Minimum Rope Grade to be a Freesoloist

Settle a debate for me please. What rope grade should one be climbing in order to safely start free-soloing? 

As a follow up what is your grade gap between roped climbing and freesoloing?

Thanks.

5.9 in the gym

Undefined

There is Nothing safe about free soloing

Honestly the only requirement for being a Freesoloist should be an understanding that a fall on easy terrain will happen at some point in your career and that your climbing ability/max roped grades have nothing to do with preventing that. 

Since climbing grades are subjective, example: i could be a 5.15 offwidth specialist but suck at slab, I think that the minimum rope grade is personal to each soloist. Someone might only solo at grades well below their ability actual ability to have the illusion of safety and control. others might push their limit on each solo they do, risking death every time. a couple examples i can think of would be Brad Gobright in safety third or Alex honlove in that romantic drama he was in. A lot of it comes down to how confident or stupid you are and that’s a tight rope some people walk. 

If soloing feels like gambling in Vegas while drunk, keep pushing.

I agree with JR, this is the wrong question, the question is, are you precise and accurate enough of a climber to get to the top without a fall. Maybe you can do that on a route you know at your 5.12 limit, but will take 3 falls to onsight a 5.9 . 

That being said, 5.11b should be a minimum, and I'll never free solo intentionally

Lately I've been doing a lot of very tall, very easy boulder problems and it's really been helping with being scared while leading stuff.

And Dave Macleod's only three videos about "how to trad climb" (so far) start folks out with scrambling and then climbing easy terrain while unroped.

So I'm gonna vote for "you should start out free soloing and then progress to roped climbing".

As far as grades for that, I'd go with whatever level at which you can safely reverse all the moves back down to the ground.

Tradibanwrote:

Settle a debate for me please. What rope grade should one be climbing in order to safely start free-soloing? 

As a follow up what is your grade gap between roped climbing and freesoloing?

Thanks.

"Safely free-solo".... Oxymoronic?
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If all climbing gear/protection states, "Climbing is inherently dangerous" then one can never safely free-solo.  Unless climbing gear/protection makes climbing more dangerous?

alpinist 47wrote:

There is Nothing safe about free soloing

There are situations when free soloing is safer than using a rope.

In 2010, 16 climbers had to be rescued off the Grand Teton during a lightning storm. A 17th climber died. Not being able to move quickly was a major factor in their need for a rescue. A free soloing climber can tackle the mountain's descent in minutes. 17 people on ropes could never do that. 

5.9 in the Gunks

3/10

WI 4

J Rwrote:

Since climbing grades are subjective, example: i could be a 5.15 offwidth specialist but suck at slab, I think that the minimum rope grade is personal to each soloist. Someone might only solo at grades well below their ability actual ability to have the illusion of safety and control. others might push their limit on each solo they do, risking death every time. a couple examples i can think of would be Brad Gobright in safety third or Alex honlove in that romantic drama he was in. A lot of it comes down to how confident or stupid you are and that’s a tight rope some people walk. 

I'm talking a minimum is the rough sense, it's a little subjective but not alot subjective. The grade should be trad based as a sport climber likely won't have the plethora of skills required to safely navigate a variety of terrain one might find while soloing.

A 5.8 max climber just doesn't have the proper frame of reference to solo anything as soloing requires a variety of nuanced skills you won't aquire just climbing up to 5.8. A 5.11 roped climber however has probably experienced more and is much more in tune with their climbing ability than the 5.8 climber.

I would propose 5.11 rope grade as a minimum before someone considers soloing anything 5th class. It's not a perfect metric but probably a good rule of thumb.

If you have to ask, then you shouldn't be soloing.

More important is who we decide will enforce this. I vote the Access fund as they seem to enjoy telling us what words to say.

Daniel Chode Riderwrote:

More important is who we decide will enforce this. I vote the Access fund as they seem to enjoy telling us what words to say.

Gravity will enforce it.

John Reevewrote:

"you should start out free soloing and then progress to roped climbing".

This guy gets the meaning of trad.

Anyone know what grade was Alex climbing when he started free soloing? 

Strings Attachedwrote:

Anyone know what grade was Alex climbing when he started free soloing? 

He was a gym kid, and started soloing as soon as he was going outside. So probably like 12+ on the conservative side?