[jwi]

Alex Honnold has repeated Freerider free solo in 3h56min. Source: National Geographic.

[Wood FT]

bloody nora 

[dave]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

[jwi]

slightly harder than The Fish, I suppose.

[Doylo]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

It's got a 7c+ pitch very high up!!

[habrich]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BU443bgjWHz/

[shark]

Maybe not numerically the hardest thing ever soloed but the certainly the most awesomest for me. Like when Pete Croft soloed Astroman

[ghisino]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

It's got a 7c+ pitch very high up!!

Or a 7b+ variation.

But in older interviews he seemed much more concerned about easier yet "screwable" sections, especially on the freeblast.

I remember one section of a 6c pitch just before the half dollar as scary delicate, even when having climbed a few slabs in the 7's in font...sneeze at the wrong moment and you're off.

[shark]

I remember one section of a 6c pitch just before the half dollar as scary delicate, even when having climbed a few slabs in the 7's in font...sneeze at the wrong moment and you're off.

I couldn't even dog it

[Falling Down]

Wow... almost unbelievable. Amazing stuff...

[Doylo]

I was half expecting this last November . Irish Si was on Freerider and told me he saw Honnold working it. I felt sick then, glad I didn't know about it this time. Pretty much the only thing in climbing that I can't comprehend. Stronger people climbing physically hard things is just that. What Honnold does is hard to contemplate and understand. I guess soloing El Cap was his destiny. Glad he made it.

[monkoffunk]

Incredible. Hope he retires now!

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Incredible. Hope he retires now!

   Brilliant. And in the way that all lights can shine for a while. Take care Alex.

[steve__b]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

It's got a 7c+ pitch very high up!!

Or a 7b+ variation.

But in older interviews he seemed much more concerned about easier yet "screwable" sections, especially on the freeblast.

I remember one section of a 6c pitch just before the half dollar as scary delicate, even when having climbed a few slabs in the 7's in font...sneeze at the wrong moment and you're off.

Where is this 7b+ variant?


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[habrich]

Incredible. Hope he retires now!

Retires from cutting-edge solos, I assume you mean? If so: agreed. Hopefully he will resist the temptation to up the ante by linking a Freerider solo with Half Dome in a day, or whatever the next progression may seem to him. Perhaps it is a good omen that he has been hanging out with Peter Croft, one of the very few soloist superstars who didn't push it too far.

[ghisino]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

It's got a 7c+ pitch very high up!!

Or a 7b+ variation.

But in older interviews he seemed much more concerned about easier yet "screwable" sections, especially on the freeblast.

I remember one section of a 6c pitch just before the half dollar as scary delicate, even when having climbed a few slabs in the 7's in font...sneeze at the wrong moment and you're off.

Where is this 7b+ variant?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Teflon corner. It's just a few meters to the side of the crux "Huber boulder problem" pitch.  Both very cool although opposite in style (stemming and pushing on a smooth corner VS face climbs on edges with a ninja crux).

Curious to know which way he chose for the solo.

[steve__b]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

It's got a 7c+ pitch very high up!!

Or a 7b+ variation.

But in older interviews he seemed much more concerned about easier yet "screwable" sections, especially on the freeblast.

I remember one section of a 6c pitch just before the half dollar as scary delicate, even when having climbed a few slabs in the 7's in font...sneeze at the wrong moment and you're off.

Where is this 7b+ variant?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Teflon corner. It's just a few meters to the side of the crux "Huber boulder problem" pitch.  Both very cool although opposite in style (stemming and pushing on a smooth corner VS face climbs on edges with a ninja crux).

Curious to know which way he chose for the solo.

I was under the impression this was 12d?


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[monkoffunk]

Retires from cutting-edge solos, I assume you mean?

Yep.

[habrich]

Curious to know which way he chose for the solo.

According to someone posting at SuperTopo.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2981562&tn=61

"To clarify a few people above discussing difficulty, which variations he took, etc:

Instead of climbing the incredibly insecure 12d Teflon Corner (where Skinner/Piana went), he climbed the 13a Boulder Problem pitch, which was established by the Hubers at 12d, but has become harder since a key hold in the sequence broke. It is a fairly insecure V6/7 slab boulder problem.

I believe he climbed the Bermuda Dunes entrance into the Monster Offwidth, which avoids the difficult 11d downclimb into the Monster, and in doing so tacks on an extra 30ish meters of hand-to-offwidth solid 5.11 crack climbing. Far more secure.

He didn't appear to stop at the hanging belay that breaks up the two Enduro Corner pitches high on the route. Going at 11d and 12b respectively, most people consider that pitch 12d if you link them. The beginning of the second pitch (or middle of linked pitch) is far from secure, usually climbed with insecure knee bars and tips locks. "

[duncan]

Pitch by pitch from Tom Evans: http://elcapreport.com/content/elcap-report-6317-special-edition-honnold-free-solo-elcap

[Falling Down]

Thanks for the link Duncan... the mind boggles.  It's an incredible feat.  I can't wrap my head around it.

[ghisino]

Read that news this afternoon and thought "fuck me". How hard is Freerider, like a 30-pitch E6 or something?

It's got a 7c+ pitch very high up!!

Or a 7b+ variation.

But in older interviews he seemed much more concerned about easier yet "screwable" sections, especially on the freeblast.

I remember one section of a 6c pitch just before the half dollar as scary delicate, even when having climbed a few slabs in the 7's in font...sneeze at the wrong moment and you're off.

Where is this 7b+ variant?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Teflon corner. It's just a few meters to the side of the crux "Huber boulder problem" pitch.  Both very cool although opposite in style (stemming and pushing on a smooth corner VS face climbs on edges with a ninja crux).

Curious to know which way he chose for the solo.

I was under the impression this was 12d?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had my grade math wrong!

Probably mislead by the brief rappel/rope solo inspection i had (one specific move on the huber boulder didn't suit me well, the teflon felt more "ok" than expected) 

[shark]

Amazing image here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BU7HGGaDS9c/?hl=en

[dave]

For the benefit of idiots like me, where else can soloing on ElCap go now? Are there any other routes on there that could theoretically be up for the solo approach by an on-form Honnold? I presume The Nose is too cruxy, how about Salathe?

Just trying to think where he goes from here. Does he carry on dossing in a van and pushing things hard, or just enjoy the tickertape parades for a few years?

[jwi]

Salathe would be much much harder, right? I seem to remember that it is 8b if you link the headwall pitches—as a soloist would have to do. I think Alain Robert is still the only one who has properly soloed an 8b (no draws in to grab if you freak out, crux in zone 3) and that was twenty almost thirty years ago.