Babsi!!

Aaron K wrote:

Of course the next milestone is someone who flashes an El Cap route having never climbed on El Cap before. Now that would be wild!

I know Will Moss wants to Flash Freerider. He was in the Valley 2 years ago but the route was soaked (he came to "Ask A Climber" to look through the scopes at the upper pitches). Not sure if he's touched El Cap yet but could definitely flash it with his impressive ticks in Yosemite.

Khoi wrote:

I was thinking that the next milestone would be to onsight a route up El Cap

Hope they haven't seen Free Solo

Ondra specifically avoided watching Free Solo so that he could attempt the Salathe onsight. I think it’ll be only be a matter of time until someone onsights, most of the “almost onsighters” coulda done it if they had gotten luckier.
Ondra and Yuji probably woulda pulled it off if they finished on freerider. Steck and Berthe fell on wet pitches. Houlding only fell/took on top of pitch 1, post crux (I think).

E A wrote:

Anderson bros ascent was apparently broken up by 10 days (they climbed to heart, went down, went back up later).

Steck, Houlding (el niño), Berthe (el niño), Yuji (salathe), Ondra (salathe) all had impressive near onsight/flashes, falling on one pitch.

Whitaker and Lachat fell on the BP but OS/flashed the Teflon.

I suppose Babsi may have upclimbed the 10d “down climb” between heart and mammoth ledges on her Miur-corazon ascent. That seems like the most nitpitcky caveat of all to me though. I feel like doing a route backwards is basically a different route, plus it’s 5.10.

But to be fair I think the Anderson’s “not counting” cause the reclimbed the freeblast which they already onsighted is also pretty nitpicky.

In any case all these climbers are amazingly impressive. 

My understanding is that the Andersons jugged to their previous highpoint after the break for Mike's school obligation.

Jon Clark wrote:

My understanding is that the Andersons jugged to their previous highpoint after the break for Mike's school obligation.

Isn’t this what Babsi and Jacopo did on Eternal Flame? They freed a couple of pitches, descended, and then next year didn’t bother freeing them again.

I just realized that all the limelight has been on her being the first and only person to have textbook-flashed Freerider that her other achievements (on this trip) did not get as much attention. Her ascent of Magic Line made her the 3rd person to climb both Meltdown and Magic Line after Carlo Traversi and Connor Herson. And today, she just posted that she and Jacopo also redpointed Golden Gate right before they left for home, making it her 8th free climb on El Capitan. What a boss!

I wonder if we will in our life time ever see an all-lead flash of Freerider (or any other El Cap hard free climb)? (Of course, my life time will be different from the next person's.) What's your prediction? 

This has to be one of my favorite climbing videos of all time. I don't know how much influence Babsi and Jacopo had on the making of this film, but I feel the film did them justice and aligns perfectly with their personalities. In this movie, there is no hyperbole,  sensationalization, or overly dramatic background music. Honnold was there to explain, not to hype up. It's just perfect! 

URL: https://youtu.be/Lr7-0SpkDWk

P.S. I apologize for hyping up the film myself. Who (a climber) would NOT enjoy it? Tell me why if that's you as I'm just curious.

It was an enjoyable film pitched at showing down to earth subjects doing completely amazing shit.

Babsi’s surprise flash of the boulder problem makes her completely relatable. Her concern for Jacobo’s post-send feelings shows a strong relationship. It’s cool to see some nice people win.

And thanks for the quiet soundtrack. Well done film overall and a super climbing accomplishment. 

A K wrote:

Can someone explain how exactly this is a flash if (as mentioned upthread) she had literally climbed one of the pitches before?

She down-climbed a 5.10 that she previously climbed up. The reversal of the climbing direction changes everything. Fell on that onsight you've been saving? Trying go top- down for the flash.

A K wrote:

Can someone explain how exactly this is a flash if (as mentioned upthread) she had literally climbed one of the pitches before?

This irks me a bit too. Unless she intentionally climbed a variation on that pitch (which is possible, but really should be mentioned if so) she didn't "textbook flash" it.

Maybe it's the most impressive near-flash or the smallest caveat flash. But the caveats are what the entire debate is about. Yes it's an "easy pitch," but that's conceding the point.

Watching the video I was surprised by their lack of beta. First not knowing the way on the slab pitch, and then not knowing about possibly the most crucial hold on the route in the boulder problem. Does lack of prep make a flash more impressive?

I was also slightly surprised by the total lack of interaction from the camera team. No prehung draws, no yelling beta. Certainly "purer" that way, but would it have ruined the flash? Assuming the cameraman has climbed Freerider he must have been screaming inside watching Jacopo struggle.

Austin Donisan wrote:

This irks me a bit too. Unless she intentionally climbed a variation on that pitch (which is possible, but really should be mentioned if so) she didn't "textbook flash" it.

She textbook flashed your wet dream project, with a rack on, hauling her own stuff. That’s like a shared anchor on two entirely separate routes and saying it doesn’t count cuz you knew what the color the chains were.

A K wrote:

If she had climbed an entire pitch on the route before, I would hardly call that a textbook flash. Sure, that pitch might not be particularly hard in the context of this route, but honesty is everything in climbing. It seems more than a little disingenuous to produce a feature length film claiming the "first flash" without even mentioning that fairly significant caveat. Especially when the only reason she's able to claim "first flash" is that previous ascents had similarly nitpicky caveats.

I agree with you. If she climbed any pitch previously, then it’s not a textbook flash. Not sure how that’s debatable.…flash is first try, pretty objective. 

Plus, she’d previously red pointed the approach trail! Fraudster!

Super impressive. I'm surprised nobody had told Jacopo (or he hadn't learned) a little more of the nuance of the boulder, or Babsi on the 5.11 freeblast pitch.

The other attempts were not "flashes with asterisks".

Whittaker / Lachat (maybe others?) who fell on their first choice of a given pitch and then descended and flashed/OS a totally separate alternate pitch just failed to onsight the route/wall.

Choosing between 2 pitches, or choosing between 2 paths or variations on a pitch, or even choosing between 2 completely different styles of climbing a feature (stem or face climb up the outside VS jam/layback up the inside) doesn't give you a magical reset if you fail on your first choice. If Babsi had chosen a harder/different path on the freeblast slab pitch and climbed left of (or above) the bolts, and fallen, it wouldn't be a flash to lower back and send the pitch next go by climbing it via totally different terrain and holds down/right of the bolts (where she eventually did go.)

The only part she had *sorta* been on before (P11) was the blocky ramp thing between Heart and Mammoth ledges, but it's a broad feature that has lots of climbable options and she genuinely could have climbed it going up by staying more left, and going down, by staying more right. It's more 5.8 than .10b or .10d and when you're down climbing it you can kinda go differently (more on the prow) and not worry about cracks or pro in the corner since you're on toprope from the rappel anchor.

Oh, and this

First they came for "pinkpoints", and I did not speak out...   

John Clark wrote:

so, america may be a bit soft

Did he downgrade it? Didn’t Duffy essentially do the same thing before Nathaniel put up No One Mourns The Wicked?

I've gone ahead and given Babsi the credit for the flash. We find that downclimbing 100 feet of common ground with an adjacent route "is not the route," therefore, is not an infringement on the flash.

You may now lock the topic.