![]() “It brings my energy down hearing those questions.” Although the National Park Service does not restrict free soloing, Yosemite regulations forbid BASE jumping, so Potter couldn't legally practice falling from El Capitan. “For sure the hot question of the last few years is 'When are you going to free-solo the Captain?'” says Potter. ![]() Even while wearing a parachute, Potter would effectively be free-soloing much of the route.įor both Potter and Honnold, the buzz about an impending El Cap solo has a damping effect. ![]() El Cap's lower pitches are only 80 degrees, and a falling climber might hit the wall before deploying a parachute. It's a puzzle because freeBASEing is hardly safe, as evidenced by its following of exactly one: Potter. “And if I start obsessing on something, I'm kind of helpless but to go for it.” However, he adds, “right now it's this puzzle that I can't quite figure out, so I don't have a definite plan.” “I obviously think about it, as does everybody else,” says Potter. After he successfully freeBASE'd the Eiger, he started considering bigger projects like El Capitan. To make the idea practical, Potter ordered a custom-made 6.5-pound BASE rig (they usually weigh 15) and rehearsed spinning away from overhanging climbs and popping his chute. ![]() “It's the most beautiful thing I can imagine,” he says, “changing the worst-case scenario into human flight.” After two decades of free soloing and six years of BASE jumping, Potter decided to put that idea to the test, creating a hybrid sport he called freeBASE. “When you tell someone you're a climber, they often say, 'Wow, have you got a parachute?'” laughs Potter. Route choice is critical, of course, because soloists never get a second chance. Because the route is so dicey, Honnold thinks the 5.13b Golden Gate, an even harder climb that he did last October, might be a better option. “I've never even looked at the Teflon Corner, but it doesn't sound like something you'd want to solo,” says Honnold. Until recently, most people did the crux pitch the 24th by swinging onto a wobbly block, but last year that hold snapped off, forcing climbers to negotiate the Teflon Corner instead. But the crux pitches on Free Rider rely on rounded nubbins of glassy granite for footholds and slippery handholds thinner than pencil width. Last spring, when Honnold romped ropeless up the 5.12+ Moonlight Buttress, in Utah's Zion National Park, completing the 1,200-foot route before he'd even run through the 25-song playlist on his iPod, he felt certain he wouldn't fall from the finger-width cracks and he didn't. The main hurdle, obviously, is the insecure nature of the climb. A free soloist wouldn't be slowed by a belayer or burdened by the 15 pounds' worth of equipment a roped climber carries. “It's not going to be a huge stamina issue,” says Caldwell. But Tommy Caldwell, 30, who doesn't free-solo big walls but has free-climbed more routes on El Cap than anyone, thinks route length won't be a problem. ”įor one thing, El Cap is a thousand feet higher than Half Dome. “Of course I've thought about it, but I'm not anywhere close. “If I consider it, it's hopefully not going to be an attempt,” Honnold says of El Cap. In all, Honnold has completed four roped free routes on El Cap, including the 5.12+Free Rider, the easiest and most likely target= for a free-solo attempt. “He's the calmest climber I've ever seen,” says veteran big-waller Conrad Anker, 46, who roped up with Honnold for a free ascent of El Cap's 5.13c El Niño in December. But what impresses peers is his surefooted composure. He's free-climbed (meaning he used a rope and belayer but no climbing aids) routes as hard as 5.14b. Honnold started climbing at age 11 and later dropped out of Berkeley to climb full-time. If one of them tries it, he'll either succeed and become immortal in the climbing world or fall and most likely die. And though Honnold and Potter are reticent about revealing any specific plans for a ropeless ascent of Yosemite's 3,000-foot monolith, both say it's on their minds. Although harder climbs have been free-soloed up to 5.14a nobody had ever risked the combined length and insecurity of these ascents. The previous month, another well-known American climber, Dean Potter, 37, had soloed an overhanging, 600-foot 5.12+ route on the north column of Switzerland's Eiger, wearing only an ultralight parachute in case he fell. In fact, the fuss over El Capitan wasn't entirely of Honnold's making. “El Cap is only a matter of time, but that time is looking shorter,”wrote Yosemite gadfly Karl Bralich on the popular climbers' forum SuperTopo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |