Ultralight Climbing

[Matt Brodhead]

You'll have to check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwV5t7IgCHI&feature=related

Dean Potter climbs El Capitan in record-breaking time, alone.

Comments?

[John S.]

Gutsy, but won't surprise me if he dies early.

[Matt Brodhead]

Yeah I'm surprised that he's still alive. But he's a great inspiration to me, keeping in mind that there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity.

[Chad Miller]

What you have to realize is the Potter has climbed that particular rout hundreds of times. He carries a full rack, harness, and rope. Opportunities to place gear for protection is frequent and easy, especially for a climber of Potters experience and skill. If he becomes tired he places gear in the rock and hangs from it, no different from a safety standpoint than if he where leading the route and fell.

This accent of the Nose is not ultra light or nor is it a free solo. Throughout the climb Potter uses gear to accent and rest. A true free solo wouldn't use any gear. Now what Potter dose is still more dangerous than typical climbing but it’s nothing compared to a unaided free solo.

[Steven Evans]

Did you see the look on the other guys face when he passed him? That was classic!

[Matt Brodhead]

Chad, I agree with that. vHowever, he talks about speed being safety (the monologue about how thin his rope is)… I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure it takes people days to climb this route, so he goes much lighter than normal climbers.

A true free solo would be impossible to do in this case (hence, the bolt ladder). All I can say is this: humans… they're f*ckin' nuts

[Chad Miller]

It dose take people days to typically climb it.

Nothing Potter was doing in the video is new or inventive. In fact it's pretty standard practices for climbers since the early 90's.

The comment about using skinny 8mm cord to rappel and swing with is something that has been done in the climbing world for about 10 years.

Speed being equated with safety in climbing is another principle that is has been around for ten plus years. Typically a good climber will carry just the right amount of gear without bringing extra weight that will just slow them down.

The accent shown in the video is two years old (I believe) and various other climbers (male and female) have beaten Potters time. One or more climbers have actually freed the line that Potter was on (no aid climbing) in under 12 hours. Potter dose not hold the free or aid climbing record for this particular climb.

What Potter did is impressive, but not superhuman, or ultra light. It would be like having someone like Andrew Surka (sp?) backpack 260 miles in 12 days with a 30 pound pack. Shure it's great, but to people actually involved and dedicated to the sport it's just not that impressive.

[Joshua Gilbert]

I think that this video is 7-8 years old, so when it was filmed, this was groundbreaking style.

As for it not being ultralight, the lack of a haulbag seems to be a substantial reduction in skin-out weight. The dudes not even packing approach shoes.

Potter has had his issues over the years, but this is still an impressive ascent, at least to a mere mortal like myself. Other super beings may see it differently

[John S.]

Apparently that moron is also into tearing up national landmarks.

http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200606/dean-potter-delicate-arch-climb-1.html

[Joshua Gilbert]

That's one of those issues I mentioned. Look at it this way, most people who are incredibly dedicated to something, especially an esoteric pursuit like climbing are going to have trouble with the wider world.

most great writers and artists were notably rotten human beings. And most great climbers are not notable for their social graces and thoughtfulness off the rock.

[Chad Miller]

"I think that this video is 7-8 years old, so when it was filmed, this was groundbreaking style."

That's just it, when it was filmed for the 'Dosage 5' climbing video it wasn't groundbreaking style, it was considered a common albeit impressive way to free solo / aid the Nose in a half day. Weird huh?

The practices of moving fast, using thing cord for rappelling, and carrying minimal gear may have only been popular in climbing since the 90’s but they had been using in alpine accents since the mind 70’s. Like I previously stated all of these techniques shown in Potters video where / are nothing new.

Also, I believe before or right around the time the video was shot the first free accent of the climb was done by Potter (not shure it was Potter). The FFA finally being completed was part of the reason Potters free solo / aid climb was included in 'Dosage 5', to basically show how much climbing has progressed on such a classic route.

[Mike W]

…

[Chad Miller]

Without even looking at the link I'm going to guess it's about Dan Osman.

The guy did some amazing climbs with and without ropes. Then he got into a form of free fall jumping where Dan was attached to elaborately constructed anchors and then he would deliberately jump and free fall hundreds of feet. Basically while working to climb a very hard route and taking large falls on bolts (50') Dan realized he enjoyed falling more than climbing.

If you really want to know more about he man here's a link.

http://outside.away.com/magazine/0499/9904terminal.html

[Keith Hultman]

What???!!!

If you think Potter did the First Free Ascent of the Nose of El Capitan around the time Dosage 5 came out… you probably shouldn't be spouting off about what is or what is not groundbreaking in climbing. lol.

Dosage 5 comes out this spring. You are probably thinking of Masters of Stone V.

I'll let you figure out the FFA of the Nose on your own.

[Chad Miller]

Sorry, I was thinking of Master of Stone V.

As far as the first free accent of the Nose I couldn't remember who did it but I remember Potter bagging the FFA of Yosemite classic around 1994. I know Lynn Hill freed the Nose in a ground up accent taking four days back in 1994 but I'm not shure if she was the FFA or not.

That and I’m just too lazy to look up who did what with who on which route at what time.

