More pixels:
Rope and anchor much easier to see here.
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
Thank Jebus he has a rope. Original picture made me feel bad and nervous.
Ah, thank you
When I first looked at the OP I thought someone had photoshopped out the rope and quick draw and was mad at them. Then I looked more closely and saw that it was just shitty quality and they blended in really well.
But still 😵💫
I still couldn’t see it, till I realised it’s underneath, not above, the climber!
Fyi Adam is free climbing here but not free soloing; there’s a big difference. The rope in this photo has either been edited out or is hard to see. Free climbing means climbing without aid, like ladders or ascenders attached to the rope. If youve climed at your local gym, you have free climed.
Edit: it’s just hard to see but it’s there. It’s yellow and coming down beneath him.
Yeah what we see here is called “trad climbing” and specifically it seems like he’s lead climbing here (first one up and putting in the rope as he goes along).
Adam is a fucking beast btw for those that don’t know him he’s one of the best in the world.
Nah; it’s actually sport climbing, not trad. You can see in the higher definition photo that he’s got a quick draw attached to a bolt below him. Trad (traditional) climbing means climbing without prebolted routes where you place pro(tection) as you climb, like cams, nuts and hexes to name a few. If he were climbing trad, you would see a bunch of pro hanging off his belt because he’d need to place it as he climbs. Also pretty sure there’s not even enough going on on the dawn wall to climb trad which is why it’s generally looked down upon to bolt a wall if pro can be placed. Trad climbing the same wall would be much harder than sport climbing the same wall because placing pro is so more more involved than placing a quickdraw. Also you have to carry it up. Also if you place pro incorrectly and you fall you can die. Sport climbing in practice is much safer.
To clarify further, the quickdraws are already placed for him. This is likely because the dawn wall is just that hard that you really don’t have a chance if you have to spend the energy placing quickdraws as you climb.
Oooooh right you’re right trad is placing the anchors etc yourself, I’m still learning. So is this still lead climbing (while being sport climbing) since he’s going up with the rope?
Yes, lead climbing applies to both trad and sport climbing, as long as you climb above the last bolt/piece of protection to clip the rope to the next one.
Thanks for explaining it in a way that a noob like me could understand. So the wall has prebolted routes? Does that mean someone with a drill climbed the wall trad and attached them or how the heck is this done?
In Yosemite it is illegal to use power tools so all those bolts were drilled by hand by hitting a masonry drill bit with a hammer and twisting.
Usually when you bolt a route like this (routes that are impossible or near-impossible to trad-climb) you’ll go up some other route and rappel down while placing the bolts. Especially when the bolts are hand-drilled, because that requires both hands.
That makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up
But the route is The Dawn Wall which is a trad route with some bolts.
Also pretty sure there’s not even enough going on on the dawn wall to climb trad which is why it’s generally looked down upon to bolt a wall if pro can be placed. Trad climbing the same wall would be much harder than sport climbing the same wall
IIRC, Tommy tried to keep the route in as good of style as possible by only bolting where there was no possible pro, and there are several pitches on the route which are protected only by beaks and brassies.
I though this was the “Mildly terrifying” forum for a sec.
A what point does it change from unique hobby to death wish?
It’s hard to see from the shrunken picture, but he has a rope to catch him if he falls. The likelihood of an injury is very low.
https://brainasap.com/adrenaline-addiction-rock-climbers-thrill-seeking-behavior/
I’m all for letting people have the hobbies they want, but adrenaline junkies are literally wired differently. Kind of weird that they get put on a pedestal for being the “right” kind of neurodivergent.
Halfway through reading this I realized I’m addicted to mountain biking lmao
Skiing here, I’d jump off some stupid stuff if I could afford to get there.
Better than than cigs, if nothing else
When you stop caring about safety.
When the likelihood of death is knowingly greater than the safety precautions taken to avoid death.
When they go from this to free solo. Especially on such a hard route.
“Good morning, Captain.”
Beat me to it by one minute, goddamnit!
I will never ever ever be impressed by this shit. All I see is a very stupid person taking an unnecessary risk for clout.
