The greatest feat in sports history period.
doubledragon
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Alex Honnold climbed El Capitan without any ropes or any safety devices in June of 2017. El Capitan is the most dangerous and difficult climb in the world, a 3,000 foot high vertcal wall of granite in Yosemite valley, it is the holy grail of rock climbing, and it is the proving ground for rock climbers. Only the best climbers in the world attempt to conquer it, and even among the best, no one has had the guts to attempt to climb it without ropes and safety devices. You fall, you die. He is the only one to ever do this, and it will never be done again. He became immortal after this climb. This is the footage of that day in june of 2017, when he made the decision to go for it. In my opinion, this is the greatest achievement in sports history. No one has even dared to think about climbing El Capitan without any ropes or any safety devices, it's suicide.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tnRoda7Ke2w
Comments
This post never happened, you hear me, it never happened!
The savage arena, El Capitan.
Looking down thousands of feet.
I literally got queasy in my stomach just watching those clips. Kudos to him but, yeah, that's nuts.
free solo is the name of the documentary about this climb. absolute insanity.
Hanold is cut from a different cloth, that is for sure
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Just one gust of wind. Oh, well.
He is insane, I wouldn't attempt it with ropes much less without, he is on another level. He said before the climb that he knew the risk and he was prepared to die. All kinds of things can happen up there, rocks break loose and fall all the time, birds are constantly flying around, gusts of wind, the hot sun beaming down on you, a lot can go wrong very fast. Of course, I understand why he did it, he wanted to be immortal, to do what no one could dream was possible, what no one would dare even think about doing. That climb put him into history as the greatest rock climber that will ever live.
I don't think anyone will ever attempt to do what he did, not if they value their life.
i just tried to climb a tree in my back yard and face-planted in 5 seconds
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
From the time I was 5 years old until I was 40 I spent vast amounts of time exploring in the Grand Canyon and the Red Rock country of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. My last trip into the North Rim was when I was 40 years old. I told everyone at the time that it would be my last. You have to know your limits and when to stop. Anyway, those free climbers are crazy. One time I was on a ledge in Zion National Park and a case of vertigo hit. Hey, I hugged the rocks for what seemed like hours. FOCUSED inches in front of me and then crawled on all fours off that ledge. ANYTHING can happen! But.......I NEVER let any of the Hydrant boys stand on the edge of a drop. You have no control over the wind or becoming dizzy. That guy on El Capitan is crazy.
His brain literally functions differently than anybody else. The area of the brain that reacts to fear in his brain doesn't activate. Disturbing images that light up the brain of normal people don't have any effect on his brain. So fear doesn't get in the way of his physical abilities like it does for literally everyone else.
This is an amazing feat, I read about it and it’s mind boggling.
I’ve never heard this before but it makes sense however I question it only because first responders and Soldiers have committed out of this world acts of extreme bravery so it’s possible that it might just be that he braved the situation?
not to downplay this insanity, but it's not as if he conceptualized this in his sleep, then woke up and did it. he prepared for a year and knew every single move he was going to make beforehand. watch this interview with Kimmel
edit: the duration of the climb is what causes an implosion between my ears. for him to survive, he had to avoid breaking down both mentally and physically for 4 hours
https://www.rockandice.com/videos/climbing/jimmy-kimmel-live-alex-honnold-on-free-soloing-el-capitan/
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Yes, here is a video about the people who filmed his climb of El Capitan, they were his close friends and are also professional rock climbers. In the video they talk about his preparation and how they struggled wanting to film him because they didn't want to break his concentration. They also talk about his preparation.
Well, the two things aren't quite the same. Thrill-seeking for no greater purpose isn't the same thing as committing an act of bravery like rushing into a building to rescue people, etc.
I can't speak for how the brains of soldiers and first responders work but Honnold has actually had his tested with the results I mentioned.
It’s a very interesting topic, thank you
I grew up around the rock climbing community and my uncle Joe that lives in Colorado introduced to it. My uncle has climbed the Matterhorn and he loves rock climbing, he lives it and breathes it. I remember one day, I looked at him and asked him, what is the hardest rock climb on Earth, the most dangerous, the holy grail, and withoit hesitation he said El Capitan. It is a 3,000 feet high wall of granite, the largest granite monolith in the world. It is sheer terror to even step foot on this wall, the exposure is ridiculous and it is so gargantuan that most people that climb it take days to complete the climb, they have to take hammocks with them and bolt them into El Capitan thkusands of feet in the air and sleep exposed in the hammocks thousands of feet in the air. That's how big and demanding this wall is. It is sheer terror. You can see in this photo exhausted climbers preparing to sleep overnight on El Capitan.
To look straight up at El Capitan from near the bottom is pure intimidation.
I always loved this photo of Royal Robbins and his climbing partner in hammocks spending the night thousands of feet in the air on El Capitan. This was in the 1960s when they were first climbing El Capitan and establishing routes.
to tabe's point.....
this is a long read, but a fascinating one. the guy's brain is indeed wired differently. he basically has no fear and nothing affects him.
https://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
watch this and try not to upchuck your lunch. Thank God ledge is about the length of a foot. Honnold walked across this sideways without a rope.
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
This is sheer madness, these people are crazy, what the hell is wrong with them, I can't take this anymore, close the thread!
