4 ms·
Free soloing doesn't mean no gear per se. Technically, it just means free climbing while solo. There are methods for climbing solo with protection. It's comp
by sandworm 12y ago
Free soloing doesn't mean no gear per se. Technically, it just means free climbing while solo. There are methods for climbing solo with protection. It's complicated, more of an exercise in equipment management than climbing, but doable and a worthwhile emergency skill to have.
- carsonbaker 12y agoFree soloing does mean no rope however, which is the important bit. You're speaking of rope-soloing, which can be done either free or aid. If you don't have rope with you, whether or not you bring protection only matters in the edge-case that you want to french-free various moves.
- sandworm 12y agoI guess then we are at the fact that climbing terms mean different things to different climbers. Around my area, rope-soloing is solo top roping, basically a fixed rope with an ascender on the climber. I've got a great device for this that can grip two ropes in the same cam. It's like how in my parts (west coast canada) we speak of top-roping when the brits would use the term "bottom-roping". We don't make a distinction between having the belay above or below. Free soloing here just means free climbing without a partner. We don't have a term for no-gear soloing, other than idiot. It doesn't come up much.