Climbing Alone can it be safe?

D Condit wrote:If you climb alone too much you could go blind.

I climb solo but only in popular areas. Solo in remote areas where people rarely go is not recommended.

The safest way for solo climbing is the "silent partner" for leading and the "mini traxion" for top-roping. Ironically, I find these devices more reliable than humans for belaying!

I once met a guy out climbing that climbed solo with the assistance of two long daisy chains. He would clip a bolt with one daisy chain, climb up to the next bolt and clip in with the other daisy chain, down climb and unclip the previous bolt, etc etc until he got to the top.

Anyone with half a brain will tell you this is extremely dangerous, but man, that guy could climb!

YER GUNNA DIE!

I climb alone using the Soloist device and climb very safe. Of course I'm not out there trying to climb harder grades or anything. I just cruise routes that are well within my limits and have a good time doing it!

Thinking beyond the actual rope setups involved in solo roped climbing you may want to consider the hazards of being unconscious and hanging in a harness due to injury or rockfall. I think many, if not most climbers are probably unaware of this phenomenom, as was I until recently. If you end up in this situation and there is no one around to help, the effects could be catastrophic:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspe…

Or just google the terms for more references...