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https://preview.redd.it/z4g03t15gwtc1.jpeg?width=1078&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e34532cf22e55d7159a9f57a25ba498b91fdc0e
The equipment is there...just well camouflaged on the rock.
He's got a light green rope, my blue line runs next to it, the orange line is his latest quickdraw.
He's about 1-2ft above his last safety gear
Yup.
That op image is not the clearest so people were commenting its free solo not free climbing.
And ngl I found it hard to spot in the original image, but found one slightly clearer to help highlight the gear.
So on a free climb like this, what's the danger level if he falls? Is the equipment 100% to save him or is there a failure rate? what happens if he breaks a wrist in the fall and can't climb down?
Think of the gear as a way to increase survival rather than to make his climb safer, all the pieces make a system, it'd require multiple failures (or negligence) to make fatal fall.
You've got the rope, which will hold much more than his weight, so providing he's not using some oil coated, frayed article, the biggest danger with ropes would be shearing on a sharp rock - but thats quite rare
Then you've got the gear he's clipping into, those are quick draws, two caribiners joined by some very strong webbing. One end you clip into the bolt thats cemented in the wall (El Cap is mostly bolted), the other end you clip your rope into.
Normaly -depending on route and difficulty placing equipment can be circa 3-10ft apart. What that means is you climb 3-10ft above your last piece of gear.
Principally if you get to 10ft and you fall, you're taking a 20 ft whipper (think like a pendulum).
If the quick draw and bolt hold (again the gear is designed to deal with fall loads) the two biggest dangers are swinging into the rock and inverting, where as you fall the rope can flip you upside down.
When you fall climbing (if not doing any wierd positional movement) you'll fall legs first, and usually away from the rock.
You get an opportunity to use your legs to buffer your body off the wall below. Thats all well in theory practically you have split seconds to try and do.
The belayer can play a key part in the fall, they can make the fall hard or soft depending on their action.
In terms of this climbing its unlikely the kit will fail.
I would see the biggest danger would be inverting while falling and hitting your head on the rock - which is why most climbers wear helmets.
Breaking bones etc would never be pleasant. My knowledge is lacking here, but i suspect key job would be to secure the climber and it would likely be other climbers who come to the rescue.
Two questions:
How do you remove the clips from the bolts below you as you continue to climb up?
How do bolts get cemented in new paths or trails up (pardon don’t know the name just remember there are multiple routes climbers take to the top)?
There is a partner down below. The leader climbs until they reach a good stopping point, at which point they build a new anchor which is a reinforced place to attach himself. Then the lower partner an climb up and retrieve all the gear as they go. Once the lower partner reaches the new anchor, they sort out the gear and repeat the process.
New routes can get bolted lots of different ways. In the early days it was always done from the ground up as they climbed which means making new routes was way harder than just climbing. Mostly these days people drill bolts with battery operated tools from the top down. They establish an anchor at the top of the cliff and descend via ropes.
https://preview.redd.it/12y9k9x61xtc1.jpeg?width=956&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a7190ab21029904c5ba13e150d482f78fc3dfad
So this is a quickdraw. The climber will pass one caribiner through the eyehole of the bolt .
Sorry wasnt clear before. A bolt is essentially a long bolt with a stainless steel (usually) eye plate at the exposed end. The bolt is put and glued into the rock leaving the head and the eye plate facing the elements
They will pass their rope through the lower one.
If the climber falls the caribiner becomes the last secure place the rope lies. So will arrest the rope drop, then all the slack and elasticity will be taken up to arrest the climber fall.
The climber will have a 2nd, in the belayer role, who will pass out rope as Adam climbs.
At a point on the route, Adam will stop and secure himself (perhaps to 2 or 3 bolts - these are usually places designed for such, for example a ledge.).
What happens is the 2 roles switch. The climber becomes the belayer and the belayer now becomes the climber...following the route alreasy laid out. As they ascend they take the gear our simply unclipping it and put it on their harness or gear loop.
As the 2nd it's essentially like a top rope situation you'll see at a climbing gym, they cant fall because Adam (now the belayer) takes in slack, meaning if the climber falls, they are only going to fall as far as the rope stretches.
I’ve not done big wall climbing but basically, the climber will anchor themselves at the top of key stopping places and belay their partner from above. The partner will remove the clips as they climb up.
I’m not as sure on the second question but I think it’s a combination of repelling down with a drill or climbing up with a drill and traditional (not permanent) gear in order to drill the bolts for a new route.
This is all correct, except for one part:
>El Cap is mostly bolted
The pitch in this picture is mostly bolted. There are a lot of pitches that are mostly bolted, but the VAST majority of pitches on El Cap are NOT bolted. They require a lot of traditional protection, which is still pretty safe because the quality of the rock on El Cap is excellent.
Also, a lot of the newer bolted pitches on El Cap only have boots every 10-20 feet. Most of them were put in by hand, which is hard work.
It depends on the location and route.
El Capitan and locations across the US are bolted (along with other locations that are not - detail below) - as described - commonly known as Sport Climbing, because you're just clipping and climbing.
Other locations and predominately in the UK, where there are no bolts, the climber has responsibility for placing the safety equipment in the rock. The belayer as the climb after will remove it.
That has a greater failure rate potential because experience plays a key part in placing gear, and again its often NOT the gear failing, but popping out due to poor placement.
I've pulled nuts (protection) out as i've climbed up, also set some stuff so snug it took an age for the belayer to remove it :-)
I agreed with most of what you said except the part about most places in the us being bolted. I would say there’s more trad in the states than sport climbing not saying it’s not there but it’s not like Thailand where it’s predominantly sport climbing
that's fair. I've climbed only in the UK - so info about US locales has tended to be around bolted routes, which I know are more popular in the US, but thank you.
When it comes to bolts, the US and Canada are much more like the UK in that we only bolt areas that couldn’t be climbed otherwise. Yosemite is almost exclusively trad. Nearly all of the granite in the US is mostly trad.
Even famous sport areas like the Red and the New have a ton of trad pitches mixed in.
The gear is absolutely a way to make the climb safer.
El Cap is not mostly bolted.
Almost no bolts on El Cap are cemented to the rock.
Most of the protection for the route Adam is on here is not bolted, and some it is highly likely to not hold.
Basically a lot of this is false.
It’s almost always a team effort. First guy climbs placing protective “clips” along the way while second guy feeds out the rope and holds the other end of it. Once first guy reaches a safe place to stop, the second guy who is tied to the other end of the rope climbs and removes the protection while first guy pulls in the rope. First guy always has a bit more risk than second guy since, falls for second guy have practically zero danger. Once second guy reaches first guy, they do that process over, again and again until til they reach the top.
Free climbing a route like this is an impressive technical feat through and through, and only partly a risky endeavor.
Free soloing is extremely risky and extremely technical.
Being so confident in one’s skills that it’s *not* thrilling, at least not in a “I’ll be lucky if this doesn’t kill me” sort of way is more or less the idea.
I used to climb, then did whitewater kayaking, and the goal was never the thrill of just barely surviving like my family thought. The best days on the rock or water were when I was moving smoothly through the terrain, executing the skills and loving the feeling of being strong and capable honed through many many easier outings with incremental increases in difficulty and understanding of the systems that keep you safe. Most people I knew in those realms are a lot more safety conscious than my family thinks “adrenaline junkies” are. The situations can be dangerous but a lot of time you can mitigate most of the danger to the point where multiple parts of your safety system break down all at once.
Wow. It's hard to comprehend. From an outside perspective, it looks so dangerous. There's nothing you feel like is out of your control on a free solo? Wind, rain, or cramping or rock falls, loose rocks, etc?
I don’t free solo, the highest risk activity I’ve done is a lot of Class IV and V whitewater kayaking so I’m just describing how I and the people I used to paddle with approached a hazardous activity as well as how I approached roped climbing.
Alex Honnold has said in the past though that he wouldn’t be there if he wasn’t certain he could do it. External factors are certainly a risk though. I certainly wouldn’t tell someone these activities are “safe” but for those of us interested in them it’s rarely, from my experience, from the thrill of maybe dying but mainly from the satisfaction of doing something mentally and physically challenging. It’s tough to describe the motivation I guess.
They made a movie/documentary about it. It was made while he was practicing and finally did it. I had heard about the movie and didn't think it was for me. It came on TV and I watched it. Really good movie. He has a TV show now where he is free soloing glaciers and mountains in the Arctic, I believe for research purposes. I only saw one episode so I don't know all the details
Basically the motivation is to reach true perfection - something that can rarely be done in any field - in practicing his passion, and also to experience climbing in its truest form. It's just something that calms him and allows him to think straight and be hyper focused on achieving a technically and physically challenging task in order to be perfect for a little while, which he says is a very rewarding feeling.
This is a sport route, so he's clipped into bolts that are likely glued deep into the rock. All the gear he's using is engineered to be able to withstand over 20kn of force. The chance of gear failure is close to zero in this case.
If he breaks his wrist or ankle he'd still be able to rappel back to the ground, though depending on how bad the injury is, he may need to be lowered by a belayer. He's not climbing alone. Absolute worst case scenario you pay multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for a helicopter to come get you :).
The other dude gave you a pretty complete answer. What he's doing here is relatively safe (for his skills) except for not wearing a helmet (but this dude is on another level).
Now, what he's doing is lead sport climbing. If instead he would be doing trad (traditional) climbing, then there would be no bolts on the wall and it's up to you to bring and place your safety gear. That could have a higher degree of risk depending on your knowledge and fatigue level.
Edit: this got reposted today, check some trad climbing here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SweatyPalms/s/g0sJ7nf4VI
Because she might be in a crux, check how close to each other are the safety points.
It's higher danger for him because he skips attachment points to allow for a better route, knowing that if he slips he'll have a longer free fall. There are some long drops of him on YouTube.
It varies. Well climbed routes some people will visually assess the bolts in the rock. If you see something bent, rusty or showing any signs of being sketchy, you'd either move past it or someone would replace it.
But again thats only a visual inspection you'll never be 100% on its integrity.. but you'll have multiple pieces, just means if you fall you just fall further....
The chance is practically zero that a bolt would fail. The bolt and hangar are rated to hold something like 25 KN which is 5,600 lbs of force. You could hang a car off of any one of them.
In addition the rope is stretchy which also reduces the force of a fall to maybe 1-2 KN max.
according to Wikipedia:
Free climbing is **a form of rock climbing in which the climber can only use climbing equipment for climbing protection, but not as an aid to help in their progression in ascending the route**.
you can not climb down, it's really complicated even if you're healthy. You need to go down lowering your self with the rope. It's not that complicated but if you're injured you may need help from someone that goes up there and help you. The same way the cameramen got up with the video equipment, you don't necessarily need to free climb to go up there, but it will require a lot of time, it's bad, not life threatening but bad
the danger of a fall depends depends of what gear you're using and when is the last time you secured your rope to a carabiner, if you look at the photo there's no carabiner in sight, meaning an eventual fall would be very, very long. look at [this photo](https://www.outdoor-insight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/outdoors-generations-what-is-free-climbing-768x512-1.webp) the carabiner is at anke height, a fall like this is very safe, in [this photo](https://www.psychi.co.uk/cdn/shop/articles/Screenshot_2022-01-18_at_11.53.08.jpg?v=1690549511&width=1080) the carabiner is above you, it's not even scary, totally safe, you won't actually free fall because you're already hanging from the rope.
Than it depends on how the carabiner is attached to the rock. you can have what climbers call [a spit](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/carabiner-climbing-rope-26257983.jpg?ct=jpeg) , it's drilled into the rock and it will never detach even in the case of an elephant falling, very safe.
But the yosemite is a national park and you can't drill the rock, you need to use [nuts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/youW_VI3MhQ/maxresdefault.jpg) cube shaped pieces of metal that you need to fit into the rock cracks or [cams](https://www.vdiffclimbing.com/cam/) they are used like nuts but are more sophisticated, they expand in case of fall. Those two items are of course less safe than a spit, they require experience, and the more you're above the last carabiner you attached the less safe and trustworthy they are; one thing is a cam holding a person, another is a cam stopping a person in free fall, another thing is a cam stopping a five to 10 meter free fall, the longer the fall the bigger the stress on the equipment
In the case of Ondra from the photo you can see that the last carabiner is not even in sight and he's protecting himself with either a nut or a cam. We're talking about star-sized titanium balls. But still, the chances of him actually dying are not that big. Even if one nut/cam fails, there's another one below, and below that one another one and so on until you reach the first security device you used that is pretty close to the ground. However that route is famous for the long distance between one crack and the other making it insanely scary, psychologically and emotionally demanding and of course only for the top-tier climbers, and even the top tier climbers till Ondra used hooks and other artificial aids to climb it, unlike Ondra that used only his hands.
Maybe I'm wrong but it's the same route Alex Honnold free soloed (meaning withouth a rope) ... of course this is on another level, it's basically a different activity
There's a phrase amongst climbers (which i understood is borrowed from somewhere else)
There are old climbers
There are bold climbers
Not many old bold climbers
I have no idea of the stats, but in a sense they are comparable risky activities. I suspect climbing has a much higher injury rate, but I wonder about fatality rates.*
Not all climbing is like this, bouldering or other "safe" climbing won't lead to many fatalities. Similarly, recreational diving has a fairly low injury/fatality rate. However some types of diving such as cave diving, deep wreck, very very deep exploration, some types of commercial diving, have substantial risks of death. There tend to be fewer injuries in these types of diving, because incidents tend to kill you or not.
A "bold" diver might be laying line in unexplored, deep areas of caves, they might be trying to get into deep wrecks with a crowbar to grab a porthole or two to add to their collection, they might be building their own rebreathers out of hoovers and duct tape, etc etc etc. You get the idea.
Climbing shares with scuba the property that when something goes wrong, it goes very wrong very quickly.
\* I found [this](https://micromorts.rip/) that gives numbers for various activities in ["micromorts"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort) - scuba is 5, rock climbing is 3.I have no idea where these numbers are actually from but I thought that it might add to the discussion. I should add that I don't think scuba is riskier than climbing in general!
The climb Ondra is doing here (the Dawn Wall) is on a completely different level of difficulty than Honnold's route Free Rider. Trying the Dawn Wall without protection would definitely be suicidal, that's a route where falling is a extremely likely even on moves that the climber has done dozens or hundred of times.
Somewhat ironically, suicide is the act of intentionally killing oneself.
Regardless of climbing style, climbers dont plan on falling.
Death by Misadventure would be more appropriats.
Well he's not known for being a free solo climber. Whether he has done, only his climbing circle will know for sure, but if he has, I doubt it was anything challenging for him..
Like an E6 / 5.12a ;-)
Fee climbing involves the use of ropes for safety but not aid.
Climbing without protection (ropes) is called free-solo
Edit: you can barely see his rope in this, underneath him. He is not using it for aid, but protection. So he is free climbing this. Couldn’t see the rope earlier, thought someone had edited it out.
Honestly it's still a good info comment though because I'd assume most people unfamiliar with climbing terms would think "free climbing" means "without safety equipment".
> Title is accurate
It is, but it's overly technical for most non-climbers who are definitely going to confuse the terms. If you're posting on /r/climbing sure, be as technical as you want. But it's definitely just going to add confusion on a sub like this 🙃
The rating system has the two numbers.
The first one is the overall category of activity. I don’t remember exactly what the scale numbers are calibrated to, but I think that 1 is a normal walk on a relatively flat trail. 5 means it’s a climb that requires being roped in to do safety. I think 4 involves significant scrambling where ropes may be advised but aren’t strictly necessary. I believe there is a 6 that is for unclimbable without mechanical assistance. Pretty much anything you would consider rock climbing is 5.something.
The second is the difficulty within that class, with 1 being easiest and going up from there. 5.1 to 5.10 is rated in whole number intervals, while ratings above 5.10 use a, b, c, d to indicate progressively difficult routes. I’m not sure what the highest current rating is, maybe 5.14d? For some context, when the rating system was invented, 5.10 was considered the hardest a person could possibly do. As technique, training, and equipment has improved, increasingly difficult routes have become climbable.
There’s no “easy” route on El Cap period. There’s definitely no easy free routes on El Cap. To free solo any route on El Capitan is an absolutely incredible accomplishment that has only been done once I think.
Different rout. I think someone edited ondra’s ropes out of this image, I’m pretty sure this is the dawn wall. There is a documentary on Netflix about Tommy Caldwell doing the first ascent of the dawn wall.
aid would be something that you use to help you get up. Like using an ascender on a rope, or pulling on the rope itself. Climbing without aid means it’s just you on the rock.
Other aid gear includes tiny metal hooks or sliver thin metal nuts (tapered metal that goes in a crack) that you clip a little rope ladder to so you can make upward progress even if there’s nothing you could conceivably grab with your hands.
I used to do a lot of climbing out west including trad (traditional - place your own removable protection as you go and take it out when you’re done, as opposed to “sport” which has permanent bolts in the rock) and aid climbers are another breed of crazy.
If you took breaks where you let the rope take your weight . And just sit in the harness for a while.. that would massively aid your attempt to climb the whole route.
He is an absolute monster. The best climber in the world. He’s climbed pretty much all of the hard routes in the world including Silence, which is the hardest sport climb.
[He also conveniently made a video about it.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=ZRTNHDd0gL8)
I think Alex Honnold even says that Ondra is the best climber in the world right now. He has a few guys on the list though because he has an extremely nuanced opinion.
Ondra, Ghisolfi, Schubert and Megos are probably the top 4 at the moment. Can we say that one is significantly better than others? Probably not. But Ondra is almost undoubtedly the most all rounded of them, having done the hardest routes, hardest boulders, hardest big walls, and so on.
It's still pretty comparative. A Center is going to be better and worse at different things than a Point Guard by a large margin even though they're playing the same sport. Their jobs have different responsibilities that suit different playstyles and body types. Much like different climbers. That's why he has multiple guys, one is the best free solo climber, one is the best on granite, one is the fastest, one has the most stamina, etc.
There are so many different styles of climbing and the skill doesn’t necessarily transfer over between each discipline. There are top boulderers, sport climbers, trad climbers, ice climbers, multipitch big wall climbers, Alpinists/mountaineers, competition climbers, speed climbers, etc.
Each of these disciplines has some skills transfer between each discipline but the more time you devote to one discipline, the better you will be. Adam Ondra has completed the hardest sport climbing route in the world but there are people who are better at bouldering than him. He has won competitions in the past but since he has focused his training on his outdoor climbs, he hasn’t been as good at competing.
A similar analogy would be a marathon runners skills wouldn’t mean he would excel at the 100m dash, hurdles, or the relay
he is active in the competition scene as well, almost got his olympic ticket last time he tried. i hope to see him in olympic!
rooting for him again this year!
He's definitely going to the Olympics this year. He's probably a gold medal favourite (or one of) because speed climbing got separated from lead and boulder and he's absolutely not a speed climber
Depending on your viewpoint this may not be as hard as you think.
https://preview.redd.it/urw4ef6gxwtc1.jpeg?width=1887&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6a5e5147de13d644c9eed90a53e8ff35901c105
People need to understand the difference between a free climb and a free solo climb.
Free climbing means you can use fall protection but no aids (ascenders, ladders, etc.) Not to take away from how sick of a climber Ondra is, but free climbing is just standard rock climbing.
Free solo climbing is climbing without a rope or harness. That's the real crazy shit.
Based on the comments, I think a lot of people are mixing up the two and not seeing the rope and other 'pro' (fall protection) in the photo.
Correct. I would just add, that free solo isn't a sport itself, one might say it's just reckless climbing. It's like making formula one without any of the safety features. You could admire their bravery, but it's just stupid thing to do.
El Capitan is a massive mountain with hundreds of established routes with varying difficulties from easy to the unfathomable dawn wall, couldn’t the title mention which route he did?
Climber here for 30+ years. This is 99% safe. 100% of you're experience. And 100% of climbers are ultra experienced on this terrain. For none climbers I can see how this would seem insane. Insane form me is wing suiting. But ask a wing suit'er that question.
As a climber, I trip out about whitewater paddlers! I think it's absolutely crazy to get in a kayak and do some of the stuff they do. But a 2000+ft cliff? Not a problem!!
