Soloing

someone elsess soloing doesn't concern you.

Now this is actually dangerous...

independent.co.uk/life-styl…

Matt, I laughed my head off at that.

Soloing is only meaningful if you have a sponsor.

I've never deliberately soloed before, but through experience with highball boulders and R-rated trad routes I can understand why some people are attracted to soloing. Personally, when I engage with these routes, it is mainly about being attracted to a line and being able to channel that attraction and your motivation to do the route into a headspace where falling can't be part of your thought process. Although it can be mentally taxing, there are very few times I have felt better while climbing than on routes where a fall could end up in the hospital. If what you're looking to get out of climbing is best acquired through soloing then that is your business and it's not my place to judge you. But at the same time, it's important to be soloing for the right reasons, and not because of some sort of external pressure.

Locker wrote: Really NOT trying to be a dick here. But I seriously doubt if there is a single soloist out there that is unaware of the ground below.

I got a good chuckle out of this one! Not a dick at all - good fun :-D. I'd consider the ground below to be one of the less subtle risks of soloing.

John Sherman

Also note the footwear!

So, assuming the TS is talking about free soloing...

I've on-sight free soloed a lot of routes in the 5.7-5.8 range (and harder routes where I can see the whole thing). I talk about it sometimes, but not to spray. I just see it as a natural extension to climbing. At some point when you're climbing long, adventurous trad routes, you're going to find yourself in no-fall zones or easy sections of climbing where a rope is just going to waste time. Sometimes, the best thing to do is go fast and run it out to avoid being benighted or lit up with lightning.

Free soloing is also the purest form of climbing. You don't have to fiddle with gear or a rope, let alone hike/bike the damned stuff in. It's just you and the rock. The most fun I've ever had on rock in recent memory was free soloing matthes in sneakers (I'd never take a rope on that thing unless the weather was iffy and I wanted a bail 6mm floss).

Do you rope up and place gear for 3rd class? 4th class? 5.0? At some point you're soloing something someone else would rope up for.

Plus if I don't have a partner, it's always nice to have the option of soloing 1000ft of easy with plenty of energy left to climb the next day.

On one route I once had 2 separate handholds on different seams break off about half a second apart. The second hold broke as it took my full weight. How would a free soloist handle that ?

It's called having three points of contact through choss.

I've had holds break in no-fall zones. You deal with it.

Syd wrote:On one route I once had 2 separate handholds on different seams break off about half a second apart. The second hold broke as it took my full weight. How would a free soloist handle that ?

I do most of my soloing on long high-mountain routes. Breaking holds is always part of the alpine climbing game.

Just because you're roped on a high-mountain route doesn't mean that you're saved ... The hold breaks, you still fall, you hit something sharp, the rope holds you -- then you bleed to death before the helicopter arrives.

With modern guidebooks and website comments, you do get to choose the quality of rock on the routes you climb. Seems obvious that if the quality is lower, then the difficulty needs to farther below my following capability. But I've had holds break on granite.

One famous soloist who was going to do something closer to his limit. So he went out a couple days before and climbed the whole route roped with a partner, to check for loose rock. Other soloists have been known to also use a preview climb as an opportunity to rehearse tricky sequences several times.

Some (impure) soloists bring a short rope and a screamer and a couple pieces of protection, for a short sequence which might be loose. In Europe they even have some routes with fixed pro which is designed for impure soloists to use.

There's so many styles of soloing, so many different kinds of routes. Doesn't make sense to brand all of them as "crazy".

(Also, you don't necessarily need three points of contact to survive a hold breaking)

Alpine routes offer two other additional hazards for roped climbers (not shared by free-soloists): (1) Slowness of climbing; (2) Complacency about checking for loose holds; (3) Complacency about weather; (4) Slowness of decision-making.
The first hazard (1) means that a roped team can get electrocuted in an afternoon thunderstorm, while the soloist was already off the mountain before noon.

On long high-mountain routes, the speed advantage of soloing over (all but a few very expert) roped parties is ridiculous. Which leads to another reason that soloing is more rewarding than roped climbing: A solo climber who's also a runner can do two or three or more alpine routes in one good-weather day (like this
or this ). Soloists just get to do way more great climbing in better weather.
And not limited in choice of good-weather days by the availability of a compatible partner.

kenr wrote: A solo climber who's also a runner can do two or three or more alpine routes in one good-weather day (like this or this ). Soloists just get to do way more great climbing in better weather. And not limited in choice of good-weather days by the availability of a compatible partner.

THIS

Ball wrote:It's called having three points of contact through choss. I've had holds break in no-fall zones. You deal with it.

Or you fall and die.

^^^
I dig that handle, but it's spelled nOOb

That's why I get such a chuckle out of
KeithbOOne's name every time I see it. :)

Tom-osaurus Rex wrote:^^^ I dig that handle, but it's spelled nOOb That's why I get such a chuckle out of KeithbOOne's name every time I see it. :)

I'm too much of a noob to get even that right.

I feel soloing and the interest in it is on the rise because of some many videos out there of climbers soloing big routes. People now scour MP looking for good solos or want to solo routes some of the pros began the deadly art on. I read in the 80's it was becoming the cool "new" thing until several of the soloing gurus died doing it and interest in it began to fade. I wonder how the public view will change if we witness a solo death in HD.

Regardless, stay frosty.

Ima Fred Knot wrote:I feel soloing and the interest in it is on the rise because of some many videos out there of climbers soloing big routes.

I feel that talking about soloing is on the rise because of videos.

How anyone could know if actual soloing is rising, I have no idea, since most people who are serious about soloing don't talk about it - now or then.

So many different kinds of soloing ... maybe some kinds are increasing, others decreasing. In this thread here, I didn't notice any agreement about a definition of "soloing". I bet lots of people would say that most of what I do is really just "scrambling" not real soloing, because the difficulty is too far below my following capability.

Oh yeah, I would also guess that videos of soloing are on the rise. Because videos of every conceivable human activity are on the rise.