Free Solo

[touchingcloth]

Some dunce was in the news recently for having bounced himself to death down a cliff face whilst "free soloing".

As I understand it, in the world of climbing a "free climb" is one which uses ropes, but only as a safety measure to stop you falling too far if you come away from the rocks, and not to make the climb itself any easier. An unassisted climb, with a failsafe.

A "free solo" climb is also a climb unassisted by ropes, but without even the safety lines.

Am I missing something, or is that utter insanity and hubris of the highest kind which pretty much deserves death? Unless an impromptu cliff climb is your only option to escape a rapist going fucking bezerk, why would anyone choose this?

[bgmnts]

Yeah read this on the news yesterday, I must admit my first thought was serves him right.

He died doing what he loved though, more than most of us can say.

[touchingcloth]

He died doing what he loved though, more than most of us can say.

True enough, but it's better to do what you love and not die, which seems like it would have been an option for him except for some mad choice not to use a safety rope.

[Cardenio I]

I think it allows for speedier climbs because you don't have to set up ropes as you go. I think without any other distractions it's seen as a "purer" climb, focusing purely on the ascent and nothing else.

Power to them, I say. They know the risks but they love the climb. There are always echoes of heroism in the most profound acts of stupidity.

[bgmnts]

True enough, but it's better to do what you love and not die, which seems like it would have been an option for him except for some mad choice not to use a safety rope.

Yeah but its like sex. After a while you just cannot enjoy normal, vanilla sex anymore and before you know it you are tied up whilst listening to Estonian dwarfs sing O Tannnenbaum and a woman dripping hot candlewax on your nipples.

It's like that.

[Chollis]

Don't know about deserves, but if a free solo climber does die, everyone including the climber must surely be like "yeah that's fair enough".

[ProvanFan]

He died while abseiling didn't he? In a way it's the rope's fault.

[Better Midlands]

He died doing what he loved though, more than most of us can say.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theboxhouston.com/8586872/brazilian-teenager-dies-after-masturbating-42-times-without-stopping/amp/

[idunnosomename]

I wouldnt pay to watch that film

[Sin Agog]

Someone should show Tom Cruise this Herzog clip and tell him he's too much of a girly-girl to try and top it.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ywJGF2nIYTk

[buzby]

Don't know about deserves, but if a free solo climber does die, everyone including the climber must surely be like "yeah that's fair enough".

My ex was in a rock climbing club, and having been around them a few times I got the impression it was like a bit of a death cult - dying while climbing was seen as the ultimate sacrifice you can make. As bgmnts said above though, adrenalin is like any other drug and for some people it means exposing yourself to increasing amounts of risk in order to get that 'buzz'. Firstly by climbing increasingly difficult pitches, and for some it then extends into climbing unassisted.

There's a lot of crossover in these attitudes with backcountry skiers too. My ex was also a snowboarder and got me into it, but a few of her friends ended up dead through avalanches and falls (and one suicide), and there were a couple of widows and fatherless children left behind too.

He died while abseiling didn't he? In a way it's the rope's fault.

Rapelling - descending without the aid of someone acting as a belayer at the bottom to control the rope.  They were descending a section part way down the face to a ledge, where they would then tie off and start decending the next section. However, Gobright and his partner hadn't realised the rope were rapelling down wasn't long enough to reach the ledge, and they hadn't tied a knot in the end of it so it went straight through their belay devices when they reached it's end. His partner's fall was stopped a bush on the ledge and he then managed to clip onto a static rope, but Gobright bounced off the ledge and fell a further 980 feet.

[BlodwynPig]

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=64011.10;wap2

[NoSleep]

Not me.

[DistressedArea]

Yeah read this on the news yesterday, I must admit my first thought was serves him right.

He died doing what he loved though, more than most of us can say.

He died falling, which is exactly the opposite of what he loved.

[ProvanFan]

His partner's fall was stopped an absolute ledge of a bush

[greenman]

Should only be done by the kind of insufferable Australian they don't make anymore...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TGMbtcWYWs

[Norton Canes]

He died falling

Technically no

[idunnosomename]

Technically no

maybe he hit a rock on the way down

[DistressedArea]

Technically no

Oh?

[Captain Z]

He did doing what he did.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Oh?

I'd imagine it was the abrupt stop rather than the fall that did for him.

[idunnosomename]

He did doing what he did.

Dey do do don't they dough?

[beanheadmcginty]

Where's Mr. Spock in a pair of rocket boots when you need him?

[Icehaven]

I think without any other distractions it's seen as a "purer" climb, focusing purely on the ascent and nothing else.

And then focussing purely on the descent. Sorry.

A bloke I went to school with died in an avalanche while climbing Nanda Devi in the Himalayas earlier this year (it was in the news). Apparently some of the group turned back or stopped at a base camp or something and they survived, while the rest of them continued despite weather warnings and ended up being killed. A lot of the reports about it went on about how experienced the group leader was, so I guess there's a kind of...arrogance is too strong, but maybe misguided confidence, that comes with having done a potentially dangerous sport a lot without dying, and maybe survived other very risky situations. I'm more of a mind to think every time I got through something like that it made it more likely that next time my luck would run out. But then I'll never see the roof of the world either and will probably die on the toilet or something, so it's swings and roundabouts. 

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Reminds me of that line in the micallef program.

Widow: He did doing what he loved.
Micaellef: Plummeting and screaming.

[imitationleather]

A bloke I went to school with died in an avalanche while climbing Nanda Devi in the Himalayas earlier this year (it was in the news). Apparently some of the group turned back or stopped at a base camp or something and they survived, while the rest of them continued despite weather warnings and ended up being killed. A lot of the reports about it went on about how experienced the group leader was, so I guess there's a kind of...arrogance is too strong, but maybe misguided confidence, that comes with having done a potentially dangerous sport a lot without dying, and maybe survived other very risky situations. I'm more of a mind to think every time I got through something like that it made it more likely that next time my luck would run out. But then I'll never see the roof of the world either and will probably die on the toilet or something, so it's swings and roundabouts.

Ah man. I wish that this had happened to loads of people I went to school with.

[DistressedArea]

I'd imagine it was the abrupt stop rather than the fall that did for him.

I guess we'll never know.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

When they're climbing up, there must be times where they absolutely cannot see any viable handhold or foothold that they could get any purchase on, so what do they do then? Just fuck it off and climb back down, or make a leap of faith and hope they can grab onto something?

[Ray Travez]

Watched a programme where Ben Fogle ascended Everest, accompanied by Victoria Pendleton. I'd always thought that climbing everest looked a fairly difficult and unpleasant experience- cold, dangerous, quite slippy, but I didn't realise the sheer amount of suffering one endures on the ascent. There's no oxygen, so you need to breathe from a tank. Then at some point, you're brain starts bleeding. At least, this is what happened to Pendleton, forcing her to abandon the climb. And people carry on, up to the top, stepping over corpses frozen into the ice. To me it seems crazy.

Someone I know gets angry about the touristification, if that's a word (it isn't) of the everest climb. She wonders if they can even claim to have climbed it, seeing as the sherpas end up carrying all their gear and doing all the work.

[Ray Travez]

A lot of the reports about it went on about how experienced the group leader was, so I guess there's a kind of...arrogance is too strong, but maybe misguided confidence, that comes with having done a potentially dangerous sport a lot without dying, and maybe survived other very risky situations.

Quite literally, a survivorship bias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias