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solo stories


wallwombat

13-Dec-2007
10:30:25 AM

I think what sets Peter Croft apart from other soloists is he is still alive.

RIP
John Yoblonski - suicide
Earl Wiggins - suicide
Derek Hersey - fall
Charlie Fowler - avalanche
Michael Reardon - swept into the Irish Sea

The relationship between soloing and suicide is interesting. Is that what was in the back of their mind all the time, I wonder?


westie

13-Dec-2007
10:41:54 AM

On 13/12/2007 simey wrote:

>I suspect they probably soloed most of the routes along Central Gully
>Left Side as well as down past the Organ Pipes, Pilot Error Cliffs and
>King Rat Gully, in which case you can knock a lot of them off pretty quickly.

hmmm. widewet said they did the whole crag. Perhaps a feat not yet done? You'd wanna be in good shape to finish up the Northern end.


nmonteith

13-Dec-2007
10:44:09 AM

There is a lot of soloists still alive....

Alex Huber
Geoff Wiegand
Patrick Edlinger
Bachar
Dean Potter
ect ect....


westie

13-Dec-2007
10:50:46 AM

On 13/12/2007 wallwombat wrote:

>The relationship between soloing and suicide is interesting. Is that
>what was in the back of their mind all the time, I wonder?

Is it inherent to that type of intense personality? the 1%ers, burn out not fade away blah blah... You could surely provide a list of haberdashers or lollipop ladies in the same way.

widewetandslippery

13-Dec-2007
10:56:39 AM

They did finish up the northern end. Geoff told an animated story of Peter onsighting Taste of Honey direct and doing it well and he having a wobbler even though it was on the circut.


Eduardo Slabofvic

13-Dec-2007
10:58:20 AM

I recall two consecutive editions of Mountain had articles on Jimmy Jewel. In the first one, his quote was
"All you need is boots and balls. It's the purest way to cruise". The article in the next edition was his
obituary.


westie

13-Dec-2007
11:16:05 AM

On 13/12/2007 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:

>"All you need is boots and balls.

... and a rope - evidently.

widewetandslippery

13-Dec-2007
11:29:50 AM

I am pretty sure Jimmy Jewels quote was "all you need is chalk and balls, its the prest way to cruise". In the info article they had a picture of him on "The Axe" E5? (Cloggy) with the Stevie Hatson quote "Today the axe, tomorrow the chop".


Eduardo Slabofvic

13-Dec-2007
11:48:07 AM

On 13/12/2007 widewetandslippery wrote:
>I am pretty sure Jimmy Jewels quote was "all you need is chalk and balls,
>its the prest way to cruise". In the info article they had a picture of
>him on "The Axe" E5? (Cloggy) with the Stevie Hatson quote "Today the axe,
>tomorrow the chop".

You might be right, as I recall he was in sand shoes when he took the big one.


wallwombat

13-Dec-2007
12:46:50 PM

On 13/12/2007 nmonteith wrote:
>There is a lot of soloists still alive....
>
>Alex Huber
>Geoff Wiegand
>Patrick Edlinger
>Bachar
>Dean Potter
>ect ect....

Are you sure all of these characters still solo, Neil?

Huber's soloing seems pretty selective. He soloed 13.d but it wasn't incredibly high and I believe it was probably more like a head point it was so rehearsed.

I don't think Wiegand still solos. In fact I don't think he has for quite some time. Not sure if he even climbs anymore. Widewetandslippery would know.

I didn't know that Edlinger did solo but haven't heard of any recent activity.

Bachar . Well, it seems he still occasionally solo "easy" 5.10-5.11 routes now and then but they are things he has soloed many times before. At his soloing height he was probably one of the best roped climbers in the world.

Dean Potter soloed a 40ft, 5.13 first ascent (King Tut) but had lots of crash pads underneath him. He solos the "easy" stuff on his El Cap / Half Dome speed ascents. I imagine he soloed a fair few of his climbs in Patagonia. That said, if I were to read that he died in a soloing fall I wouldn't be suprised.

I'm not disagreeing with you , Neil, but I still think guys who solo exclusively or even a lot generally don't make old bones.

widewetandslippery

13-Dec-2007
1:11:59 PM

Check out Paddy Edgeclinger barefoot. http://www.youtube.com/user/UniSaarland


wallwombat

13-Dec-2007
1:19:58 PM

Cool.

No one has mentioned Alaine Robert. He's been doing it for a while.


Macciza

13-Dec-2007
1:48:22 PM

On 13/12/2007 cruze wrote:
>Macca:
>
>You being the aiding type, how do you solo a climb with an associated
>A0 rating (Sea of tranquility). I presume it is a tension traverse, mid-climb
>abseil, or something like that. Did Michael climb it with a rope on his
>back??

A0 is usually like M0 over here - done with a rest or simply pulling on a few runners, not quite aid tho -
He definitely did not take a rope - According to below it's A0 or a V6'ish boulder problem

Heres is a piccie of Michael on of SoT.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/photos/Trad/Sea_of_Tranquility_85701.html

and route description - Sea of Tranquility, 5.12b
The difficulty of this route varies from 5.11+ to 5.12b depending on the source.
P1 (5.10a): Climb the first pitch of Romantic Warrior.
P2 (5.10): The topo shows the route as traversing from the C1 anchor of Romantic Warrior. However it
looks like it would be much better to traverse from 20-30 feet up P2 of Romantic Warrior as the face is
much more featured up there.
P3 (5.11+): -
P4 (5.11+): Hard and very interesting climbing. One very hard move that may be A0 or V6, but
otherwise the climbing is generally sustained 5.11. Very scary lead. At the top of the pitch, go past the
first set of anchors and belay at the C5 anchor on Romantic Warrior as the bolts there are better and
have rap chains.

Mind you - he also climbed harder and more dangerous stuff here as well

Ooops check out the vid as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S25J99Wmgc


Macciza

13-Dec-2007
2:03:30 PM

On 13/12/2007 kp wrote:
>It amuses me that people seem to do 'crazy things' to seperate themselves
>from the pack.
>
>Eh macca ?

It equally amuses me that the 'pack' does 'mundane things' and calls the others 'crazy' to separate
themselves from such gifted and inspirational people, Soloing rocks - it is 'true climbing in my book.

Every time you climb without falling you are essentially 'soloing' ( if you ignore the rope) it is really no
different physically. And yet every time you 'free' climb with a rope and clip artificial protection it is
'aiding' as you are using the 'aid' of that protection. Strange game this climbing, isn't it . . . .


nmonteith

13-Dec-2007
2:15:27 PM

Most soloists eventually grow up! Probably having kids puts a bit of a different perspective on things.... I
was meerly pointing out that their are heaps of soloists that havn't died or commitied suicide.

Alex Huber has soloed lots of hard stuff - including his 2002 solo ascent of the Direttissima (500m,
5.12a) on the Cima Grande, Dolomites.


Eduardo Slabofvic

13-Dec-2007
2:18:04 PM

The though of soloing in the Dolomites makes my foo foo valve want to drop out.


nmonteith

13-Dec-2007
2:23:12 PM

I agree Equardo. Although with all the manky fixed gear it felt like soloing anyway. Interestingly Alex
Huber wore a helmet during his solo ascent to stop rockfall??!!!


westie

13-Dec-2007
2:26:34 PM

I solo-ed Flake and Chips at the Youies recently and pulled off (literally) the layback Flake mid move. I was left stranded on the Chips. Foo foo fantastic!


kuu

13-Dec-2007
2:30:55 PM

On 13/12/2007 nmonteith wrote:
>I agree Equardo. Although with all the manky fixed gear it felt like soloing
>anyway. Interestingly Alex
>Huber wore a helmet during his solo ascent to stop rockfall??!!!

Ooooo! You mentioned "helmet", now you'll have woken up tnd!


Macciza

13-Dec-2007
2:48:00 PM

Just gotta say that soloing has absolutely nothing to do with suicide - otherwise you would simply
jump.

Also add Wolfgang Gullich, Catherine Destiville, Lynn Hill Henry Barber Hans Florineand countless
other top climbers to the list of soloists - also Aussies Saxon Johns Toby Benham Adam Darragh
Barefoot Brian etc etc and no doubt quite a few others top climbers who generally don't talk about it
that much amongst the 'pack' - lest they be thought to be crazy - in fact what you probably don't know,
is that someone you do know probably does the odd bit of soloing every now and again.
Then you have solo mountaineers as well punching it out on the 8000m peaks

Not sure that having kids makes much difference either - Reardon has kids and so does Alain Robert
and lots of the others. Soloing is not some recklessness to 'mature' out of - it is something else . . .

Does anyone else ever stop to contemplate that they could have soloed the route they just did or the
one they are on, or the next route - think about it and if your hands start feeling sweaty - don't ever do
it!

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