one of the “best climbers” just means “hasn’t yet had a catastrophe”. even ‘with precautions’ one mistake and it’d hurt like hell getting smacked and scraped against the front of that rock face, while flailing and trying to control the situation, recover…
its kinda like jumping out of a plane with a parachute. yeah sure ‘precautions’ but you’re still deciding ‘yes I should leave a perfectly capable vehicle to plunge towards the earth with comparatively minimal control over the situation’. and in both situations, your safety gear isn’t guaranteed…
parachuting is a good comparison as both these activities have a lower accident ratio than driving a car, so it is as smart as driving to work
also at his skill level falling from even this position is not going to result in bruises or scrapes, even people I climb with regularly fall from similar positions and just go back to climbing
As a long time climber, watching that documentary is really gripping/terrifying. The bit at the end when he says what it was like walking over the top; no one noticing what he had done, because he didn’t have ropes and a harness etc…wow.
More pixels:
Rope and anchor much easier to see here.
I’m so pleased to discover he’s smart
“smart” being a relative term here…
Yeah. Rope and anchor mean that falling isn’t guaranteed death. I still wish he’d have a helmet, though.
Every single manner of objectively rating or quantifying intelligence has disappointed me
Yeah, one of the best climbers in the world is not ‘smart’ when climbing with the proper security setup.
one of the “best climbers” just means “hasn’t yet had a catastrophe”. even ‘with precautions’ one mistake and it’d hurt like hell getting smacked and scraped against the front of that rock face, while flailing and trying to control the situation, recover…
its kinda like jumping out of a plane with a parachute. yeah sure ‘precautions’ but you’re still deciding ‘yes I should leave a perfectly capable vehicle to plunge towards the earth with comparatively minimal control over the situation’. and in both situations, your safety gear isn’t guaranteed…
so yes, very “smart” indeed
parachuting is a good comparison as both these activities have a lower accident ratio than driving a car, so it is as smart as driving to work
also at his skill level falling from even this position is not going to result in bruises or scrapes, even people I climb with regularly fall from similar positions and just go back to climbing
I’m actually glad for that. I thought he was free climbing and it made me nervous.
He is free climbing. He’s not using things like a ladder to climb.
He’s not free soloing, which is done without a rope.
There’s also rope soloing where you use a rope but you don’t have a belayer and have to catch yourself on falls.
I think the only climber that did it free solo is Alex Honnold. He took a less deadly route I believe. The documentation is fear inducing though.
As a long time climber, watching that documentary is really gripping/terrifying. The bit at the end when he says what it was like walking over the top; no one noticing what he had done, because he didn’t have ropes and a harness etc…wow.
I think I saw that one, it ends with him being like, “well, I should go practice climbing more!” and the other climbers just look at each other
Ah, thank you
But still 😵💫