[Jeremy Cleaveland]

the FFA of the Nose was Lynn Hill, in the early 90's. She did it free over a few days, then freed it in 24 hours! Some guy named Scott I think freed it, but only toproped the cruxes, then in the last few years, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden Caldwell team freed it, then Tommy came back and freed both the Nose AND the Salathe wall in 24 hours!!

the vid of Potter soloing the Nose is insane, but not a free ascent. It is quite ultralight for being solo – compare his gear to the standard ascent of the nose – no 3 day haulbag, 3 days of food and WATER, no portaledge, no multitude of ropes, no triple set of cams – he had some gear, but for a mostly ropeless solo, that is very minimal gear – consider how he had to aid – just always keeping more than one piece in – then consider that the spots he'd be aiding would be then thin parts… it may not be the fastest of the fastest for solo on the Nose, but it is ultralight, it is not all free, and it is crazy. I can see his point on this being safer than the average ascent – no big haul bags to mess up (a big haul bag screw-up can drop it the length of the haul rope onto your anchor – yikes!), less time to get stuck in a big storm, fewer rigging mistakes to be made, very little reliance on ropes, pro, etc – in some ways it is safer, if you are that good……. for the rest of us, …..

[Graham Williams]

Um. no. Dean has never and never would say he did the FFA of the Nose. Lynn did that. Oh, and she also did the first free ascent in a day of the Nose. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that Dean has ever freed the Nose. And it was several YEARS before any man managed to repeat what Lynn did…many men said it was impossible for a man to do because Lynn's fingers are so small.

Ultralight climbing? That's what folks like Kelly Cordes, Maxime Turgeon, Colin Haley and Steve House do…check out alpinist.com's newswire some time. For instance, for this historic link-up on Cerro Torre, I made a prototype 45L pack for Kelly that only weighed 450 grams. His total pack weight was 14 pounds, and that was with everything he'd need for up to three days. Including the climbing gear…

[Sam Haraldson]

I find it interesting that Potter would talk about 'safety in speed'. This makes sense from the perspective of Mark Twight in Extreme Alpinism in that speed gets you on and off an alpine route faster and therefore back to safety. With routes on El Cap the naturals dangers are significantly reduced and being on the rock for days at a time doesn't pose the same kinds of risks as true alpine, i.e. avalanche, frostbite, et al. Perhaps I'm speculating wildly but it's my first impression.

[Graham Williams]

With routes on El Cap the naturals dangers are significantly reduced and being on the rock for days at a time doesn't pose the same kinds of risks as true alpine, i.e. avalanche, frostbite, et al. Perhaps I'm speculating wildly but it's my first impression.

You're speculating wildly.

Here are some interesting links for you:

Nat Geo Adventure did a story on a recent storm and the associated fatalities.

Friends of YOSAR is the support organization of YOSAR, park rangers and climbers who run the rescues in the park. While 60% of all rescues are of hikers, let's face it, a helicopter rescue like the one in the other article makes for great photography and stories…

[Misfit Mystic]

Remember also Jeremy's point about water. Considering the energy you're expending, and the constant sun exposure, running out of water 20 pitches off the deck could be as dangerous as other objective alpine hazards.

[David Olsen]

Dean is very much interested in ultralight stuff.
Here is a 3 sided shelter and pack he took to
Patagonia a few years back.

The shelter you can tie in from the inside peak and is just
large enough to sit with your legs stretched out.

You can see by the size of the stuffsack the shelter is
very compact.

[Joshua Gilbert]

that is a very tricky little shelter David. does it have a door or do you just pull it over your head like a bothy?

[David Olsen]

It has a side entry zipper and a floor.

[Jon Rhoderick]

I think the reason that people speed climb places like yosemite is that its just plain up more fun that way. Ask Bill Wright or Hans Florine. Florine held the speed record for the Nose with Yuji Hiruyama with just 10 cams and 6 nuts. They finish in 2 hours 48 minutes! (compare that to 45 days? for the original ascent) and is now beaten by the Huber brothers who took 3 minutes off the previous time. Look at Flyin Brian Mcray, featured in the most recent Climbing issue and holder of virtually every El Cap speed record and numerous sub 24 hour first ascents. Many people in the climbing community would say that it is more dangerous, and those climbers also have records like the first 5.14 free solo, but for the average climber routes can be done using systems like simul climbing and short fixing and rapidly take away the boring parts of waiting for belays and so on. As for ultralight, two Pakastani ascents of the Great Trango Azeem ridge with a 30 lb pack, double rack (minus a couple they dropped midway), and the ascent of the Cat's Ear Spire of Karakoram by Eric Decaria and his partner I cant remember with a 12 POUND PACK between them, sleeping in their clothes and a bivy sack. I guess after all the climbing you do in a day, you don't need a puffy sleeping bag to fall asleep it just sort of comes to you alot easier.

Look into Extreme Alpinism, Speed climbing, and psychovertical.com for alot of these ideas, speed climbing can be safe and also very much for the non 5.14 rope guns, it actually works very well in lower difficulties you can climb without great difficulty, just as much as the cutting edge ascents of the past 20 years

[Matt Brodhead]

Awesome!

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