He doesn't have anything on me after getting married
Here is Tom Brady's feet:
What's going on in here, did he make it to the top, keep me updated
have to go w/ shaq’s:
Is he made it yet what time
In deeper thought
If you ever watches American Ninja Warrior you know that the course requires arm and hand strength
Even after just a few minutes they let go due to extreme fatigue.
He had to hold for 4 hours.
I saw the documentary and that feat is the greatest thing I have ever seen.
1948-76 Topps FB Sets
FB & BB HOF Player sets
1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
As seen in one of the photos he does reach certain spots that affords him some time to rest though. I’m just point that out, in no way am I taking away the extreme expenditure of strength and stamina
I have to question whether this accomplishment is a "sport". I doubt there are many competitors, and, IMO, he was a very lucky guy to have done what he did and lived to accomplish this feat. Having seen El Capitan up close, I am in awe that anyone in his right mind would attempt to do such a thing. A sport? No. Would have been a horrible death, as he would have had at least several seconds to know what was coming.
I want to add some photos of the other part of climbing, rock and ice, which is just as dangerous as regular rock climbing if not more. More people die trying to climb these mountains than regular rock climbs. This is the North Face of the Eiger, and it is nicknamed the "Wall of Death". It killed the first nine men who challenged it, and many more since. It is a vertical wall of rock and ice 5,900 feet up.
John Harlin's father died on the Eiger in the 1970s trying to climb it, and his son John Harlin III became obsessed with climbing it and conquering the Eiger, this is a great read.
This wall is 5,900 feet high and covered in ice. It is common for loose rocks the size of your head to fall off above you, hit you, and knock you clear off the mountain. If you want to climb the Eiger you need to have two things going for you.
You need to train very hard and be in phenomal shape.
You have to be prepared for the possibility of death.
Another good read about the Eiger.
In the heart of the Swiss Alps is the Eiger, rising 13,038 feet above sea level, that is by far the deadliest. Called a "living" mountain for its constantly changing conditions-unpredictable weather, disintegrating limestone surfaces, and continuously falling rock and ice-its mile-high north wall is perhaps the most dangerous climb in the world. And that may be just what beckons elite Alpinists to scale the treacherous peak against the odds.
In 1957, nearly forty years before the well-known Mount Everest tragedy, two teams of confident climbers set out to summit the north wall of the Eiger Mountain. Not long into their journey, onlookers could tell that the four men were headed for disaster. Soon rescue teams from all over Europe raced toward the Eiger-yet only one of the four climbers survived to face unfounded international accusations. In a story as fascinating as any novel, Jack Olsen creates a riveting account of daring adventure, heroic rescue, and one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of mountain climbing.
I have thought about whether climbing is a sport, and I have come to conclusion that it is indeed a sport. These people have to train ridiculously hard and be in phenomenal shape to even think about climbing. They are constantly competing to outdo eachother, and it is also a competition with themselves and the rocks or mountains they are climbing. The Tokyo Olympics even featured climbing this year. They are still competing with eachother on El Capitan, here is an article about Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell attempting to break the speed record on the Nose route of El Capitan.
https://deadspin.com/the-nose-speed-record-captures-alex-honnold-and-tommy-c-1839238182/amp
Up next is K2, the world's second highest mountain, and the most dangerous and difficult mountain to climb in the world. It is by far more dangerous than Mt. Everest, the world's highest mountain. As a matter of fact, people that have climbed Mt. Everest have gone to K2 and died. This is the holy grail mountain of rock and ice climbing, and it is nicknamed "Savage mountain" for a reason, plain and simple, it kills people. It is 28,251 feet high, and it is a vertical death trap. This mountain is constantly ravaged by deadly storms that will engulf the mountain and tear you apart. When a storm blows in on K2, snow and ice driven winds with a temerature of -80, blow at a speed of 100 mph, and if you are on K2 when one of these snow hurricanes blow in, chances are you will die, many have, and these storms can pin you down for weeks. In 1986, 7 climbers were trapped in their tents for 2 weeks when a storm blew in and 5 of them died, the other two barely made it back, and one of them lost fingers and toes to frostbite. The winds produced in these storms are so cold, theywill freeze you to death if you are in the open, and they produce so much ice and snow, they can bury you alive. They call it Savage Mountain for a reason, you have to be an absolute savage to attempt to climb it.
This is one of the survivors of the 1986 K2 tragedy, Willi Bauer, he barely escaped the two week storm that killed five of his climbing partners, and you can see what it did to his hands and fingers. He had to have fingers amputated due to frost bite. This is a photo of him when he arrived back at base camp after making a break for it, and K2 absolutely tore him up. Look closely at the bottom picture and you can see his fingertips black from frostbite, he had to eventually have them amputated.
This is a book about the 1986 K2 tragedy written by a climber who was at base camp named Jim Curran. His friend Alan Rouse was on the mountain when the storm hit, and his friend Alan Rouse never made it back.
This is what K2 looks like when a storm wraps itself around the mountain, you do not want to be up there when the mountain looks like this, you can see the white clouds engulfing the mountain, that is a storm, and it's pure hell.
I'm terribly scared of heights - just watching and looking at all this is making me short of breath.
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
I'm starting to get queezy myself!