There’s a rope. He’s not free-soloing.
Or is it just satisfying to put down other people’s accomplishments from our keyboards?
I see no rope.
EDIT: More pixels version below reveals the rope.
Still, I hope you can see why folks thought this person was being wreckless from the OP photo.
This is a lot less impressive when you rotate the image to the right.
I dunno, that background tho. Becomes something out of scifi.
Rotated to the right, it resembles me on Saturday morning.
“Why are we walking like this?”
If that scares you, do not look up Alex Honnold freeclimbing yosemite several times now. And he’s taken some gnarly routes.
I watched a video about a person with a rare condition that makes him not have a fear response and now, everytime I see people doing stupid shit like this, I think “bet it’s not so fucking rare”
Don’t be do quick to judge: He’s secured by a rope that passes through a series of bolts that are drilled into solid granite. You could lift a car with the gear he’s using to secure himself.
You’re less in control of your fate when passing someone on the highway than he is here. The only way he dies in this situation is first slipping off (first layer of protection is your hands and feet), and then having several layers of ridiculously redundant protection fail.
Belaying a lead climber is much less straightforward than belaying a top roper, so that’s all true assuming he has an excellent belayer, which I’m sure Adam does. That being said mistakes still happen; just look at Sara Al Qunaibet’s recentish fall. Alex Honnold was also dropped by his (at the time) girlfriend and suffered injury. He was lucky to be on the first pitch of a multi pitch climb at the time.
It’s absolutely true that human error can occur, and it does happen sometimes. Of course, nobody is doing big-wall climbing with a grigri (although in Sara Al Qunaibets case there was even a grigri that the coach was able to misuse…). I still feel safer taking a fall with a belayer I trust than I do driving behind some stranger that’s driving erratically. The most dangerous part of any climb on pre-bolted route is likely the drive to the crag.
Totally agree. Feeding through a Grigri in order to lead belay necessitates disabling the autolockimg behavior of the device and creates an opportunity for a fall to the ground if the climber loses it unexpectedly. Belaying with an ATC still isn’t a replacement for vigilance, though. Catching a lead fall with minimal fall distance requires a combination of constant attention, deep understanding of the route, its cruxes, and your climber, anticipation of the fall based on your observation of the climber, and bulletproof mechanical memory of the process. Even still, runout is a thing on many routes. I would add on to your statement; the most dangerous part may be the drive to the crag (or perhaps, a scramble approach) but the second most dangerous part may well be the climb to the first draw.
Lol, wtf. Giving a non-lethal lead belay is not that intense. Literally all you have to do is keep your hand on the brake strand. To give a good belay, you need to pay a lot of attention to your climber so you don’t short rope them and can give them buttery soft catches. But making sure your climber doesn’t die consists entirely of “don’t let go of the brake strand” - and that’s pretty much it.
Yes, there are other things to do. Yes, you should always strive to be an excellent belayer. But pretty much everything you need to know and learn can be taught in a single day at the crag by a reasonably competent instructor. And after that, the main thing is to just not get complacent and do stupid shit.
I agree with you on the by and large, but wouldn’t describe belaying a lead climber as quite as demanding as you do (by all means, be vigilant at all times, someone’s life is in your hands!). You can feed out rope from a grigri without putting a thumb in the mechanism, but it’s a bit more of a hassle, and requires a bit more getting used to. I’m pretty much always belayed by my SO (who’s a much better belayer than me, and doesn’t disable the grigri when feeding) and get stressed out if someone else is belaying me and I notice that they’re disabling the grigri while feeding rope.
It’s definitely true that by far most injuries in climbing occur on the first 1-3 bolts, when it’s still possible to hit the ground if you have too much slack or a bit run out bolts. Long run outs higher up can feel sketchy, but even a >5m fall high in the wall isn’t really dangerous unless there are outcroppings or other stuff you can hit. Ankles might still take a beating though…
Of course, nobody is doing big-wall climbing with a grigri
What are you talking about? Pretty much everyone on big walls is carrying a gri. In addition to giving lead belays, they are more pleasant to use for top down belays, and can be useful for hauling, juggin, lowering out, rappelling, or any number of other big wall chores. Yes, they are relatively heavy, but so is the number six you are lugging up the face so you can place it once on the scary offwidth pitch.
Ok, sounds like this is my inexperience showing: I’ve only ever been on multi-pitches where we used half-ropes, so we we use what’s called a “hylsebrems” in Norwegian (the standard friction break with two holes). Regarding hauling equipment, that’s not very common here, we climb with a backpack if we need one. I’ve heard that hauling equipment is much more common in the US though.
It sounds like you are doing alpine multipitches, which are a different discipline from big walls.
Yeah, I guess that sounds like a better description, I’ve never really considered that there’s a significant difference between the two. Happy to learn :)
Rope or not this is terrifying! It’s a no from me
I understand, hey go climb a big rock. cool.
i don’t understand doing it without a basic life line attached to you to …ya know, prevent … rapid inertia.
Is the rope hanging off him not a life line?
I see no rope.Better picture given in another post shows a fall rope plain as day.
Yellow line from his butt.
I’d also have a yellow line coming from my butt in this scenario.
Someone else posted a better pic, definitely looks like a fall rope tied to something. The OP Pic is potatoes and you can only discern a line that could be natural crack.
Honestly, I’m not sure. I actually didn’t even notice it until you said something. It blends in very well. Looks like it only goes below him but I don’t see an anchor point and you really don’t want them too far apart. The more distance between them, then more force it’s got to hold if you fall.
I’m not sure what else you’d use a rope for here. Just saying it’s also weird to not see an anchor point since it looks looks to be over 10ft of rope we can see.
There’s an anchor right below his feet but it’s hard to make out in this copy of the photo because of the lack of pixels.
He’s barely above the last bolt in the picture. There’s a quickdraw sticking out by his lower heel.
Also the forces involved in a climbing fall are partly mitigated by the stretch of the rope, and the belayer will soften the catch by jumping as the climber falls. The length of a fall has little impact on the forces experienced by the climber or the gear in a typical climbing fall.
I’m not sure what else you’d use a rope for here.
My guess is it’s a tow line for something. Notice how the rope is taught (would not be the case if it were an anchor, he’d have to ditch the anchor and use a new one if that were the case)
Though again it would be weird to have whatever you’re “towing” that far below you, considering the longer the rope, the stronger the pendulum when wind starts to blow your gear around…
Look up thread. Better pic posted shows it is clearly his lead line, and he has a bolt at his feet. The rope looks tight because it has friction from running through the pieces below, and because the rope has weight of its own pulling it down.
Either way I still think he’s crazy, I couldn’t get 10 feet off the ground without having a panic attack.
Multi story buildings must be your kryptonite.
This is a normal human reaction.
But then you do it a few times and you get used to it.
According to the article it was free solo.
This is wrong, he free climbed the dawn wall but definitely did not free solo it. Every photo from that article shows him climbing with ropes and google more into it he definitely didn’t free solo that face of El Cap.
The article is wrong. You can clearly see Adams lead line in the picture in the article.
Adam on The Dawn Wall was super impressive - iirc, he sent the route in a single ground-up push or something like that, when it took Tommy, like, 8 years to establish the route. But he def didn’t solo it.
Source: rock climber for 10 years, going to climb in The Valley later this week.
Unwavering
Why?
Accomplishing difficult challenges & goals feels rewarding, pretty sure it’s mostly dopamine and some adrenaline
Does anyone know of any active climbing community on Lemmy?
Not very active, but !climbing@lemmy.ml sees some posts every now and then. Only way to make it more active is to join :)
Aww, it’s on *.ml
Great pic.
Fuck that.
These freesolo guys are crazy impressive.
Is he wearing jeans?
Is that not a rope right under his butt?
Yeah, it’s there, just hard to see
Yep I missed that.
How do you climb a MacBook?
Command + Climb. Be careful, AppleCare doesn’t cover vertical ascents.
What about rapid unplanned vertical descent?
