High Sierra Topix

Alex Honnold climbs El Capitan without ropes, safety gear

CHUEYEE YANG
FRESNO BEE | June 3, 2017, 9:59PM
| Updated 3 hours ago.

A 31-year-old man was the first person to scale El Capitan, the nearly 3,000-foot granite wall at Yosemite, without ropes or safety gear on Saturday, USA Today reported.

Alex Honnold of Sacramento started free-soloing the wall at 5:32 a.m. and completed the climb after 3 hours and 56 minutes, according to the USA Today report. Honnold and another climber set a record-breaking speed climb of the Nose route in 2012, completed the ascent in a staggering 2 hours, 23 minutes and 46 seconds.

National Geographic said the climb may be the greatest feat of pure rock climbing in the history of the sport.

This was the second time Honnold, one of the world's best climbers, attempted a free-solo climb of El Capitan - the first was in November, National Geographic said. He has been training in the U.S., China, Europe, and Morocco for more than a year.

Additionally, the climb was filmed for an upcoming National Geographic Documentary Films feature, which was led by Jimmy Chin, one of Honnold’s longtime climbing partners, and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

Source: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/70634 ... el-capitan

This video from 60 minutes gives great perspective. It is crazy what he accomplished; I was getting vertigo just watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AKf2eC ... e=youtu.be

Kudos!!!!!!!!!! Impossible climb.

Yosemite - "The Climbing Mecca" - is getting plenty of (not that it is really needed) national exposure due to this amazing feat. Climbing El Cap free solo...living on the edge...bordering on Darwin Award contention. This almost certainly will encourage more attempts at free soloing - (when a climber is alone and uses no ropes or any other equipment that aids or protects him as he climbs, leaving no margin of error).

Films, TV, newspapers, internet stardom. Even though dangerous as hell... essentially lauded by the park...and while not officially encouraged - still accepted...all part of the climbing lore that is obviously very much alive in Yosemite today. Interesting though, how the park's attitude immediately changes, when a parachute is involved.
Same danger/same granite...one second on the rock and legal, the next, (whether intentional or used as a safety net?), now criminal and subject both to fines and confiscation of gear. Frowned at by Yosemite, BASE jumpers and those with those flying squirrel suits, play a daily game with the Rangers...forced to fly at inopportune times - (evening shadows and tricky winds) - risking even more having to fly at these non-ideal times in order to avoid capture.

Same danger/same rock...Seems to me, a bit of a double standard.

Wow. Heck of a climb. Jeez that is scary. I agree with markskor about Yosemite's double standard in terms of allowing folks to take risks. On the other hand, whereas this is a double standard from a philosophical point of view, it probably has some sort of basis in terms of mathematical probability of lawsuits or something like that. In other words there may be some past record of frequency of lawsuits and amount of monetary damage awards associated with one sport versus another that prompts the bean counters to set the rules as they do. The same would be true about how natural risks to ordinary visitors are handled if one looks at the efforts made, for example, to minimize risk to the public from rockfall in the valley versus other sorts of dangers that will kill and injure far more people, such as high water and traffic accidents.

Could just do what most "companies" do. Slap a safety sticker at the base rock.. "Warning!! Just standing here or climbing is dangerous".

Pretty much covers liability. Or.. The could have all visitors sign a waiver on the way in kind of like hospitals make you do.

That style of climbing is known as free-solo.

Incredible, just incredible. Been keeping an eye on his accomplishments since watching 'Valley Uprising'. Recall seeing video of him going up the face of half dome with no rope or support, no room for error...and I though that was nuts.

I agree on the Darwin award analogy. I have to disagree on the double standard. A single person with no equipment is almost invisible on the side of a rock face. When someone looks at the rock, they see a speck on a rock unless they have binoculars or a telescope.

A parachute is a highly visible piece of equipment. Anyone can see it from far away. Anyone using one is not merely a speck on the side of a piece of granite.