It’s all well and good until a fat horse fly tries to gnaw a hole in your eyelid while you really need both hands to hang on.
I helped a friend paint his cabin, and it was amazing how the flies seem to have sixth sense about biting at my weakest moment as I hung from the ladder.
Very few climbers free-solo and I would imagine that even fewer would ever actively encourage anyone else to do it. Compare that to the egging on that happens in skateparks or on bmx tracks or in ski resorts, etc. where loads of kids ‘inspired’ by extreme athletes are trying to copy what they saw that morning in a RedBull-sponsored video. The injury rates are orders of magnitude different. I’ve free-soloed a tiny bit in my time and the response from friends has never been “go brah!”. More like, “yer crazy!”
My main concern about climbers like Honnold being sponsored by corporations like The North Facade is not that they are getting a lot press through the sponsorship that might influence others to take risks they aren’t prepared to take, but that a whole lot of sweatshop mountain-chic is getting sold to making a bunch of white fatsos rich.
He’s an idiot. Don’t promote this stupidity.
Hah. I am a climber. I broke my leg bouldering by myself four years ago. I think I’m allowed to call what Alex does stupidly dangerous. Total out of pocket medical expenses for my stupidity were almost $10k. Total out of pocket medical expenses for a fall Alex takes will probably be $0, because he won’t survive it.
I was referring more to your insinuation that ‘anyone that does it is “inspiring” lots of kids to risk their lives’. That’s more than a little hyperbolic. Sorry about the leg, but bouldering alone was your choice. Maybe not the best one, but still yours.
You make a lot of assumptions.
Whereas sharing exploits with the public helps get them fixed, free soloing helps no one. Glorifying free-soloing is just as bad as glorifying smoking. Call it hyperbole all you want, but it’s true.
As for my leg, you are correct that it was my choice. I only share the story because it’s a cautionary tale. Climbing comes with risks, but typically we train people to manage those risks.
Perhaps I am not explaining myself clearly. Please allow me to make a fresh start, if you will.
I was not comparing free soloing to exposing exploits. I was comparing the statement ‘Free soloing is stupidly dangerous and anyone that does it is “inspiring” lots of kids to risk their lives for “glory” aka attention.’ To the similar statement often made by people not involved with computer security, that exposing exploits only helps the “evil hax0rz”.
I used the analogy because of what I knew of your background, hoping you would get the connection there. That was a poor assumption on my part. Aside from that, the only other assumption I made was that someone with climbing experience would be sympathetic to the idea that not everyone that has ever soloed or climbed without a rope is doing it for some sort of self aggrandizing reason, and that it somehow is causing the kids to run out in droves and take up free soloing.
I have to admit while awed by some of Honnold’s climbing, I have also cringed at what seems to be a rather cavalier attitude. I don’t know if it is truly him or what I get sold in the videos. I’m not sure that any of my comments could be read as glorifying free soloing, and here I think you are making some erroneous assumptions as well.
I agree with you entirely that it is good to teach people to manage risks. Managing risks involves understanding them to the best of your ability at a given moment and reacting accordingly. There are times for a climbing team where it is actually safer to unrope and climb solo. Be it because of the risk of dislodging loose rocks, weather coming in and the climbing being well below your ability, or the inability to get good protection where a fall would result in the death of 2 instead of one.
Is that what Alex is doing in this case? Of course not. I just object to the blanket statement you were making and hoped that comparing it to one from a field I knew you were familiar with would hint at where I was coming from. Clearly I need to be more verbose in the future.
I don´t get the hate here for what Alex is doing. Nobody´s forcing him or anyone else to do it. You can take risks in all kinds of ways, driving a motorcycle, doing drugs, jumping around on rooftops etc., and some young people do it and some don´t. I did some climbing as a teenager and I never would have dreamed of climbing free solo just because there´s someone else who does (to be clear, I wasn´t anywhere near the required skill level but still, anyone´s decisions are theirs to make).
My palms are sweaty just looking at the preview image!
I’ve climbed many times and even among other climbers we’d call free soloing reckless and practically suicidal. I already know one ice climbing instructor who died in CO free soloing on ice. You might as well play Russian roulette and save money on climbing gear.
