>watching The Alpinist >movie about free solo climbing >introduces a bunch of famous free solo climbers at the beginning >ALL of them died climbing >the two climbers the movie is about died climbing this sport is ridiculous. EVERYONE who made a name for themselves in it fucking died due to climbing aside from Alex Honnold Why would anyone do this?
Wow In the movie it said half of the leading solo climbers died in the mountains
>>137449The psychology is a bit complicated. Combination of achievement hunting, adrenaline addiction, erosion of what constitutes acceptable risk, erosion of ego in the face of nature's majesty, and I think there is a certain amount of marijuana use involved too - common in sports where physical pain and the potential for injury are normal. It's not like rock climbing gyms churn these people out in large numbers, the ones that end up in movies are the outliers.
>>137491I feel like indoor climbing and outdoor climbing have vastly different communities and only superficial overlapindoor bouldering / climbing is closely associated with techbro culture, while outdoor is literally the opposite of that
>suicide by lifestylenot a horrible way to go i guess. someone has to try the mushrooms
>>137495>I feel like indoor climbing and outdoor climbing have vastly different communities and only superficial overlapSure. My point is just that if you want to find people who are willing to do something completely crazy you start with a large group of people willing to do something a little crazy, gradually train and indoctrinate them, then select for the ones that fit your criteria. E.g. if you want someone who will repeatedly HALO jum p at night into a hostile battlefield with a backpack full of explosives you start by finding a whole bunch of people willing to do a bit of skydiving.
>>137449it's called the Faustian Spirit brah.
>>137449>Why would anyone do this?It's worse to live a boring life than to die an exciting death
>>137613Right? Let them do what they want as long as they are not hurting anyone.I bet they feel like a god when they successfully finish a very hard free climb.
>>137449Why are they all white, too?
>>137449What is a bit interesting about the subject of The Alpinist is that when he died he was doing all the "correct" stuff when climbing.He went with another person rather than by himself. Pretty sure he was mountaineering rather than free climbing.I think the kind of person who will free solo will also do a bunch of other dangerous shit in their life.
how do these mad lads rappel down when solo mountaineering? i can't see a way unless a) there is already fixed equipment in place or b) they leave their hardware behind
preferred setup is probably something like this. pulling left is fixed as the knot blocks and pulling right retrieves rope or using a small pull cord
forgot rel pic
>>137799Exactly that, fixed bolts or leave gear in situ. If you can find the right sort of rock formation you can avoid leaving expensive gear and leave cheap cord looped around the rock. They’ll carry a rope up in their bag to use to abseil, it can also be used to rope solo really difficult sections.
>>137449Dumb rich white people with nothing better to do. They could just walk around the hood and get the same thrill.
>>137690>>>>>>>137514
>solo climber spends years even decades doing hard sends and surviving >dies climbing with a partnermany such cases, what causes this phenomenon?
>>137449>Why would anyone do this?Because they're all too fucking arrogant and think that it won't happen to them. Same thing goes for those BASE jumping wingsuit weirdo's.
>>137449>EVERYONE who made a name for themselves in it fucking died due to climbing aside from Alex HonnoldIf this is considered a legitimate sport even though it has an almost 100% mortality rate then UFC should have fights to the death.
>>138055perhaps the free solo makes you more aware of the risk so you put in more effort to stay alive.but i suspect people spend more time roped climbing which distorts the numbersi also suspect that your impression is just an impression, no statistic
>>138367so i took "Free solo climbing#Practitioners" wikipedia article and researched the circumstances of deathdied free solo (5):> John Bachar, Derek Hersey, Jimmy Jewell, Paul Preuss, Tobin Sorensondied during other climbing (3):> Hansjörg Auer (an avalanche), Brad Gobright (an abseiling accident), Marc-André Leclerc (an avalanche)died in other way (5):> Michael Reardon (swept by a sea wave), Wolfgang Güllich (a car accident), Patrick Edlinger (fell from stairs), Dan Osman (a "jump tower" accident), Dean Potter (a wingsuit accident)never died (11):> Alex Honnold, Alexander Huber, Alain Robert, Catherine Destivelle, Antoine Le Menestrel, Peter Croft, Ron Fawcett, Dan Goodwin, Colin Haley, John Long, Dave MacLeoddunno what to take of it
>>138368also:> Preuss often climbed alone because he believed soloing to be safer; only his own life was at stake. He wasn't willing to risk the lives of his belayers on difficult routes.> In 1912, he witnessed the well-known British mountaineer H. O. Jones, Jones's new wife Muriel Edwards, and their guide Julius Truffer fall to their death on the Aiguille Rouge de Peuterey. Preuss, who was unroped and scouting, returned only to watch Truffer fall due to a broken hold, taking the rest of the party with him.
>>138332totally agree. Also Colosseum style fighting against large animals like lions and bears should come back.Spain still has running with the bulls so why not?
>>138368>Catherine Destivelleshe cute
>>137491>and I think there is a certain amount of marijuana use involved tooAlways thought Honnold looks stoned af
>>137449they have a hunger that must be satiated
>>137449you pussy?
>>140301idk might also be the thousands of hours of training and the confidence it gives him
>>137799You use natural anchors. Only leave behind some shit like webbing. If you are on ice, you build a V-thread with an ice screw and rappel off that.
>>140276Nice bush bro
>>137495techbro bjj and bouldering lifestyle is so fucking faggoty
>>138055There's plenty of accident databases online and full and detailed accident reports. You should look them up, they're very interesting. Often it's a small lapse in judgement anyone could do, like not properly checking natural anchors before rapelling off it or trusting earlier placed gear. Sometimes it's freak chances
>>137449There's a specific genetic disposition for taking yourself out of the gene pool. Sometimes it works. If they weren't free soloists, they'd be stunt men, or freelance operators, anything that produces extreme emotions through risk taking. It's just nature in the end.
>>137449Climbing is generally pretty safe if you are experienced and climbing with gear. Free soloing is stupid. Borderline suicidal. I climb up to 6 days a week inside and out and the only person I’ve ever met who even claimed to have free soloed anything was some weak retarded woman who couldn’t do over a v3 bouldering
As someone who enjoys free soloing I’ll thrown in my two cents. I used to do it a lot. I can climb 1-2,000 feet of climbing in the time it takes many parties to climb 1-2 pitches roped. Big solo days might include 6000 ft of climbing, and likely a ton of running as well. The allure is in moving places FAST with no gear or partner to slow you down. Pure flow state. I’ve done some huge C2C trail running/climbing linkups that are among my most fun days climbing. Also, sometimes speed is safety in the mountains. In horrendous loose choss, a rope is a liability and soloing becomes safer even with a partner and gear available. I began soloing on the short easy routes that I learned to climb on, and depending on the rock type and my fitness I will still onsight solo between 5.7-5.9. I don’t solo much harder than 5.9, unless the crux is near the ground or a large enough ledge to stick in the event of a fall. I may only be a mid-5.12 climber, but have climbed outdoors for over a decade and have thousands of hours of experience across all climbing disciplines including esoteric things like big wall solo speed climbing. After losing several friends in roped climbing accidents I have dialed back the soloing a ton, and now I (mostly) only solo on “special occasions”. Solo mindset is a great ability for getting out of a pickle when roped climbing, if you’re rappelling and your rope gets stuck, if you find yourself off route, if you’re severely runout, or in other “no fall” situations. Definitely not for everyone, but it is a natural extension of some climbing careers that is not inherently a death wish.
>>137449>Why would anyone do this?Gotta do what you gotta do. Some don't really feel alive unless they have this. Expedition climbers also have a pretty brutal mortality rate. Talking about the guys who go for some or all of the 8k peaks.
>>143606One of Satan's minions?
>>137449most of us don't free soloit's a performance artdesu its gay and dangerousgayer than comp bouldering
>>137449use a rope like a white man
>>143606>claims to climb 10-20x faster than a lead climberDamn bro wanna know how I can tell that you're full of shit, or doing basic rock scrambles and trying to talk tough at most?
>>137449Alex Honnold will die also, soon. Then, I will take his blonde wife for my enjoyment.
No pics of them smashed to pieces ? That's a bit disappointing
>>140276wow that's erotic, you can't see anything like that nowadays
>>143281this is how I play every single video game
>>146410>tfw risk averse cuck
>>137449Amazing people some people smoke or drink, drugs imagin a slow death or a life of enjoyment ware you never get old have to worry about retirement and you confront fear and death dayly and win. It's the quality of life not the quantity, fore some people. I tip my glass in salute to the people doing the impossible, may we all climb in heaven or in hell my friends.
>>137491Uncle was a legendary climber back in the day (died climbing)...the sport is basically synonymous with Marijuana use
>>143887It is the opposite of a performance art. Most people who free solo never talk about it. It is also pretty common in alpine climbing. There is generally a pretty big disconnect between people who think of climbing as gyms and sport routes and people who think of climbing as going out into the mountains and climbing peaks.
>>137799Read Down by Andy Kirkpatrick
>>144420>Then, I will take his blonde wife for my enjoyment.she's a clout chaser and boring at that
>>147671Yeah but in alpine climbing they solo like 3s (YDS), exactly because they think of it as climbing peaks, so they find the easiest possible route. If anything free soloing hard routes is the exact opposite mentality, you're intentionally doing something ridiculously dangerous.
