UKC

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Pretty impressive, and apparently he's coming to Britain......
http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/above/the_matt_segal_interview_-_friday_j...

In reply to Tyler:

At 5.12a / E5 this might not sound quite as impressive as some other recent solos, but this route has a sting in it’s tail. The next-to-last pitch is a .11d slab. This is where Erickson and Higbee had to aid a short section on their ground-breaking effort (their first attempts predated Astroman) that nearly freed the route in 1976. In my very limited experience, Yosemite 5.11 slabs are the absolute living end of insecurity and the thought of soloing one with 2000'+ of air beneath your feet...

In reply to duncan: I guess that's where our grading system doesn't show much - E5? E6?

Alex Honnold soloed the Moonlight Buttress, which would probably get E6, but it's not an E6 solo route - it's a fully protected crack - at around F7c! (And miles up in the air!) So that's kind of like soloing Cave Route Left Hand at Goredale (admittedly that's F7c+ for the pendants, but you get the point), not like soloing Piece of Mind at the Roaches (not that I'd want to fall off either, but Cave Route is way harder).

An amazing effort.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

from Andy Puhvel on Supertopo:

"I freed all three of Alex's big solos this year, and none of them are even close to as scary as Half Dome. Hard 5.11 dime edge slab 2000 feet off the ground, holds sometimes crumble, hands are almost non-existent at times. This is probably the all around craziest and most insecure free-solo of all time."

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=672304&tn=0

Has half dome been free solo'd before?

What is the roll call of technically hard big wall (ish) solos?
Astroman: Croft, Potter, Honold
Marmolada thing: Huber
Eiger (with chute): Potter
Moonlight Buttress: Honold
Rostrum: quite a few? (so no longer as notable)

What else stands out?

In reply to rc:

maybe also Michael Reardon on Romantic Warrior 5.12 (not sure how long it is).

In reply to rc:

Hansjörg Auer on "The Fish" @ Marmolada of course.
Michael Reardon on Shikata ga nai @ Needles (not a big wall though.)

In reply to jomsom03:
Does Steph Davis on the Diamond (was it Pervertical Sanctuary?) even come close to this stuff?

And haven't there been some pretty audacious solos in Eldorado Canyon - not quite big wall but a long way down!

In reply to rc:
Also remarkable are Maurizio Giordani's early 80's solo's of several Marmolada routes: Tempi Moderni in 1985: http://www.gmountain.it/realizzazioni/realizzazione.asp?rd=28
And Via Attraverso il Pesce in 1990, with rope protection (prusik...) on the 9 crux pitches.

HansJorg Auer's Pesce solo is maybe (if one can compare between such ascents) the most impressive of them all. Insecure slab-climbing and minimal inspection. Crazy!
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP19/newswire-auer-dolomites-fish-solo

In reply to rc:


Only in terms of media coverage. It's 5.10 c/d.

Dean Potter had previously French-free soloed Half Dome (pulling on quickdraws at the crux, and using a rope for one pendulum)