UKC

NEWS: Ueli Steck Nearly Onsights El Cap

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 UKC News 23 May 2009
[Ueli Steck, 4 kb]Swiss climber Ueli Steck free-climbed El Cap's Golden Gate (5.13b, 41 pitches) and fell on only a single pitch, onsighting the rest of the climb. And the one pitch that spoiled his onsight? It was the 5.11c crack off the top of El Cap Spire, just before Golden Gate heads right from the Salathé...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=47580
 James Oswald 23 May 2009
In reply to UKC News:
Awesome!
Sounds like a romantic part of their honeymoon. :P
 MikeTS 27 May 2009
In reply to UKC News:


why is this not an onsight?
 john arran 27 May 2009
In reply to MikeTS:

Just a guess, but maybe because he fell off!
 Dom Whillans 27 May 2009
In reply to UKC News:
i'm not given to americanisms usually; but i believe the correct term in common parlance is "wad", no?
 TobyA 27 May 2009
In reply to Dom Whillans:

> i'm not given to americanisms usually; but i believe the correct term in common parlance is "wad", no?

I think that is a Sheffieldism, not a Americanism, is it not? Normally used by UKB denizens as they strip their shirts off and admire each others' pecs in an only slightly homo-erotic way.

 MikeTS 27 May 2009
In reply to john arran:

I thought onsight means no previous knowledge of the route/holds, which would be true i.e he sucessfully climbed every foot without prior knowledge.
 AJM 27 May 2009
In reply to MikeTS:

Except presumably those feet he climbed twice climbing back up to his high point on the pitch he fell off

Thats a very old-school definition of onsight there. Most people nowadays when they say "onsight" mean "onsight flash" - no prior knowledge of the holds and done first go with no falls.

AJM
 john arran 27 May 2009
In reply to MikeTS:

Sounds like the attempt was certainly onsight, but as it was unsuccessful there was no onsight ascent.

Big shame, as he'd clearly done all the really hard parts. Much respect for that.
 MikeTS 27 May 2009
In reply to AJM:

that's what I mean.
Suppose he passed his fall point with different holds and/or sequence?
Then it would all be new surely?
 Michael Ryan 27 May 2009
In reply to MikeTS:
> (In reply to AJM)
>
> that's what I mean.
> Suppose he passed his fall point with different holds and/or sequence?
> Then it would all be new surely?

Suppose he had been actually given wrong beta - and then flashed it.

That would have been the ultimate ascent - a beta sandbag flash, even better than an onsight.

My advice - get over the minutae of style. This is one freakin awesome ascent.

Sit back in your armchair and give praise..... rather than argue the toss.

Tonight, my glass of mango and orange smoothie is raised to Mr. Ueli Steck.

Over and out dude.

Mick

 john arran 27 May 2009
In reply to MikeTS:

It would only be a flash if, were he not to have had a rope on at the time, he wouldn't have ended up in a crumpled heap at the bottom.

It would only be an onsight if he'd flashed it without prior knowledge not gained himself on the route without weighting the gear.

Had Ueli not had a rope on at the time he wouldn't be alive today. It therefore was neither flashed nor onsighted, and cannot later be no matter how many new sequences he were to find.

If he were to find an entirely independent variation it wouldn't change anything as he'd already weighted the rope in the course of discovering it.

Harsh maybe, but fair.
Derbyshire Ben 27 May 2009
In reply to TobyA:

Wad : origin Llanberis 80's climbing ghetto speak...

 MikeTS 27 May 2009
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Mick
It was UKC that emphasised the style in its headline: I was arguing that the tag you used for the style took away from a great ascent.
 Michael Ryan 27 May 2009
In reply to MikeTS:

Yep and it is quite simple. He nearly onsighted it. But he fell. Unlucky.

And we were quite right to emphasise the style as that is very important.

His ascent is the ultimate so far, an amazing achievement.

Mick
 Dom Whillans 28 May 2009
In reply to Derbyshire Ben:
i sit corrected. happily so, too... i'm going to rehabilitate "wad" somehow.
 tobyfk 28 May 2009
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
> His ascent is the ultimate so far, an amazing achievement.

I thought Yuji Hirayama had also fallen just once on one of his onsight free attempts on El Cap?
 jon 28 May 2009
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Just goes to show, he's not just a plodder with an ice axe.
 Morgan Woods 28 May 2009
In reply to john arran:
> (In reply to MikeTS)
>
> It would only be a flash if, were he not to have had a rope on at the time, he wouldn't have ended up in a crumpled heap at the bottom.
>
> It would only be an onsight if he'd flashed it without prior knowledge not gained himself on the route without weighting the gear.
>

John i would imagine you know your stuff but they are the most confusing definitions i've ever heard.

How about we keep it simple....flash = beta, onsight = no beta, both = clean and ground up.

Anyway mad props to the uber-wad Ueli.
 john arran 28 May 2009
In reply to Morgan Woods:

Yes, double negatives probably didn't help!

They weren't really meant to be cast-iron definitions, I'm sure I must have written some proper ones in Trad Climbing +.

The problem with keeping it simple is that people always end up complicating things, usually it seems out of some strange desire to make the sport as contrived and artificial as possible! But that's not really what this thread is about, which is Uber-Ueli's staggering achievement on rock as well as ice/mixed and how annoying it must have been for him to fall of an easy pitch in the wet.
 Morgan Woods 28 May 2009
In reply to john arran:

yeah i don't think we need to turn this into a style discussion.

i had heard before that he was an 8a climber so good to see him doing pure rock stuff....wonder if he'll be back for the speed ascent?

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