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Post links and comments about your favourite climbing flicks

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clip from Alex Honnold on Watkins/Half Dome/El Cap

ecowain

14-Jun-2012
9:09:34 AM

Clicky

deadbudgy

14-Jun-2012
9:15:20 AM

This is the first vid I've seen where he looks proper shitting himself. Cool stuff.

ajfclark

14-Jun-2012
9:16:02 AM

On 14/06/2012 ecowain wrote:
>Clicky

No. :-)

Glad it's not too long a clip. My palms are sweaty enough after that...

nmonteith

14-Jun-2012
10:38:58 AM

Anyone on Chocky done anything on Watkins? I've spent a few months in Yosemite and I don't even know which cliff it is! Ive certainly not heard of anyone climbing there. Is the 'trade route' he solos doable for mere mortals?

p.s. That video was frightening.

Fish Boy

14-Jun-2012
10:46:51 AM

Yeah Neil, I believe he is on a pretty cruisy 5.9 A2 type climb. That other bloke freed it a couple of years ago. I'm pretty sure you walk past Watkins on the way out to Half Dome....

ecowain

14-Jun-2012
11:04:23 AM

It's sort of opposite the Quarter Domes / Cloudsrest, a bit upstream of Half Dome on the Washington Column side of the valley. We passed under it when we went through Tenaya Canyon one year, looked huge from down below.

South Face 5.8 C2, mostly free at 5.10d (21). Free crux 5.12c. Epic first ascent by Chouinard, Pratt and Harding from what I remember.

nmonteith

14-Jun-2012
11:12:43 AM

It's funny that something so geologically significant can be hidden in that valley. It shows just how epic the place is!

simey

14-Jun-2012
11:47:11 AM

On 14/06/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>It's funny that something so geologically significant can be hidden in that valley. It shows just how epic the place is!

Mt Watkins is hardly hidden. If you climb Half Dome you are pretty much looking at it the whole time.

As for Alex's triple... it defies belief. I've read a couple of interviews that he did shortly after and I reckon that his achievement is so mind-boggling that interviewers are struggling to even know what questions to ask.

Big G

14-Jun-2012
11:57:23 AM

>
>p.s. That video was frightening.

when his foot popped i shuddered - even though i knew the outcome. i just can't get over how calm honnold is when he solo's. I start bricking it 2m above a bolt!

nmonteith

14-Jun-2012
12:01:55 PM

On 14/06/2012 simey wrote:
>On 14/06/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>It's funny that something so geologically significant can be hidden in
>that valley. It shows just how epic the place is!
>
>Mt Watkins is hardly hidden. If you climb Half Dome you are pretty much
>looking at it the whole time.

I know it's not 'hidden' but I guess what I really meant is that's it's not one of the main cliffs that everyone does. I guess it doesn't have the presence of something like El Cap or Half Dome - it appears to be more of a big slabby blob. I must have been staring at it for a couple of days when I did NW Half Dome but I honestly cant remember it having the sort of visual impact of many of the other cliffs in the park. And I don't know anyone personally who has climbed it.

JimmyS

14-Jun-2012
1:47:17 PM

Met Alex today at the base of El Cap believe it or not! Had a chat to him about it (the shitting himself bit) said it wasnt as bad as it looks, and that he is still coming off the high of the triple! Also said he was training for a speed ascent of the nose... Also, he is a super genuine dude, and friendly!

arniearms

14-Jun-2012
4:38:36 PM

>Glad it's not too long a clip. My palms are sweaty enough after that...

+1

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