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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.
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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.
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Ah, thank you
But still 😵💫
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?
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.
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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.
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I though this was the "Mildly terrifying" forum for a sec.
“Good morning, Captain.”
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.
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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.
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Rope or not this is terrifying! It's a no from me
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 :)
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
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The wall after you finally got that mosquito
One does not simply free solo El Capitan.
Ooh, energy of the gods, adrenaline surge
Won't stop 'til I hit the ground, I'm on my way for sure
Up here in the air, this will never hurt
I'm on my way to impact, taste the high-speed dirt
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this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
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