Honnold takes Magnus Mitdbo soloing in Vegas, YouTube demonetizes

Fan Zhangwrote:

I was probably naive about what truly motivates top soloist, but this video was a disappointment and left a bad taste in my mouth. Textbook example of extrinsic motivation, i.e., peer pressure, rather than the idealized or romanticized version of soloing for yourself. 

I'm not interested enough to watch the video, but from what I've seen of Mr Honnold, empathy and patience don't seem to be his strengths. My wife probably would say the same thing about me in certain situations, so I kind of get it.

The video is fine, but personally I would have liked a team up for bouldering or sport climbing, or some harder roped trad.

Heck even seeing them not be able to start sleepwalker would have been more fun for me then sketch town.

Again, the video was fine, I don’t think it was “bad” or shouldn’t have been posted or whatever, but still, was uncomfortable

magnus has this thing of suffering for you tube that’s funny when he getting his ass kicked by enlisted military, less so free soloing and sketched. Glad he dug deep and got it done of course. Alex had some great points to make about tactics and objective hazards, but feels like this is best kept to the dark arts?

also did anyone notice the camera push in sad Keanu moment when Alex said he’s lost most of his climbing partners (I heard that as they aren’t available for him to climb with, rather than deceased, so I found it a bit of a comedic moment)

guess new dad life stuck in Vegas more is a challenge to get used to. Although he still seems to be getting after it.

Cole Darbywrote:

also did anyone notice the camera push in sad Keanu moment when Alex said he’s lost most of his climbing partners (I heard that as they aren’t available for him to climb with, rather than deceased, so I found it a bit of a comedic moment)

He did say dead or parenting or moved on from climbing

Brett Yostwrote:

He did say dead or parenting or moved on from climbing

Dylan Hwrote:

An interesting side note is magnus has soloed 8a before. 

Clicked through in about 10x 10-second doses.  

My read was that most of his nervousness may have been the awkwardness of a first date with a climbing superstar he wasn’t even sure would respond to him - to - yeah - solo a route he has just learned about the night before.  Who wouldn’t be nervous?

What route was this?

EDIT - I have to agree 100% with demonetizing it.  If I were YouTube, I wouldn’t want anything to do with soloing deaths - same as Clif Bar.  There will absolutlely be an uptick in people soloing this route as a direct result of watching this video - no need to endorse that at a corporate level.

James Wwrote:

What route was this?

Armatron

It’s absolutely a very casual climb for both of them, crack skills or not.  It’s a casual climb for tons of non-pro climbers and not at all a cutting edge solo.  It’s exposed for sure, and it takes some mileage to trust the RR sandstone for sure, but this wasn’t hard for magnus at a physical level at all.  His head game might just not be there for soloing…  or…

Maybe I’m overly cynical, but I think Magnus knows what gets views on YouTube, and “I did an easy solo and wasn’t scared” ain’t it.  A bit of that, a bit of first date with hondog jitters and some picking and choosing of clips in post and you have this video.

So after seeing FreeSolo like 5 times and never once being inspired to solo, to now seeing this and thinking I'll go solo a bunch of slab tomorrow for Father's day, I'd say this will do way more damage than FreeSolo did.

Anyway...

One interesting point Alex made was that people with their level of fitness/endurance can really take their time figuring out moves and don't have to worry about getting tired at all with this level of climb.  

Another thought was what does a 5.9 feel like to a 5.15 climber?  Would it be like a 4th class scramble with high consequences feels to an average climber?

Josh Rappoportwrote:

One interesting point Alex made was that people with their level of fitness/endurance can really take their time figuring out moves and don't have to worry about getting tired at all with this level of climb.  

Another thought was what does a 5.9 feel like to a 5.15 climber?  Would it be like a 4th class scramble with high consequences feels to an average climber?

Alex did call what they did a scramble several times. So that's probably about how it feels. 

Josh Rappoportwrote:

One interesting point Alex made was that people with their level of fitness/endurance can really take their time figuring out moves and don't have to worry about getting tired at all with this level of climb.  

Another thought was what does a 5.9 feel like to a 5.15 climber?  Would it be like a 4th class scramble with high consequences feels to an average climber?

