This new video from our friends at The North Face has been making the rounds over the weekend. If you haven’t seen it yet, trust us, take a couple of minutes and watch this:
OK, now release the deathgrip you have on your chair, your tablet, the person next to you, etc. We want to hear from you: what do you think of free solo climbing, AKA climbing without a rope?
Alex Honnold, the climber featured here, has already made headlines by free-soloing the “regular” route up the northwest face of Half Dome, an iconic photo of which made the cover of National Geographic, as well as other significant routes like Moonlight Buttress, The Phoenix, Astroman and Rostrum.
This video, in which he free-solos El Sendero Luminoso (5.12d) in Mexico, ups the ante even further — especially considering the rock here is notoriously fragile and holds have been known to break off completely.
So… what do you think? Is this good for the sport of rock climbing? Is it bad? Do you like seeing stuff like this, or is it too nerve-wracking to enjoy? Share your comments below.
Of course, here at Rock/Creek we recommend that you bring along some climbing gear when you’re going climbing… and we know just the place you can get it!