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He's not the greatest solo climber g, he's the greatest solo climber who doesn't use ropes.
by bruthafez 8y ago
He's not the greatest solo climber g, he's the greatest solo climber who doesn't use ropes.
- pvg 8y agoYou're making it sound like the ropes are some minor incidental detail. Usain Bolt wasn't the fastest sprinter who didn't use a motorcycle.
- pdpi 8y agoThe rope doesn't make the climb easier — it just makes mistakes less costly.
- Semirhage 8y agoI’m no climber, but I have to imagine that the weight of knowing a mistake won’t in any way be mitigated by safety devices might actually make the activity harder. It seems like it would require another degree of concentration to shut out the fear of grievous injury or death, to keep the fear under wraps.
- pvg 8y agoWalking in a straight line on the sidewalk is very easy. Walking on a narrow ledge somewhere very high up isn't.
- starpilot 8y agoThe rope makes it much easier. If you've never climbed you can't understand the psychological factor of "being protected" while climbing. If you climb "roped" at a certain grade, you might be capable of free soloing several levels below that, if at all. Similar to your mental state due to other things. If you're having a bad day or distracted, your climbing will be greatly affected, sometimes severely.
- pdpi 8y agoYeah, sorry, I wasn't clear — that was meant as "this is probably what GP is getting at". Of course, even if the rope doesn't make the climb technically easier, the psychological aspect of knowing you can't afford to fail makes it a very different kind of hard.
- bruthafez 8y agoNo, my entire point is that the articles misleading headline makes the rope sound like a minor detail. We agree that the rope is much more than a minor detail. My point is that it's suspiciously omitted from the title.