UKC

From the Reel Rock facebook page:

Wow! Just finished covering one of Alex Honnold's most epic adventures for REEL ROCK 7 - The Solo Triple Crown in about 18 hours. Watkins, El Cap, and Half Dome, 90% free solo with a little bit of aid. Yesterday he started up Watkins at 4PM and topped out in 2:20, a speed record in itself. Next was The Nose, in 6 hours, in the dark. He forgot his chalk bag and had to borrow one from aid climbers half way up. Topped out Half Dome at 10:45 this morning. Here he is looking worked on the summit an hour ago. "OK," he finally admitted, "that was a big deal."

Bloody hell!!

E

In reply to Enty:

https://www.facebook.com/REELROCK

E

In reply to Enty:

that is a big deal

In reply to Enty: Beast.

Incredible stuff!

Look forward to the 2012 DVD coming. He is nuts that lad.

In reply to Enty:

Bloody Hell indeed , phenomenal !

In reply to Enty: His fitness and ability is definitely in the realms of Olympic athletes IMO. Amazing, hope he continues to dazzle us all for many years to come.

In reply to Enty:
For a moment I thought he might have free soloed The Nose, but I presume he aided some of it from the write-up. Honnold might just be the one to finally put that one to bed....

In reply to PeteH:

That has to be the ultimate goal. Two massive hurdles though. The Great Roof and The Changing Corners.
Both pitches are totally safe in terms of gear but if Great Roof is 13d and Changing Corners is 14a that gives French grades of 8b and 8b+ repectively.
Not only that, these two pitches rely on desperate, awkward smearing and not positive edging and crimping.
Are pitches like these ever going to be soloed 2500ft of the ground?

E

In reply to Enty:
Are they ever soloed >100 ft off the ground?

In reply to Jon Read:

Well there's probably not a lot of difference between a 100ft Desmond and a 2500ft Desmond apart from the mess being spread out over a wider area.

What was the hard sport route DM soloed in Spain. Was it a roof which wasn't too far off the ground?

E

In reply to Enty:
This route. youtube.com/watch?v=gIZaNluM2KM&

In reply to Enty:

I think he's capable of it, I suspect the fact that he climbed The Nose entirely in the dark is probably why he aided parts of it this time round, there's footage of him storming through the Great Roof pitch only grabbing a piece of tat whilst simul-climbing it with Ueli Steck. Changing Corners probably wouldn't be fun, mind.

In reply to Enty: Did I read that he has a girlfriend now? I assumed that was the end of his big wall soloing!

In reply to Enty:

Thre's an iteresting article he wrote in this month's 'Rock and Ice' mag. about his early days, how he got into soloing etc. And how often he fell off! Worth the read.

In reply to Enty:
I think you answered your own question there. Not unless someone has a deathwish.

Didn't Lynn Hill work out a move for the changing corners ptich that had something like 30 movements just to turn around?

In reply to PeteH:

I read that Dean Potter had free soloed the entirety of El Cap.. Perhaps beat Honnold to it then..

There's a quick Q&A with Honnold about it on the TNF site:

http://www.neverstopexploring.com/blog/2012/06/qa-alex-honnold-on-his-solo-...

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Maybe, he's been climbing a bit with Hazel Findlay, and you'd have to wonder about your orientation if you didn't fancy asking her out for a drink!

In reply to Enty: The 2500ft one may have a chance to open a parachute on the way down?
I know some people have used this setup, can't find out who and I don't know if the pitches are suitable for this.

In reply to Jamie Currie:

Tommy Caldwell freeBASE on the Eiger?

In reply to Southern Man: I think he's referring to Dean Potter. As far as I know nobody else has attempted Freebase. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Sorry yes my mistake, Potter rather than Caldwell.

In reply to Hazelnuts:

He used a fair bit of aid when he soloed it. Think there's a vid on youtube of it if you're interested.

In reply to Enty:

Wow amazingly impressive, just wondering though, in terms of Metres how 'far' has he climbed in that time?

Al

In reply to remus:

Yes, he aids the Great Roof and it's bloody scary watching him balance across on micro cams!!

As for the Free base thing. If you fell off the crux of the Changing Corners pitch you's have about 20metres to open your chute before you slammed into Camp 6!

E

In reply to Enty:


Plus you would have to make hard, technical moves with a cumbersome pack on your back throwing your weight off balance even more than it would be anyway! Would be as much of a hindrence as a safety measure surely?

In reply to Enty: Yeah, but what's he ever done on............etc.

And, it's not that great 'cos some of the holds were chalked. You can never properly forget your chalk bag these days.

In reply to PebblePusher:

FreeBASE chutes are about 3lb.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

OK, so not as bad as I first thought but surely the kind of moves you need to be doing on changing corners would be harder to do free with any kind of rucksack on your back?

In reply to Enty:

Here you go - wanna solo this?
http://files.mozgasvilag.hu/news/82154-lynn-hill_Changing-corners-cross-thr...

E

In reply to PebblePusher:

They wear them in a tiny pouch like a chalkbag size
You can see Dean Potter's in The Sharp End, i think

It is not a cumbersome rucksack and possibly well under 3lb, I may have misremembered.

here's a 6lb version
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267478/Climber-Dean-Potter-scales-...

Sure I saw a smaller one on him though in some film footage

In reply to Enty:

I'd quite like to be good enough to genuinely consider it!

In reply to Enty:

This guy just continues to amaze me. I hope he continues to do so. So modest about his achievements aswell, Just a day out on the wall for hm.