Proper Planning and Practice Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
and DEATH.
In all seriousness, Alex's mental and physical conditioning to achieve this goal should be lauded, examined, written about, and taught.
and DEATH.
In all seriousness, Alex's mental and physical conditioning to achieve this goal should be lauded, examined, written about, and taught.
The guy is simply rad. I couldn't stop laughing at this:
A lighter moment came later, Honnold said, when he passed some climbers who had spent the night on a ledge. He did his best not to wake them.
"I woke up one guy and he sort of said, 'Oh, hey.' Then when I went by, I think he discreetly woke up his buddies because when I looked down they were all three standing there like 'What the f?'*
Imagine yourself and your buddies 3/4 up the mountain and you see a guy coming down solo. It must take a minute to process the thought that he must have climbed up. wtf did I just see? Oh shit!!
The parent seems to be using "taught" in more the sense that a master teaches an apprentice: giving you the skills, yes, but also putting you in that same situation, or encouraging you to participate in such a climb. Like, picture a skydiving instructor, only they're a "free-solo this particular mountain" instructor. They're giving you instruction and practice with the implicit goal of doing this dangerous thing at the end, and with the implicit suggestion that the course will be all you need to be fully prepared to do the thing at the end, with little risk.
Such "teaching" would be very unlikely to succeed; it would more-often-than-not just kill people.
Anyone have any idea how often free climbers end up falling and needing their ropes? Could many good free climbers do what Honnold did, but just like the added bits of safety?
Honnold has climbed this route with ropes many times and no doubt fell while doing it. He was well aware that he was capable of completing the climb without a fall.
Either way he's amazing, but I'm curious to know how amazing.
http://www.coloradomountaineering.com/2012/01/guide-to-yosem...
The Freerider is rated at 5.12d. This is a grade that most people will struggle to attain without a huge amount of training and effort.
Also, keep in mind that the route is very long and takes most people multiple days to complete. Honnold did it in under 4 hours.
This is not to diminish in anyway the difficulty of a 5.12d, but might be good background for those not familiar with climbing.
There's little data on this sort of topic, but I'd estimate that less than 0.25% of climbers achieve the level of physical skill and technical expertise required to free climb Freerider.
If you restrict that to people who've done it in a day you're probably down to a couple dozen at most.
100-300 per year maybe, on the lower end.
300 people total means like 10 people per season, I personally know more people who've climbed the nose.
Context is pretty important when talking about aid vs free vs solo
Most people climb el capitan aided.
1) When using gear (unlike Alex), you have to repeatedly stop and insert it, referred to as "protection." This slows progress and your partner has to then stop and remove that protection as you ascend. After each pitch (think a rope length), you then have to set up an anchor and organize/sort the gear before progressing. So, using and managing gear takes considerable time.
2) Two climbers are usually taking turns, with one belaying while the other climbs.
3) Alex has a level of competence on rock unmatched by us other climbers; his mastery allows him to swiftly glide through sections where most climbers would need more time to think about the moves, analyze the options, etc.
4) Alex was very familiar with the route, with many sequences memorized. Doing the route with less familiarity is like a puzzle, resulting in slower progress as you figure out how to get through various sections.
5) Alex has better stamina with less need for rest.
6) This is a hard route, and many climbers might fall or rest on their gear repeatedly while working through difficult sections.
I'm sure I'm leaving out a few reasons but in a nutshell, keeping it simple (no gear, no partner, no unknown moves, etc.) increases efficiency.
However, there is no one close to him in his confidence and security off-rope on difficult grades.
I don't know how many people have freed that particular route (called "Freerider"), but SuperTopo says it's one of the easier routes on El Cap to free climb[0] (though it's still not any "easy" route by any stretch).
But I think it's safe to say that Honnold is a one of a kind climber because free-soloing something takes a significantly higher level of self-control and self-confidence than freeing the same route does. So he's one of a kind precisely because he's willing to risk it without ropes.
[0] http://www.supertopo.com/rock-climbing/Yosemite-Valley-El-Ca...
"Many" people climb that route with protection.
However, to better put this in perspective, it is plausible this feat will not be repeated for decades, if ever. I would qualify this as the greatest sports achievement of all time.
To be able to approach it as "four hours of light exercise" as Honnold did is an incredible feat in its own right, even before the whole certain-death-for-one-mistake bit gets factored in.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/us/california-today-alex-...
Honnold left chalk marks on key holds on freerider to ensure he grabbed the right pieces.
Should, or shouldn't, is all theory, though.
Last year, a friend of mine who introduced me to climbing fell to his death on a trad climb. I don't know what happened, but I assume his protection equipment slipped out of where he placed it.
However, your statement about trad climbing is inaccurate. People project hard trad routes all the time, fully expecting to fall.
That's wickedly funny :) but alas I'm guilty of that too.
I think he should just stop now