a problem. big ledge. How's it going? feel free to climb through, thanks" pretty easy and no drama.   that clip of dark shadows is different.  most folks only climb 3 pitches and rap so the only excuse  for not waiting for them to rappel would be if you had the  conversation and found out they were planning on going all the way to the top and the soloist had allready planned on going to the top. at that point they should know the route well enough to know where a very safe passing spot would be and plan around that.  certainly not mid pitch anywhere.   thats a dick move regardelss of roped or not.. .  the best way to pass is with a variation that keeps your ropes away from the other party.  

Bill Schickwrote:

Disagree as well with Andrew's podcast that somehow free soloists on Cat in the Hat represents some sort of high level achievement that might make lesser skilled climbers jealous.  Acting like a daredevil jackass willing to risk your life on a 5.6 doesn't make very many functional, mentally healthy adults jealous.  Watching someone make a 5.13 look effortless - not the same thing.

"risk your life on a 5.6" who falls on 5.6?

that guy named sebwrote:

who falls on 5.6?

Cocky climbers who don't take it seriously because it's "only" 5.6.

A V wrote:

For example - would we still be talking about how rad Cedar's linkup was if he broke a hold and died? My guess is we would be instead talking about how "he was off the couch, he wasn't ready, this is a tragedy, etc, etc, etc ad naeseum." But since he survived the linkup (and sprayed to his large group of neophyte followers about it) - we give him a slap on the back and an "atta boy!". I think it deserves at least some criticism. Fun day of climbing for sure - but soloing is a ultimately a low-feedback environment. No soloist has ever pulled off of the ground expecting to die. 

I may be getting crusty at the tender age of 26 - and I may be an angsty mediocre climber who secretly wishes he had the balls to solo these long linkups or hard routes - but I can't pretend that I don't feel apprehensive about the idea of people building a media brand over soloing and dealing with the pressures/risky tasks that come with filming/documenting/constantly outdoing oneself (remember @freesoloist/Austin Howell?). 

Dude your profile picture is you ice climb you can't talk shit about glorifying soloing.

Austin's accident happened when a hold broke on a cool down after a day on the ropes, it was like 10a if i remember correctly

that guy named sebwrote:

"risk your life on a 5.6" who falls on 5.6?

Doesn't even have to be 5.6.

https://www.rockandice.com/climbing-accidents/squamish-fatality-ken-anderson-top-trad-climber-dies-in-fall/

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

 that clip of dark shadows is different.  most folks only climb 3 pitches and rap so the only excuse  for not waiting for them to rappel would be if you had the  conversation and found out they were planning on going all the way to the top and the soloist had allready planned on going to the top. at that point they should know the route well enough to know where a very safe passing spot would be and plan around that.  certainly not mid pitch anywhere.   thats a dick move regardelss of roped or not.. .  the best way to pass is with a variation that keeps your ropes away from the other party.  

The problem on Dark Shadows is that I've seen parties climb at a rate of 1 pitch per hour or slower on that route, and there is a party somewhere on it pretty much all day when the weather is nice. The options for soloing it when no one else is there would be to get quite lucks with a quiet day, do it very early, very late, or in bad weather, the latter three of which obviously have their own set of problems for the soloing mindset. 

In any case, I'd still be more worried about higher parties causing rockfall or dropping gear. I have multiple times been within meters of being maimed or killed by falling stones, and with no warning cry of "rock!" When there is a soloist above me, them taking me out with their entire body still strikes me as one of those very catastrophic but also very unlikely hazards that are an inevitable part of the sport. 

To me it seems more likely that people are just deeply disturbed by the mere idea of soloing and are using "what if they hurt me or someone else" as a way to express that. That's fine, but people shouldn't act like there's any kind of real crisis of people being taken out by falling soloists. People being traumatized by witnessing a fatal accident is an issue worth discussing, but physical harm to bystanders seems to be such a rare possible outcome as to be hardly worth mentioning.

