Free Soloing. What is your view?

Post by **whatahutch** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 7:38 pm

Uh... yeah. Sometimes crap happens, and in this guy's case he didn't die, but he sure does look dumb now. He walks away with his life, but his ego is dead, and so is that all important supercool self image. He was soloing beside a bunch of people and getting video of himself at the same time. I hope he watches this daily and realizes how egotistical and stupid he is. Those people watching learned a valuable lesson. My original point of this whole thread was that you should never free solo at someone else's expense, whether it is your climbing partners or your life partner, parents or children. And especually you should never do it to be cool. He is more in touch with Bachar now then when he was worshiping him as "the baddest m-fer evr." (Or whatever that quote was). Free soloing comes down to life and death. It is not about not fun and fun. This guy was lucky, not many are. Once you die, that is it. And everyone you leave behind will say that it was dumb of you to take your own life (even if they don't say it that way), and they will miss you more than ever saying how you died was not honorable because the vast majority (upwards of 99% I would guess) know that freesoloing comes down to life or death. In this guys case he lived, but like the camera man asks. How the hell is he not dead?

Post by **pigsteak** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 7:56 pm

the funny part is how clumsy he looked climbing the route...not smooth and under control at all....

Post by KD » Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:45 pm

perhaps he was such a gifted soloer that he knew how to live when he falls. that would take quite a bit of talent.

Post by **One-Fall** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:17 pm

and yet he thinks he is good enough to solo again, just at easier grades. Does our sport breed stupid, or is it just easier to see it on the rocks?

Post by KD » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:33 pm

I seriously think Clevis could out climb that dude.

Post by **Clevis Hitch** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:25 pm

with a forty in my hand!

Post by **Yasmeen** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:57 pm

One-Fall wrote:and yet he thinks he is good enough to solo again, just at easier grades. Does our sport breed stupid, or is it just easier to see it on the rocks?

Neither - soloing 5.8 makes perfect sense, while only an idiot would solo 5.9. I think he came to a very logical conclusion about the whole thing and walked away having learned a very important lesson.

Post by **Clevis Hitch** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:04 am

psssht....I think the thing that you are missing is regret.

Can you count the people who've solo'd,decked, then went through a recovery period then upon introspection went back and solo'd the very thing that almost took their life. The American mindset will send him back to that route. He'll either send or die. Then he'll be able to walk away from solo'ing if he so choses. But right now his life is on a set of rails. He'll be back...

Post by KD » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:41 am

true dat

Post by **Rotarypwr345704** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:44 am

I wish I could meet this Clevis guy. Heart-related incidences are the number one killer in America and this guy is so adamant about the 10? people who have ever died free-soloing. (Do we have an actual count?) Yet he is not yelling about how everyone needs to watch their sodium and calorie intake. Clevis, you need to ban fast food if you want to save lives. Or how about the hundreds of thousands of people who die every year in car accidents? Have any opinions on this one Clevis? Because I would sure love to hear it.

Kids- soloing is the koooooolest fucking thing ever in the whole wide world. Having sex while on ecstasy is nowhere near as cool. And now that I've said that I have officially convinced every child thinking about overdosing on X to free-solo, thereby lowering the drug-related teen deaths (which is on the rise, Clevis). I am a hero! Praise me.