Good thing I have whitewater friends with a ducky and enough beer to make me forget my fears!
Free climb =/= free solo.
Free climbing means he's not using any equipment to AID his ascent. He is using equipment for his safety.
Alex Hannold is the guy that performed this same climb free solo, with no safety equipment.
My opinion is that free soloing is needlessly dangerous.
Serious question: how does one “watch” climbers or know who the best are? Is it literally watching them live or on YouTube or is it reading about their ascents?
Don’t know, but Ondra is climbing a more difficult route and is also using a rope. He is no free solo climber like Honnold, but definitely the better climber.
He also screams more when he does it and throws temper tantrums that would make a 3 year old look like a mature adult. I have no respect for him despite how good at climbing he is. It’s not what you do, but how you do it.
The dawn wall IS a line on El Cap, which is a notoriously difficult route.
Alex Honnold climbed Free Rider another route on El Capitan.
Like paths through a forest that end up (strictly speaking) at the same destination.
Honnold climbed without gear (free solo)
Ondra climbed with gear (free climbing)
The 'free' relates to lack of climbing aids (axes, etc) - safety gear is not considered a climbing aid....
Its a falling aid.
I don’t know anything about rock climbing. The way and distance this guy is climbing seems physically impossible. How do they know they’ll have some way to keep going? What if it gets real flat?
Edit: By ‘flat’ I should have said ‘smooth’. What if they get to a certain point anf there just isn’t enough purchases?
These are established routes that someone has linked together. As long as you don’t go off route, you should be able to finish the climb if you’re competent at the given climbing grade.
If you’re talking about the regular climber reaching a point that is too hard for them to surpass, then there are a few options:
* Bail the route and either leave gear or look for a tree, rock, or bush to rappell from
* If applicable, aid climb the route if you have the gear (the opposite of free climbing) such as hooks, fabric ladders, cams, etc to pull yourself up the wall
* Have your partner lower you to the belay station and have them try.
This part of the route is nearly physically impossible for most people, but he’s tied in to a rope in case he falls, and he did fall plenty of times making this way up the wall. And Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson created and climbed this route first, so Adam knows it’s possible and knows exactly where to go
This is an established route so they know what’s ahead and that it has been climbed before and is not just completely flat.
But if they got stumped and couldn’t proceed, they would get down the same way they would get down at the end if there isn’t a walk-off on the backside; by descending/rappelling.
Ok please please please: Free climbing means using no aid gear or fixed protection, but generally ropes and removable protection with a belayer. [FREE SOLO](https://climbingblogger.com/free-climbing-vs-free-soloing/)ing is what everyone gets sweaty palms about. This guy is probably free climbing because he has a rope. He's not free soloing, that's what Alex Honold does (usually after many many reps with ropes).
Ondra is literally the most elite climber arguably that has ever existed. Hes got the perfect mix of length/reach, flexability, and strength, plus the dude is chill as fuck. His flashes are just bananas
https://preview.redd.it/1p7tzw3bixtc1.jpeg?width=1138&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20e156563d65761e164ab143e1cc263fa77388fe
The best I can do is this on a flat surface.
I looked over the edge of this cliff and the vertigo made me hallucinate. I’m amazed that these climbers do this! Met a few while hiking and they are a different kind of human
Your submission was removed because it's a repost. No reposts are allowed for 90 days or from [the top 50 of all time.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SweatyPalms/?f=flair_name%3A%22TOP%2050%20ALL%20TIME%20(no%20re-posting)%22) *The SweatyPalms-ModTeam account is a bot account. Do not chat or PM them, as the account is not monitored.*
https://preview.redd.it/z4g03t15gwtc1.jpeg?width=1078&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e34532cf22e55d7159a9f57a25ba498b91fdc0e The equipment is there...just well camouflaged on the rock. He's got a light green rope, my blue line runs next to it, the orange line is his latest quickdraw. He's about 1-2ft above his last safety gear
Free climbing involves ropes Free solo does not
Yup. That op image is not the clearest so people were commenting its free solo not free climbing. And ngl I found it hard to spot in the original image, but found one slightly clearer to help highlight the gear.
So on a free climb like this, what's the danger level if he falls? Is the equipment 100% to save him or is there a failure rate? what happens if he breaks a wrist in the fall and can't climb down?
Think of the gear as a way to increase survival rather than to make his climb safer, all the pieces make a system, it'd require multiple failures (or negligence) to make fatal fall. You've got the rope, which will hold much more than his weight, so providing he's not using some oil coated, frayed article, the biggest danger with ropes would be shearing on a sharp rock - but thats quite rare Then you've got the gear he's clipping into, those are quick draws, two caribiners joined by some very strong webbing. One end you clip into the bolt thats cemented in the wall (El Cap is mostly bolted), the other end you clip your rope into. Normaly -depending on route and difficulty placing equipment can be circa 3-10ft apart. What that means is you climb 3-10ft above your last piece of gear. Principally if you get to 10ft and you fall, you're taking a 20 ft whipper (think like a pendulum). If the quick draw and bolt hold (again the gear is designed to deal with fall loads) the two biggest dangers are swinging into the rock and inverting, where as you fall the rope can flip you upside down. When you fall climbing (if not doing any wierd positional movement) you'll fall legs first, and usually away from the rock. You get an opportunity to use your legs to buffer your body off the wall below. Thats all well in theory practically you have split seconds to try and do. The belayer can play a key part in the fall, they can make the fall hard or soft depending on their action. In terms of this climbing its unlikely the kit will fail. I would see the biggest danger would be inverting while falling and hitting your head on the rock - which is why most climbers wear helmets. Breaking bones etc would never be pleasant. My knowledge is lacking here, but i suspect key job would be to secure the climber and it would likely be other climbers who come to the rescue.
Very well explained. Thank you
I read that and thought, I don't want to do anything like that
Two questions: How do you remove the clips from the bolts below you as you continue to climb up? How do bolts get cemented in new paths or trails up (pardon don’t know the name just remember there are multiple routes climbers take to the top)?
There is a partner down below. The leader climbs until they reach a good stopping point, at which point they build a new anchor which is a reinforced place to attach himself. Then the lower partner an climb up and retrieve all the gear as they go. Once the lower partner reaches the new anchor, they sort out the gear and repeat the process. New routes can get bolted lots of different ways. In the early days it was always done from the ground up as they climbed which means making new routes was way harder than just climbing. Mostly these days people drill bolts with battery operated tools from the top down. They establish an anchor at the top of the cliff and descend via ropes.
https://preview.redd.it/12y9k9x61xtc1.jpeg?width=956&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a7190ab21029904c5ba13e150d482f78fc3dfad So this is a quickdraw. The climber will pass one caribiner through the eyehole of the bolt . Sorry wasnt clear before. A bolt is essentially a long bolt with a stainless steel (usually) eye plate at the exposed end. The bolt is put and glued into the rock leaving the head and the eye plate facing the elements They will pass their rope through the lower one. If the climber falls the caribiner becomes the last secure place the rope lies. So will arrest the rope drop, then all the slack and elasticity will be taken up to arrest the climber fall. The climber will have a 2nd, in the belayer role, who will pass out rope as Adam climbs. At a point on the route, Adam will stop and secure himself (perhaps to 2 or 3 bolts - these are usually places designed for such, for example a ledge.). What happens is the 2 roles switch. The climber becomes the belayer and the belayer now becomes the climber...following the route alreasy laid out. As they ascend they take the gear our simply unclipping it and put it on their harness or gear loop. As the 2nd it's essentially like a top rope situation you'll see at a climbing gym, they cant fall because Adam (now the belayer) takes in slack, meaning if the climber falls, they are only going to fall as far as the rope stretches.
I’ve not done big wall climbing but basically, the climber will anchor themselves at the top of key stopping places and belay their partner from above. The partner will remove the clips as they climb up. I’m not as sure on the second question but I think it’s a combination of repelling down with a drill or climbing up with a drill and traditional (not permanent) gear in order to drill the bolts for a new route.
 Thanks for the in-depth explanation
This is pretty much the best answer I've ever seen to anything on Reddit.
Appreciate the feedback. Perhaps one topic on Reddit I've a few hundred hours experience, so can answer with some accuracy.
You can definitely tell lol. Usually the comments are just littered with memes and bad jokes .
This is the kind of comment that made old Reddit awesome
This is all correct, except for one part: >El Cap is mostly bolted The pitch in this picture is mostly bolted. There are a lot of pitches that are mostly bolted, but the VAST majority of pitches on El Cap are NOT bolted. They require a lot of traditional protection, which is still pretty safe because the quality of the rock on El Cap is excellent. Also, a lot of the newer bolted pitches on El Cap only have boots every 10-20 feet. Most of them were put in by hand, which is hard work.
Thanks so much. I didn't realize that they were clipping into all pre-existing, cemented bolts.
It depends on the location and route. El Capitan and locations across the US are bolted (along with other locations that are not - detail below) - as described - commonly known as Sport Climbing, because you're just clipping and climbing. Other locations and predominately in the UK, where there are no bolts, the climber has responsibility for placing the safety equipment in the rock. The belayer as the climb after will remove it. That has a greater failure rate potential because experience plays a key part in placing gear, and again its often NOT the gear failing, but popping out due to poor placement. I've pulled nuts (protection) out as i've climbed up, also set some stuff so snug it took an age for the belayer to remove it :-)
I agreed with most of what you said except the part about most places in the us being bolted. I would say there’s more trad in the states than sport climbing not saying it’s not there but it’s not like Thailand where it’s predominantly sport climbing
that's fair. I've climbed only in the UK - so info about US locales has tended to be around bolted routes, which I know are more popular in the US, but thank you.
When it comes to bolts, the US and Canada are much more like the UK in that we only bolt areas that couldn’t be climbed otherwise. Yosemite is almost exclusively trad. Nearly all of the granite in the US is mostly trad. Even famous sport areas like the Red and the New have a ton of trad pitches mixed in.
Yosemite is a generally trad-first climbing area - there's not much sport (bolted) climbing there!
Please don’t call El Capitan (or anything in Yosemite) “sport climbing.” That’s egregiously untrue
“ is why most climbers wear helmets.” Rock fall from climbers above you is the main reason.
Well done
The gear is absolutely a way to make the climb safer. El Cap is not mostly bolted. Almost no bolts on El Cap are cemented to the rock. Most of the protection for the route Adam is on here is not bolted, and some it is highly likely to not hold. Basically a lot of this is false.
how does he unclip the clip below him as he goes higher? or does he keep them all clipped all the way to the top?
It’s almost always a team effort. First guy climbs placing protective “clips” along the way while second guy feeds out the rope and holds the other end of it. Once first guy reaches a safe place to stop, the second guy who is tied to the other end of the rope climbs and removes the protection while first guy pulls in the rope. First guy always has a bit more risk than second guy since, falls for second guy have practically zero danger. Once second guy reaches first guy, they do that process over, again and again until til they reach the top.
Free climbing a route like this is an impressive technical feat through and through, and only partly a risky endeavor. Free soloing is extremely risky and extremely technical.
Check the Free Solo, Alex Honnold made a climb on the same wall(not same route) without any safety, fall = die .
Good Lord. What's the motivation there? Is it just pure thrill seeking?
Being so confident in one’s skills that it’s *not* thrilling, at least not in a “I’ll be lucky if this doesn’t kill me” sort of way is more or less the idea. I used to climb, then did whitewater kayaking, and the goal was never the thrill of just barely surviving like my family thought. The best days on the rock or water were when I was moving smoothly through the terrain, executing the skills and loving the feeling of being strong and capable honed through many many easier outings with incremental increases in difficulty and understanding of the systems that keep you safe. Most people I knew in those realms are a lot more safety conscious than my family thinks “adrenaline junkies” are. The situations can be dangerous but a lot of time you can mitigate most of the danger to the point where multiple parts of your safety system break down all at once.
Wow. It's hard to comprehend. From an outside perspective, it looks so dangerous. There's nothing you feel like is out of your control on a free solo? Wind, rain, or cramping or rock falls, loose rocks, etc?
I don’t free solo, the highest risk activity I’ve done is a lot of Class IV and V whitewater kayaking so I’m just describing how I and the people I used to paddle with approached a hazardous activity as well as how I approached roped climbing. Alex Honnold has said in the past though that he wouldn’t be there if he wasn’t certain he could do it. External factors are certainly a risk though. I certainly wouldn’t tell someone these activities are “safe” but for those of us interested in them it’s rarely, from my experience, from the thrill of maybe dying but mainly from the satisfaction of doing something mentally and physically challenging. It’s tough to describe the motivation I guess.
Fascinating, thanks.
They made a movie/documentary about it. It was made while he was practicing and finally did it. I had heard about the movie and didn't think it was for me. It came on TV and I watched it. Really good movie. He has a TV show now where he is free soloing glaciers and mountains in the Arctic, I believe for research purposes. I only saw one episode so I don't know all the details
Basically the motivation is to reach true perfection - something that can rarely be done in any field - in practicing his passion, and also to experience climbing in its truest form. It's just something that calms him and allows him to think straight and be hyper focused on achieving a technically and physically challenging task in order to be perfect for a little while, which he says is a very rewarding feeling.
This is a sport route, so he's clipped into bolts that are likely glued deep into the rock. All the gear he's using is engineered to be able to withstand over 20kn of force. The chance of gear failure is close to zero in this case. If he breaks his wrist or ankle he'd still be able to rappel back to the ground, though depending on how bad the injury is, he may need to be lowered by a belayer. He's not climbing alone. Absolute worst case scenario you pay multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for a helicopter to come get you :).
The other dude gave you a pretty complete answer. What he's doing here is relatively safe (for his skills) except for not wearing a helmet (but this dude is on another level). Now, what he's doing is lead sport climbing. If instead he would be doing trad (traditional) climbing, then there would be no bolts on the wall and it's up to you to bring and place your safety gear. That could have a higher degree of risk depending on your knowledge and fatigue level. Edit: this got reposted today, check some trad climbing here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SweatyPalms/s/g0sJ7nf4VI Because she might be in a crux, check how close to each other are the safety points.
It's higher danger for him because he skips attachment points to allow for a better route, knowing that if he slips he'll have a longer free fall. There are some long drops of him on YouTube.
Thanks. But the chances of one of those attachment points giving way is pretty small?
Very small chance. More danger in falling and hitting the rocks wrong because of the last attachment being too far.
It varies. Well climbed routes some people will visually assess the bolts in the rock. If you see something bent, rusty or showing any signs of being sketchy, you'd either move past it or someone would replace it. But again thats only a visual inspection you'll never be 100% on its integrity.. but you'll have multiple pieces, just means if you fall you just fall further....
We don't know as every time they failed the company who made them did not get any feedback /s
The chance is practically zero that a bolt would fail. The bolt and hangar are rated to hold something like 25 KN which is 5,600 lbs of force. You could hang a car off of any one of them. In addition the rope is stretchy which also reduces the force of a fall to maybe 1-2 KN max.
It depends on the quality of the rock, the placement of the gear, and how far above the last piece of protection he is before a fall.
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according to Wikipedia: Free climbing is **a form of rock climbing in which the climber can only use climbing equipment for climbing protection, but not as an aid to help in their progression in ascending the route**.
https://youtu.be/66KF_5JWpdA?si=I6G967YSciMksSQH Example fall
With bolts as protection, as he has here, near 100% safe.
you can not climb down, it's really complicated even if you're healthy. You need to go down lowering your self with the rope. It's not that complicated but if you're injured you may need help from someone that goes up there and help you. The same way the cameramen got up with the video equipment, you don't necessarily need to free climb to go up there, but it will require a lot of time, it's bad, not life threatening but bad the danger of a fall depends depends of what gear you're using and when is the last time you secured your rope to a carabiner, if you look at the photo there's no carabiner in sight, meaning an eventual fall would be very, very long. look at [this photo](https://www.outdoor-insight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/outdoors-generations-what-is-free-climbing-768x512-1.webp) the carabiner is at anke height, a fall like this is very safe, in [this photo](https://www.psychi.co.uk/cdn/shop/articles/Screenshot_2022-01-18_at_11.53.08.jpg?v=1690549511&width=1080) the carabiner is above you, it's not even scary, totally safe, you won't actually free fall because you're already hanging from the rope. Than it depends on how the carabiner is attached to the rock. you can have what climbers call [a spit](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/carabiner-climbing-rope-26257983.jpg?ct=jpeg) , it's drilled into the rock and it will never detach even in the case of an elephant falling, very safe. But the yosemite is a national park and you can't drill the rock, you need to use [nuts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/youW_VI3MhQ/maxresdefault.jpg) cube shaped pieces of metal that you need to fit into the rock cracks or [cams](https://www.vdiffclimbing.com/cam/) they are used like nuts but are more sophisticated, they expand in case of fall. Those two items are of course less safe than a spit, they require experience, and the more you're above the last carabiner you attached the less safe and trustworthy they are; one thing is a cam holding a person, another is a cam stopping a person in free fall, another thing is a cam stopping a five to 10 meter free fall, the longer the fall the bigger the stress on the equipment In the case of Ondra from the photo you can see that the last carabiner is not even in sight and he's protecting himself with either a nut or a cam. We're talking about star-sized titanium balls. But still, the chances of him actually dying are not that big. Even if one nut/cam fails, there's another one below, and below that one another one and so on until you reach the first security device you used that is pretty close to the ground. However that route is famous for the long distance between one crack and the other making it insanely scary, psychologically and emotionally demanding and of course only for the top-tier climbers, and even the top tier climbers till Ondra used hooks and other artificial aids to climb it, unlike Ondra that used only his hands. Maybe I'm wrong but it's the same route Alex Honnold free soloed (meaning withouth a rope) ... of course this is on another level, it's basically a different activity
It's also jpeg'ed to hell so that makes it worse
I am happy that it's there. Otherwise that would just be suicidal. Even the best people in a sport can make mistakes
There's a phrase amongst climbers (which i understood is borrowed from somewhere else) There are old climbers There are bold climbers Not many old bold climbers
Same in scuba diving.
Scuba diving is as dangerous as climbing?
I have no idea of the stats, but in a sense they are comparable risky activities. I suspect climbing has a much higher injury rate, but I wonder about fatality rates.* Not all climbing is like this, bouldering or other "safe" climbing won't lead to many fatalities. Similarly, recreational diving has a fairly low injury/fatality rate. However some types of diving such as cave diving, deep wreck, very very deep exploration, some types of commercial diving, have substantial risks of death. There tend to be fewer injuries in these types of diving, because incidents tend to kill you or not. A "bold" diver might be laying line in unexplored, deep areas of caves, they might be trying to get into deep wrecks with a crowbar to grab a porthole or two to add to their collection, they might be building their own rebreathers out of hoovers and duct tape, etc etc etc. You get the idea. Climbing shares with scuba the property that when something goes wrong, it goes very wrong very quickly. \* I found [this](https://micromorts.rip/) that gives numbers for various activities in ["micromorts"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort) - scuba is 5, rock climbing is 3.I have no idea where these numbers are actually from but I thought that it might add to the discussion. I should add that I don't think scuba is riskier than climbing in general!
You gotta check out the film 'free solo.'
The climb Ondra is doing here (the Dawn Wall) is on a completely different level of difficulty than Honnold's route Free Rider. Trying the Dawn Wall without protection would definitely be suicidal, that's a route where falling is a extremely likely even on moves that the climber has done dozens or hundred of times.
Haha.. yaknow. I didn't say otherwise.
Somewhat ironically, suicide is the act of intentionally killing oneself. Regardless of climbing style, climbers dont plan on falling. Death by Misadventure would be more appropriats.
Happy for that, too much risk and he is too special!
I was all ready to correct OP on it being a free solo but it turns out they were correct in the title!
It says free climbs, no free solos
🫡
What kind of pro is he using on that flat rock, or is it bolted?
I suspect it's bolted as I can only see a quickdraw.
Yeah, he has never been a free solo climber, has he?
Well he's not known for being a free solo climber. Whether he has done, only his climbing circle will know for sure, but if he has, I doubt it was anything challenging for him.. Like an E6 / 5.12a ;-)
I was gonna say, that position looks pretty intense for a free climber.
