Re:The Free Soloist Who Fell to Earth
by throwaway22032 on Saturday June 24, 2023 @08:02PM
(#36463874)
I edited my post to clarify that I don't mean that there's zero skill involved, of course I didn't mean that.
Just that when it goes wrong, you're just screwed.
Re:The Free Soloist Who Fell to Earth
by kdmccormick on Saturday June 24, 2023 @08:32PM
(#36464077)
Yeah, I'm with you there, there's a big luck aspect it seems.
I think those things soloists they do in order to lower the probability of freak events (choosing climbs smartly, not soloing when they're no in the right headspace, practicing, being good at recovering from mistakes, choosing good holds, etc) makes it very skill-based, but they can never lower that all the way to 0%.
It also takes skill to look at rock and have an understanding of how likely it is to be safe to put your weight on. And it takes skill to repeatedly do climbs with a rope to get to the point where you're comfortable doing them unprptected.
Finally, it takes skill to hold yourself on the wall with 1-3 of your other limbs in the event that one of the holds gives away or your hand slips (the latter of which does happen plenty often).
If it weren't skill-based, you'd see random daredevil freaks freesoloing all the time. It just wouldn't be interesting. It'd be like, "Man climbs tall unsteady ladders regularly!" No, what these guys are doing is both insane but also insanely impressive.