“Free Solo” Movie - Climbing El Kapitan with no Rope

Boone was post college, just working at a Pizza Hut at night, climbing during the day. The New is actually sandstone, and it is some of the hardest sandstone in the US making it really unique. All of the cliffs are along the river gorges of the New, Meadow and Gauley.

 

I did the Original Route on Whiteside, probably sometime around 1999. One of my first big routes. Before that Seneca rocks in WV was the tallest thing I had climbed.

 

What took you to Boone? That’s a really remote place to go unless you’re into bluegrass or mountain living. Ashville being more trendy, Nantahalla being more central for the sports we’re discussing. Is there climbing there I’m not aware of? I wasn’t into climbing when I was spending time there...

So it’s not crumbly like in Death Valley? Seems like everything there turns to sand in your hand.

The Midwest is full of limestone which is horrible for climbing. There may be some that isn’t but it’s all flaky and breaky there.

you end your days cliff diving too? We used to do that a bunch in rock quarries, climb until worn out then cliff jump not dive as we were too sissyfied to actually dive in...

 

That was a wild year for me. Moved to VT to start working for a school that travelled to foreign countries to go climbing and experience other cultures. Before the school year started the girl I was seeing (who also taught at the school) decided she liked one of the other teachers more than me, so I bailed before the school year started.

Went to the New in WV to regroup. Spent a month there climbing and while there a friend of mine and I decided to start heading west for the rest of the fall. We got invited to Boone by another climber we had met. Once in Boone I ran into a friend from college who lived there and let me crash on the floor. I just kind of got stuck in the Boone lifestyle and didn't end up leaving for a year. Went back to the New after that and got a job guiding rock climbing.

One of the trips we ran at the guide service was a day of climbing on Summersville Lake (which feeds the Gauley river in the fall). We would anchor the boat to the cliffs that came out of the water and set up ropes for the customers. I would jump off the top of the cliff on those trips for sure. These days the Corps of Engineers will ticket you for jumping off the cliffs, so glad I got to do it when it was legit.

There are some pockets of limestone here that are pretty good here in the Midwest. Willow River in WI is pretty good, very overhanging and close to my house. We also have some basalt areas, and some andesite areas. Not as high quality or quantity as out west, but still better than many places in the US.

Overall though, there are some quality limestone areas across the US, and it is some of my favorite rock to climb because it has some features that other rock types don't. I spent the last three years I was in Vegas bolting new climbs on limestone. Below is a photo of the first ascent of the first climb I bolted at that cliff.

 

lots of climbing around Boone. I worked for outward bound as a climbing instructor for a summer just south of Boone (this would have been around 1994?). NCOB was based in Linville gorge, some cool, easy, long climbs in there with a bit of a hike to get to them. The Mummy and The Daddy are the classics. Like 3-4 pitches of 5.5, 5.6. Fun climbing with some good exposure. There were some smaller cliffs scattered around in the woods in the area that we used but it was so long ago I don't remember where they were (and they probably have large houses on top of them now).

Never had a chance to climb at Whitesides, but should have. Always wanted to do the ice climb up the middle (Starshine?) in the winter when it froze up. Did some at Looking Glass (again, the Nose is a classic face climb, using the "eye brows" for protection, maybe 4 pitches of 5.8?), but mostly climbed around the TAG area (Tenn, AL, GA). Pigeon Mtn, T-wall, Sandrock, etc. Worked in the climbing industry for a while when I was climbing/caving a lot so that was handy.

 

Oh man... watched The Alpinist last night. Tough to get through and I had anxiety pretty much the entire movie. Not really anxiety, I guess, but super nervous watching him free climb. Its just nuts. I'm glad he and his friend weren't being filmed when the end came. I hate watching accident videos where people die. I found him and his gf to be very inspirational... living a life without barriers. That's amazing and I think very admirable. Sorry to see we lost someone like him and agree with a lot of his peers that we may never see another Marc Andre.

 

When he climbed over the ice waterfall that looked like it was maybe 6 inches thick I was like this dude is nuts!

 

It looked like fun to me… if I had a top rope. Climbing ice with a pick seems awesome, climbing ice without a rope, nope.

 

Finally watched Free Solo. I found that guy less likable than the Alpinist guy. Both did mind blowing stuff, but those ice climbs were insane.

 

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As a guy that has climbed ice and rock with ice axes, the part that impressed me the most was when he was "drytooling" (axes and crampons on rock) without a rope. Seasoned ice climbers solo ice more than you might think, and it is actually quite secure if you know what you are doing. But drytooling is tough because you are trying to feel if the axes and the crampons are solidly in contact with the rock, not that easy of a task. The metal picks can skate of the rock really quickly, and without warning. One moment you are in it...the next you are off.

 

That was the scene where I knew he was already dead without knowing it. I almost couldn’t watch it.

 

Its one thing to use your fingers and toes, but to use tools and not be able to "feel" or even see them is something else entirely. Talk about trust...

 

https://www.tmz.com/2022/01/24/travis-pastrana-parachute-crash-video-fort-lauderdale-hyatt-hotel/

 

Wow, I had read about someone getting hurt base-ing from a hotel. No idea it was Pastrana till you posted this. Looks like he corkscrewed into the ground, probably due to having no room to fly a somewhat normal pattern for landing. Canopy looked fine.

 

As you know, the low turn has taken many bones and lives.

I don’t have Instagram so it only let me watch it once but there had to be a reason for the last turn. Overhead lines or traffic or something. Pastrana is presumably too experienced to make that error without something else in play.

 

I almost feel sad for Pastrana types. Im sure he has had a few come to jesus moments, but how do you quit? How does he step back and retire but still have his buds risk life and limb for his shows? He would have to fold the whole shebang up.

 

Yeah agreed, he is far too experienced. I'm sure he has thousands of jumps. You can see some crazy body language when he's about 50' off the ground, so he knew he was in trouble.

 

There's a difference between having hundreds of jumps like this and THOUSANDS as the professional jump and swoop team guys have. I doubt Pastrana has anywhere near the flight time a true professional canopy pilot does. Similar to the difference between us as weekend trackday/racers and SBK/GP riders.

 

No question. Parachuting hobbies are probably more dangerous to dabble in than they are to commit to.

 

Alex Honnold had a cameo on the latest episode of Billions, peddling some brand. He's definitely more of a realist than Marc-Andre Leclerc was. Housing costs money.