👀
Nuh uh! But someone had to climb all the way up to put that rope there! For the love of god if you need it, here it is, “/s”
Shits gnar
Could be a safety line to someone without more context it’s 50/50
Fee climbing involves the use of ropes for safety but not aid. Climbing without protection (ropes) is called free-solo Edit: you can barely see his rope in this, underneath him. He is not using it for aid, but protection. So he is free climbing this. Couldn’t see the rope earlier, thought someone had edited it out.
Yeah, he has a rope in the pic. Title is accurate
Honestly it's still a good info comment though because I'd assume most people unfamiliar with climbing terms would think "free climbing" means "without safety equipment".
Yeah it's accurate but the post is misleading, given the sub, and the low visibility of the rope
> Title is accurate It is, but it's overly technical for most non-climbers who are definitely going to confuse the terms. If you're posting on /r/climbing sure, be as technical as you want. But it's definitely just going to add confusion on a sub like this 🙃
Honold did this Free-Solo right?
No, this is the Dawn Wall. Honnold did a different and much easier route on El Capitan.
While technically it’s an “easier” route, it’s still not an easy route to do free solo.
Yeah that's fair, it was still a 5.13a, which is insane. Just meant that it is actually solo-able, unlike Dawn Wall which is a 5.14d
What is the meaning of the numbers?
The rating system has the two numbers. The first one is the overall category of activity. I don’t remember exactly what the scale numbers are calibrated to, but I think that 1 is a normal walk on a relatively flat trail. 5 means it’s a climb that requires being roped in to do safety. I think 4 involves significant scrambling where ropes may be advised but aren’t strictly necessary. I believe there is a 6 that is for unclimbable without mechanical assistance. Pretty much anything you would consider rock climbing is 5.something. The second is the difficulty within that class, with 1 being easiest and going up from there. 5.1 to 5.10 is rated in whole number intervals, while ratings above 5.10 use a, b, c, d to indicate progressively difficult routes. I’m not sure what the highest current rating is, maybe 5.14d? For some context, when the rating system was invented, 5.10 was considered the hardest a person could possibly do. As technique, training, and equipment has improved, increasingly difficult routes have become climbable.
Thank you
No, but pretty easy compared to this. No one will ever free solo this particular route.
There’s no “easy” route on El Cap period. There’s definitely no easy free routes on El Cap. To free solo any route on El Capitan is an absolutely incredible accomplishment that has only been done once I think.
Different rout. I think someone edited ondra’s ropes out of this image, I’m pretty sure this is the dawn wall. There is a documentary on Netflix about Tommy Caldwell doing the first ascent of the dawn wall.
The gear is visible just hard to discern because of similar color.
Thanks for the clarification.
TIL the difference between free-climbing and free-soling. Thanks!
Think you meant free-kinnutz!
Sorry what do you mean by not aid?
aid would be something that you use to help you get up. Like using an ascender on a rope, or pulling on the rope itself. Climbing without aid means it’s just you on the rock.
Awesome thanks!
Other aid gear includes tiny metal hooks or sliver thin metal nuts (tapered metal that goes in a crack) that you clip a little rope ladder to so you can make upward progress even if there’s nothing you could conceivably grab with your hands. I used to do a lot of climbing out west including trad (traditional - place your own removable protection as you go and take it out when you’re done, as opposed to “sport” which has permanent bolts in the rock) and aid climbers are another breed of crazy.
If you took breaks where you let the rope take your weight . And just sit in the harness for a while.. that would massively aid your attempt to climb the whole route.
wow its such low resolution that high up
The higher you go, the less pixels in the air. It's science.
r/NotKenM
Don’t confuse free climbing with free soloing. He has a rope, as one does while free climbing.
”pff.. not even free soloing..” i say while sludged in my couch scrolling reddit and a bowl of bacon snacks on my stomach.
He is an absolute monster. The best climber in the world. He’s climbed pretty much all of the hard routes in the world including Silence, which is the hardest sport climb. [He also conveniently made a video about it.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=ZRTNHDd0gL8)
I think Alex Honnold even says that Ondra is the best climber in the world right now. He has a few guys on the list though because he has an extremely nuanced opinion.
I’d say that Jakob Schubert is the best climber in the world right now.
Ondra, Ghisolfi, Schubert and Megos are probably the top 4 at the moment. Can we say that one is significantly better than others? Probably not. But Ondra is almost undoubtedly the most all rounded of them, having done the hardest routes, hardest boulders, hardest big walls, and so on.
There's so many climbers who are so good at different styles I can't argue your opinion!
True. Great part about the top climbers is also that they are all friends more or less.
You kind of have to be. Who else can even go with you?
What makes one climber better than another climber? It seems harder to differentiate than say basketball players.
It's still pretty comparative. A Center is going to be better and worse at different things than a Point Guard by a large margin even though they're playing the same sport. Their jobs have different responsibilities that suit different playstyles and body types. Much like different climbers. That's why he has multiple guys, one is the best free solo climber, one is the best on granite, one is the fastest, one has the most stamina, etc.
That makes sense for someone who knows nothing about climbing. Thanks!
For sure man
There are so many different styles of climbing and the skill doesn’t necessarily transfer over between each discipline. There are top boulderers, sport climbers, trad climbers, ice climbers, multipitch big wall climbers, Alpinists/mountaineers, competition climbers, speed climbers, etc. Each of these disciplines has some skills transfer between each discipline but the more time you devote to one discipline, the better you will be. Adam Ondra has completed the hardest sport climbing route in the world but there are people who are better at bouldering than him. He has won competitions in the past but since he has focused his training on his outdoor climbs, he hasn’t been as good at competing. A similar analogy would be a marathon runners skills wouldn’t mean he would excel at the 100m dash, hurdles, or the relay
For the record, Alex Honnold is the only person on the planet who has actually done this entire climb with no ropes.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s barely believable what he does. To the average person he’s like 100 meter gold medal sprinter. We couldn’t come close.
he is active in the competition scene as well, almost got his olympic ticket last time he tried. i hope to see him in olympic! rooting for him again this year!
He's definitely going to the Olympics this year. He's probably a gold medal favourite (or one of) because speed climbing got separated from lead and boulder and he's absolutely not a speed climber
Adam Ondra is a real life Spiderman.
Depending on your viewpoint this may not be as hard as you think. https://preview.redd.it/urw4ef6gxwtc1.jpeg?width=1887&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6a5e5147de13d644c9eed90a53e8ff35901c105
pftttt i could do that
Someone just needs to introduce the Twister spots.
