This is a highly debated subject within the community. A lot of people specifically prefer trad climbing for this reason, and even then, things happen like huckleberry mentioned. Precautions are taken and inspections are done by parks to avoid damage, but a lot of sport climbing routes were bolted decades ago, when this kind of thing wasn’t in popular thought. All of that said, incidents like what he’s saying are usually really rare and by comparison to the face/mountain they’re on, really small. All outdoor recreation comes at some sort of environmental cost. Boats drop thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean every year, we displace wildlife to dig and build golf courses, etc. the climbing community is super conscientious about lessening its footprint these days, though, like all things boomer generation, that wasn’t always the case.
Fuck when he’s talking about the two routes he’s afraid of on el cap, hands and feet were just pouring sweat. That shit is crazy
I started for the first time last summer, it's so fun. Can't go solo yet due to lack of gear and experience, but I have some friends that are pretty advanced. Plan on doing a lot more this summer.
Fuck it. My shoulder should be healed and the nose is on my bucket list. You have any aid experience?
A lot of people are begging me to join in the rock climbing adventures but I’ll have to decline. My knees just won’t allow it
I find Honnold's perspective on things to be fascinating to listen to, in general. After watching Free Solo, I immediately ended up listening to his appearances on Lance Armstrong and Joe Rogan's podcasts, and those were both really good, despite Lance Armstrong and Joe Rogan both being annoying as fuck.
Ayyyy welcome to this side of the state. Also, was certain I was about to watch someone die a couple years ago down in California while with some buddies that are itnto it all. Dude couldn’t get his cam set up so he fell (I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in climbing, so excuse rudimentary knowledge). Cam below him failed so he dropped like 20 feet. I was ready for all of this shit to just start ripping out and turned away as I wasn’t trying to see someone go splat. But the next one held. Everyone was a bit perplexed by the gear failure of the one that came out. Anyways, instead of bailing like a normal person, he just hung out there on belay for like 5 minutes and the proceeded to complete the climb.
Have a couple friends that did the nose in 2017; I’ve never been climbing out there. They aided it over like a 5-day span. I’ve been thinking about getting into bigger stuff but the last couple years have just been sport climbing and bouldering. You’ve really got to focus your training on aid climbing if you’re going to do something that big and I just haven’t been that hyped to get into it.
i used to climb a bit back when i lived in atlanta, but now living in charleston there isn't a really good climbing gym like Atlanta has
im ok with sport but really dont like bouldering do the whole hitting the ground thing. My plan is to knock the rust off my trad skills this spring/early summer then try to take a valley trip for Rocktober. Maybe not the nose but something on washingtons column or leaning tower. where are you based out of now?
It's not Stone Summit but: https://www.coastalclimbing.com/ Also, you're still day trip distance from outdoor climbing.
Just finished watching Free Solo with the GF. She hates his GF too. After she was asking him in the van would he consider taking less chances in the future, she turns around and says "Did she really ask him that?"
I liked his Gf She was nice to look at I spent the rest of the time looking at Honnold’s beautiful vascular arms
Where have you climbed? I've climbed pretty much at all the TAG crags, sport and trad. T-Wall, Steele, Sand Rock, Palisades were my stomping grounds
Cut my teeth all over Foster Falls. It still holds a soft spot for me. Done trad at t-wall and Table. Most of my outdoor trips are bouldering these days between RockTown, Rumbling Bald and HorsePen.
Don’t listen to Fusiontegra The only climbing he does is climbing his short ass into a booth at the Vortex
Like, of all the insults you could have come up with...I'm 6'1. All that DOTA got your brain fucked up.
Can you still climb Yonah? I know they closed the road but I still thought you could hike up. Used to love climbing and camping there. Was nice too with the anchors from the military.
Dk, have only been there once around 1993. Wasn't too impressed to go back. But I guess if its close than who knows
It's no Half Dome but it's the best in the area and a relatively short drive for the ATL guys. The boulder was fun as hell.
Watched Free Solo and The Dawn Wall last night and I think I actually enjoyed the latter more. Maybe it’s because I’ve been following Honnold over the years so it doesn’t shock me as much as it initially did. Both are great films, kind of wish the director hadn’t inserted himself into Free Solo and it just focused on Alex and his relationships
I love foster Falls. First time I was there a couple redneck boys and their dad were doing a 5.11 which apparently had a copperhead at the chains. They would climb the route touch the snakes tail and jump off. Now days if I'm climbing on the wrong side of the Mississippi it's gotta be RRG.
Why? The dynamic of pushing yourself beyond your limits because a film crew is watching is interesting and relevant. It gives people an increased perspective the difficulty of the climb when the crew is on pins and needles.
...especially knowing that the entire camera crew are also lifelong professional climbers, and they’re still antsy about the climb. I think the difficulty of just shooting the climb notnonly deserves credit, but also gives credence to the ridiculousness of what Honnold is doing.
I just binged The Dawn Wall and Free Solo and about 4 hours of youtube videos. I'm mesmerized by this shit. My half sister is part of the climbing culture and I never really understood. She lived out of van with her boyfriend for years and now took her skills to fix windmills. Pretty cool stuff. I find Alex's mannerisms super calming, yet human. The guy is unreal.
I think his climbing and the opinions of the experts they interviewed speak for themselves. They should have saved the director and film crew stuff for the DVD extras. I would have been much more interested in hearing more about Freerider as a route, why he chose that over others, the grades of each pitch, etc than hearing about the filmmaker’s moral dilemmas (and in my opinion, a little bit of mugging for the camera)
A central theme in the movie was the impact of what he does on those close to him and their constant dread of the inevitable.
Not sure if this was posted in here, but a very good interview and contrast of a drugged egotistical athlete interviewing a no stimulant humble athlete. Long as fuck. I never knew that Armstrong was such a douchebag. He just sounds like he wants everyone to know how cool he is. I was obsessed with Armstrong, so it is hard for me to see what an ass he is.
I wouldn’t be surprised if both he and Tommy Caldwell are, but in different ways. Alex seems like a genius and he comes across as so calm and zen. I have binged these movies, videos, and shows all day. Just watched the series First Ascent, which was amazing also. First episode is Alex climbing the moonlight Buttress and The Halfdome at Yosemite. Really good. Problem with the series is 3 of the 6 episodes feature people who are now dead. One of the episodes the people die during the episode, which is absolutely crazy to watch how they had video throughout that was recovered to make the episode. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes these movies.
Aspergers isn’t a diagnosis anymore, but knowing his father had it and his description of relationships/childhood makes it sound like it.