It's funny because Armatron has like 1 move on 5.9 on the entire route right at the end of the finger crack and you can actually just bypass it by stepping left a few feet to big holds like Magnus seems to have done. Besides that the hardest climbing on the route is 5.7 at most.  The 3rd pitch on that awesome, plated varnish is only 5.6.  It was funny seeing Magnus getting scared on that pitch having done the route twice, but granted soloing it is a different ballgame with the exposure and that slick varnish definitely would be unnerving your first time climbing it.

Two great guys having a wonderful time what's not to like.

I used to do this all the time too.

Bryan Kwrote:

It's funny because Armatron has like 1 move on 5.9 on the entire route right at the end of the finger crack and you can actually just bypass it by stepping left a few feet to big holds like Magnus seems to have done. Besides that the hardest climbing on the route is 5.7 at most.  The 3rd pitch on that awesome, plated varnish is only 5.6.  It was funny seeing Magnus getting scared on that pitch having done the route twice, but granted soloing it is a different ballgame with the exposure and that slick varnish definitely would be unnerving your first time climbing it.

How slippery is it there actually?  It was funny how Alex was like, yeah it is slippery but at least the rock is good 

Josh Rappoportwrote:

How slippery is it there actually?  It was funny how Alex was like, yeah it is slippery but at least the rock is good 

It's not that slippery.  It's just noticeably smoother than the rock before it which all has really good friction.

What a junk show of a video. Painful to watch. Clearly Magnus was in over his head and didn't really want to do this..

Two quotes from the end from Alex Honnold, yukking it up per usual.

"Your whole YT channel would have made such fun of you if you didn't make it up the wall."

and speculating on the worst

"I go home to my wife and I'm like, 'Well I had kind of a weird day; Magnus died' " *chuckles*

Yeah weird. Fact is when you solo you're alone, even with the cameras on.

Peter Bealwrote:

Painful to watch. Clearly Magnus was in over his head and didn't really want to do this..

That is pretty much the point of this video. This route is so much below his climbing level, Magnus just had difficult time managing risk and consequences. Heck, the hardest route that Magnus sent is, I think, 4 grades higher what Alex has climbed. 
Even though it is barely a warm up, every climber should consider consequences when things go South. 

Dan Danwrote:

Honnohold wearing the old Air Tommy, Sportiva in shambles confirmed

Isn't Alex known for wearing the same shirt + pants for years on end? He was wearing some LS approach shoes so long no one remembered what they were, they had been discontinued for so long. They recently popped up at a sports recycler after he wore them for eights years. 

He was probably like, "guiding some schlub up a scrambling route I'll put on any old TC's" 

But I still LOL'd

Doing some math in your head about redpoint grade minus X and it’s okay to solo is low skill and experience noob BS.  Higher end climbers tend to avoid shit like this due to a current and visceral knowledge of how easy it is to make a mistake and fall because that’s exactly what they do 99.9% of they time they go climbing - fall, fall and more falling - and not just because their muscles are failing.  A far better predictor would be number of hours elapsed since you were dumped by your girlfriend for being a whacked-out narc.  Comfort with rock type and texture, style, having done the route before, etc - also far more significant.

Alex at his least mature and lowest, IMO, in ways he’s become well known for - intimidated by someone better than he is at raw climbing strength and power, higher RP’s and comp results - basically bullies him by finding and exposing a weakness.

James Wwrote:

Doing some math in your head about redpoint grade minus X and it’s okay to solo is low skill and experience noob BS.  Higher end climbers tend to avoid shit like this due to a current and visceral knowledge of how easy it is to make a mistake and fall because that’s exactly what they do 99.9% of they time they go climbing - fall, fall and more falling - and not just because their muscles are failing.  A far better predictor would be number of hours elapsed since you were dumped by your girlfriend for being a whacked-out narc.  Comfort with rock type and texture. style, having done the route before, etc - also far more significant.

Alex at his least mature and lowest, IMO, in ways he’s become well known for - intimidated by someone better than he is at raw climbing strength and power, higher RP’s and comp results - basically bullies him by finding and exposing a weakness.

100% agree. Not his finest moment by far. The best climbers seem to get the chop on climbing way below their limit and RR sandstone is not known for its incredible integrity.

I am surprised at the amount of people upset about this video. I didn't think anything of it when it was uploaded. A couple of consenting adults doing something well below their limit. It will surely be good for Magnus' channel, and it was made clear to him that he didn't have to do it if he was uncomfortable.