Dying while doing what you love isn’t a happy ending?
Looking over my earlier posts as well as those by others, I am uncomfortable with the possibility that those of us who have climbed or do climb give the impression that we are (or feel we are) speaking for the broader climbing community. Among the many people I have climbed with over the years, and the many discussions I have followed between others who consider themselves climbers, there is no vast consensus on free soloing when it comes to whether or not it should be done. The only thing that everyone seems to agree on is if you fall from a great height, you are very much dead.
I do find it interesting that this topic is as polarizing as it is. I don’t hear a lot of arguments that people should not ride bicycles because they may be hit by cars. What makes that an acceptable risk and climbing without a rope not? Is it the margin of error? Is it having someone else to blame aside from the cyclist? Why does this topic seem to get people agitated to the point that there is no room for nuance and the activity must either be “good” or “bad”?
These questions you’re asking are part of an area of philosophy called Philosophy of Sport. My partner writes in this field; specifically about what distinguishes individual sports like climbing, skiing etc. from team sport. How society’s perception of individual sports connect with American attitudes about leisure. (As a professor of both philosophy and outdoor studies (mountaineering), he is still often asked when he’s going to get a “real job”.) I’m not as eloquent as he is in his writings, but he does explore the “good”, “bad”, public anger when someone dies in an outdoor pursuit, the idea of a “worthwhile” and a “worthless” activity, and perceptions of selfishness. I’ve seen Alex’s Banff films as well. He is extraordinary.
Aside from the wildly different degrees of risk involved, most people biking are doing so to transport themselves from one place to a different location that they have some reason to want to be besides “because it’s there.” A person gets off a bike and is at work, or a grocery store, or daycare. A person gets to the top of a forbidding mountain and winds up… at the top of a forbidding mountain, which now has to be climbed down.
Everyone has the right to their own judgements regarding the value of their journeys and destinations, but I don’t think it’s all that hard to see the difference most perceive between buying groceries and enjoying the stirring view from a life-threatening windswept rock.
There are a lot of people that ride bicycles for sport, not for transportation. I suppose you could be right that most people ride for transportation and not recreation, but it would depend on the geographic area you are considering. The question I’d pose, ignoring the emotionally loaded “forbidding mountain” and “life-threatening windswept rock” is why do you feel safer on the road on a bicycle, if you do? Do accident statistics actually back up the assertion that you are safer on a bicycle, or is it just a matter of familiarity?
I suppose one of the issues is not so much whether the activity is strictly necessary (as that would disqualify a lot of what makes life worthwhile for many people), but what benefits free soloing has over climbing with a rope. Is it analogous to free diving vs. diving with a tank? I’ve done both and found free diving much more liberating and a distinct enough experience that is basically a different sport (you’re much more mobile, you can change depth quicker, you feel much more connected to the water etc.). On the other hand, if the ropes don’t really get in the way of the experience much, it could be analogous to downhill mountain biking without a helmet. It could be slightly more uncomfortable and slower with all the gear, but safety equipment is important and sponsoring a guy who wants to bike down technically challenging mountains fast without it is pretty irresponsible. I guess it’s somewhere along the scale (and free diving itself is pretty risky, so that’s not a simple question either).
How hard would it be to hang a rope from the top of the mountain which was loose enough not to support you in any way while climbing, but would catch you if you fell (in the same way that a free diver would have supporting divers with tanks there in case they got into trouble)? If it’s just the adrenaline rush from the risk of dying, this is a better sport than many as you’re unlikely to kill anyone else if you fail. Still, corporate sponsorship does legitimize the activity somewhat, which could put others at risk.
Accurate comparisons of risk in sport are hard to come by, because it’s hard to compare like with like (“climbing” could cover anything from bouldering to free-climbing the Salathé Wall, for instance); micromorts are a thought-provoking measure of risk.
Cycling is generally [citation needed] considered to be roughly as dangerous as walking, per mile; but the risk of death or serious injury is outweighed several times over [citation needed, but that’s what the UK health authorities say] by the health benefits of exercise. On average, it looks like you’ll live longer if you cycle.
Edited to add a nice link.
This story was so entertaining that I didn’t even notice one hour passed.
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