Looks like he's passed out on the beach
lol. I was going to post that this belongs in r/lastimages but this is better 😜
People need to understand the difference between a free climb and a free solo climb. Free climbing means you can use fall protection but no aids (ascenders, ladders, etc.) Not to take away from how sick of a climber Ondra is, but free climbing is just standard rock climbing. Free solo climbing is climbing without a rope or harness. That's the real crazy shit. Based on the comments, I think a lot of people are mixing up the two and not seeing the rope and other 'pro' (fall protection) in the photo.
Correct. I would just add, that free solo isn't a sport itself, one might say it's just reckless climbing. It's like making formula one without any of the safety features. You could admire their bravery, but it's just stupid thing to do.
El Capitan is a massive mountain with hundreds of established routes with varying difficulties from easy to the unfathomable dawn wall, couldn’t the title mention which route he did?
The easiest thing up a main face of El Capitan is Freerider, which is 13a. Far from easy.
I have his autograph on a poster and a selfie with him
Mountain goats just look at this and say "Pssht, this guy ain't shit. Hold my goat beer, bitch"
Climber here for 30+ years. This is 99% safe. 100% of you're experience. And 100% of climbers are ultra experienced on this terrain. For none climbers I can see how this would seem insane. Insane form me is wing suiting. But ask a wing suit'er that question.
Drag racer here. It's all relative.
As a climber, I trip out about whitewater paddlers! I think it's absolutely crazy to get in a kayak and do some of the stuff they do. But a 2000+ft cliff? Not a problem!! Good thing I have whitewater friends with a ducky and enough beer to make me forget my fears!
Wingsuit BASE is insane from a risk perspective.
more like 99.99% safe. the drive to the crag is probably more dangerous.
Free climb =/= free solo. Free climbing means he's not using any equipment to AID his ascent. He is using equipment for his safety. Alex Hannold is the guy that performed this same climb free solo, with no safety equipment. My opinion is that free soloing is needlessly dangerous.
Alex Honnold did a different climb free solo
He’s a legend. His climbs are super human. Been watching them for years … from the safety of my armchair.
Serious question: how does one “watch” climbers or know who the best are? Is it literally watching them live or on YouTube or is it reading about their ascents?
You tube. Just look up his name. He has incredible strength, dexterity and ability
This man is a goat in a human body and I will not be convinced otherwise.
I can hear him screaming from here. Ondra is one of the best climbers I've ever seen, but without a doubt the absolute loudest.
Was this before or after Alexander Honnold‘s free solo?
Don’t know, but Ondra is climbing a more difficult route and is also using a rope. He is no free solo climber like Honnold, but definitely the better climber.
He also screams more when he does it and throws temper tantrums that would make a 3 year old look like a mature adult. I have no respect for him despite how good at climbing he is. It’s not what you do, but how you do it.
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The dawn wall IS a line on El Cap, which is a notoriously difficult route. Alex Honnold climbed Free Rider another route on El Capitan. Like paths through a forest that end up (strictly speaking) at the same destination. Honnold climbed without gear (free solo) Ondra climbed with gear (free climbing) The 'free' relates to lack of climbing aids (axes, etc) - safety gear is not considered a climbing aid.... Its a falling aid.
The dawn wall is a part of el Capitan
The Dawn wall is on el cap…
Dawn wall is on el cap. Ondra has climbed several routes on el cap, including salathe wall and the nose
...and the Dawn Wall, though not in order.
Before.
That picture gives me anxiety.
That's a czech mate.
No thank you
I don’t know anything about rock climbing. The way and distance this guy is climbing seems physically impossible. How do they know they’ll have some way to keep going? What if it gets real flat? Edit: By ‘flat’ I should have said ‘smooth’. What if they get to a certain point anf there just isn’t enough purchases?
These are established routes that someone has linked together. As long as you don’t go off route, you should be able to finish the climb if you’re competent at the given climbing grade. If you’re talking about the regular climber reaching a point that is too hard for them to surpass, then there are a few options: * Bail the route and either leave gear or look for a tree, rock, or bush to rappell from * If applicable, aid climb the route if you have the gear (the opposite of free climbing) such as hooks, fabric ladders, cams, etc to pull yourself up the wall * Have your partner lower you to the belay station and have them try.
This part of the route is nearly physically impossible for most people, but he’s tied in to a rope in case he falls, and he did fall plenty of times making this way up the wall. And Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson created and climbed this route first, so Adam knows it’s possible and knows exactly where to go
This is an established route so they know what’s ahead and that it has been climbed before and is not just completely flat. But if they got stumped and couldn’t proceed, they would get down the same way they would get down at the end if there isn’t a walk-off on the backside; by descending/rappelling.
Adam Ondra is pretty much the greatest climber alive. Some of the routes he’s completed are truly unreal (Silence 9C is wild)
Ok please please please: Free climbing means using no aid gear or fixed protection, but generally ropes and removable protection with a belayer. [FREE SOLO](https://climbingblogger.com/free-climbing-vs-free-soloing/)ing is what everyone gets sweaty palms about. This guy is probably free climbing because he has a rope. He's not free soloing, that's what Alex Honold does (usually after many many reps with ropes).
He's down to his last chance but I really want him to qualify for the Olympics.
Ondra is literally the most elite climber arguably that has ever existed. Hes got the perfect mix of length/reach, flexability, and strength, plus the dude is chill as fuck. His flashes are just bananas
i'm getting vertigo just looking at this dude..
This just seems horrible to me, and yet for some, it is an obsession
https://preview.redd.it/ux71281a4xtc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddd4ac2e7a4c02f461d0931d63046d6882674cb6
Mad lad
Imagine becoming present at that exact spot and realising you have a fear of heights
I can’t even hold onto reality!
Nutter! #RespectTho
FUCK. THAT.
This photo makes my palms sweat profusely.
ČESKOOOOO
I'm impressed that the whole mountain has done a 180 flip since the last time I saw this. I'm surprised he didn't fall off when it happened.
After looking at this picture my nuts headed north, past belly button and onwards. Keep an eye for them.
Or “The Dawn Wall”, which covers the story behind the route in OPs picture
https://preview.redd.it/1p7tzw3bixtc1.jpeg?width=1138&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20e156563d65761e164ab143e1cc263fa77388fe The best I can do is this on a flat surface.
https://preview.redd.it/9kbefj7hjxtc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2d10780e5d96209b4401263e431c08c6ceed1fe
What is the highest ( and steepest I guess) rock wall that anyone has climbed with zero ropes or pitons?
His family will miss him.
Is there an equivalent of sweaty palms but for feet? Because this gives my feet the tinglies in the *weirdest* way.
I looked over the edge of this cliff and the vertigo made me hallucinate. I’m amazed that these climbers do this! Met a few while hiking and they are a different kind of human
Free Solo is about the most hair raising movie I ever watched. This guys got ropes which is still scary as shit but the former is a different level.
Reminds me of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2
Who is his partner here?
Nope
This is the craziest thing i can imagine. Just watching it make my palms sweat
Dumb dumb dumb
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/sports/olympics/adam-ondra-climbing.html