To me it seems more likely that people are just deeply disturbed by the mere idea of soloing and are using "what if they hurt me or someone else" as a way to express that. That's fine, but people shouldn't act like there's any kind of real crisis of people being taken out by falling soloists.

Think what you want but not wanting someone to solo past (you, me, whoever) on a route upon which (you, me, whoever) started first, is not just "disturbed by the mere idea." A soloist 50 feet directly over (your, my, someone's) head, particularly if we are tied in to an anchor, is not a "mere idea." Its a fact and so is gravity. So I totally get it when (you, me, someone) says, "no way I'm letting that guy get by me."

I'm a little more sanguine I guess, and have generally yielded to faster parties over the years, when it happens (occasionally). But I have also been called reckless too (and that criticism was justified haha).

that guy named sebwrote:

"risk your life on a 5.6" who falls on 5.6?

Lol - in the past few years at least 4 of the most capable, hardest climbing, most speed record holding Minions have had accidents with injuries or are dead - on roughly 5.6 terrain.

^^^this (Cherokee)

I don't think that because faster roped parties == ok to pass in most cases, it necessarily follows that soloist passing parties == ok as well. The way I see it, in all cases, it's kind of a negotiation in a way, that should take a bunch of things into account. Risks, relative speed/experience of each parties, crowdness or not, etc. The perspective of each parties should also factor. I fully agree that, generally, a slower party should make it possible for faster parties to pass by when/where reasonable to do so, and has a moral obligation even to make that happen, even if it means further slowing their own ascent. However, passing by other parties shouldn't be seen as a god-given right either. Sometimes the faster party might have to suck it up for a while. If the faster party is a soloist, then of course "sucking it up for a while" is less than ideal. But then the soloist needs to take that into account before launching into a crowded route, just as he presumably takes into account possibilities for rain or adverse weather....

that guy named sebwrote: Austin's accident happened when a hold broke on a cool down after a day on the ropes, it was like 10a if i remember correctly

Most soloist that died or have cratered did so on climbs that are well below their ability level. The last guy at Yosemite apparently did the climb he fell on few times prior.
For all I care anyone can solo a climb feet first, just don’t do it above me while I’m climbing. 

Franck Veewrote:

 But then the soloist needs to take that into account before launching into a crowded route, just as he presumably takes into account possibilities for rain or adverse weather....

I tend to agree with this take. Parties have a right to refuse to let faster parties pass, though the slower the party the increasingly obnoxious that refusal becomes. If there's a tier list as to who gets priority in traffic jams I'd say it probably goes fast rope parties > slow roped parties > free soloists, in terms of how obligated a slow party should feel to let someone pass.

I'd say having a soloist above me feels kind of similar to being below a roped party on potentially loose terrain. I've seen a lot of 10 lbs or bigger ballistic missiles come off while people were climbing and a lot fewer falling soloists (zero, thankfully). There are some routes I would not be willing to let people pass me on for this reason. 

If someone doesn't want to let a soloist pass on fall-line terrain because of that risk, that is their prerogative, but I'd say that people have no right to complain if the soloist is there first. Also, if the terrain is traversing so the risk of rockfall or humanfall to lower climbers is nil, it's poor style to not let someone through once the roped climbers are secure.

Tradiban, would you say this thread has reached top three status yet?

 Respect sir!

So, to sum up what I think I’m hearing, it’s well-established that you have to fight the free soloist until they manage to pass you, at which time you have no reasonable recourse but to use your mountain gun?

Pnelsonwrote:

Yeah, this clip just popped up on youtube; anyone else seen it? Looks like it's on a busy day on Dark Shadows, maybe? I'm not too psyched on the soloist's choice to just motor past all these groups.

In this video the soloist asks if he can pass. Does that really make it ok? What happens if you say No? Is the soloist just stuck there for a long time waiting and getting tired or does he climb down, which is harder? It seems to me that the person being asked only has two bad choices. Do I feel nervous when he climbs above me or do I feel bad because I've endangered him by telling him to wait. This is not the same as asking to play through in golf.