Adam Ondra Opens Up About Free Soloing & Dangerous Trad Climbing
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- čas přidán 25. 02. 2024
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This clip is pulled from a full podcast interview: Elite climber Adam Ondra shares his struggles and breakthroughs in Training, Nutrition, Tactics, and Mental Game - Zábava
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He sounds sane.
He has nothing to prove by free soloing. Adam has cemented his reputation already as essentially the best climber in the world. And he can enjoy that status while he lives and not posthumously.
Free soloing is nothing about proving, the top free solo climbers are sane, like Alex says - I never climb anything where everything is not 100% under his control (weather, route stability, his form..)
Alex Hannold, Marc Andre Lecrerc…. Men that take the risks will undoubtedly go down as the greatest of all time. Particularly Alex Hannold. Not taking anything away from Adams skill set, he’s got nothing on Free Soloing big wall or Alpine Mountains and Glaciers. Until he does he’ll never come close. He may be one of the most skilled with a safety line but he’s not the greatest of all time. Period, End of Story.
The free solo guys are on another level.
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 Don't understand your take at all. The best climber is the one who can climb the hardest routes, not risking the most. Free solo is more about being able to control yourself since the stakes are so high.
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 watched the documentary about Marc Andre leclerc on a flight. I was hesitant at first because I watched free solo when it premiered and figured no one could outdo Alex. I was pleasantly surprised and blown away by Marc.
I’m blown away when I watch Adam climb.
My palms sweat when I watch Alex free solo.
It’s a whole different experience
And then there's Alain Robert who was kind of a mix of Ondra and Honnold, natural and technical and ahead of others like Ondra, relaxed and focused with an exceptionnal fear management like Honnold. We will never know what his true potential actually was but he said he never felt he was on his limits. I believe he may not have been "has good" as Ondra, like maybe he wouldn't be able to do 9c or even 9b, but he would've been able to send the hardest route free solo. He doesn't necessarily would've been the best but at his prime, to his limits I'm 100% sure he would've been the perfect conbination of Ondra and Honnold to make the most insane results
@@souillonsousion8687 agreed. He's easily the most impressive 70s-90s free soloist. Also one of the craziest builderers ever.
Honnold stopped soloing as he had his first child.
That's just not true. His solo with Magnus was when his daughter was about 2 months old.
Respect for saying it Adam. I won't watch free solo content, I don't want people taking that kind of risk for my entertainment.
'Every single second you are in fatal danger'. Dude nailed it in one sentence.
Hurray I finally found something I have in commun with Adam... the ceiling light!
Insane Mate🔥🔥🔥
Adam, for someone who doesn't "want to take unnecessary risk", you have a pretty dodgy light fitting.
Exposed live parts are for fun
pretty standard in europe
@@bobs-nq8wrno, not really
@@bobs-nq8wr I live in Europe and don't know what you're talking about.
Lol
Nice work bless UP 👍
I completely agree with Adam's view on putting bolts on el cap. It would be so much better for everyone if the free climbers could just add a few bolts here and there to make a line go with less mank. For the pitch Adam was talking about with the fixed beaks, having a few bolts instead of fixed beaks would be super helpful because the beaks are going to rust way faster than stainless steel bolts ever would. (beaks are generally not made of stainless steel and instead are usually made of carbon steel.) Not just that, but the aid climbers would have to work harder for the route too. A 40m pitch with 15 fixed beaks would basically turn the pitch into a bolt ladder where you occasionally have to make a single placement between fixed pieces, and that would be a lot less engaging than even an A1 or A2 beaks pitch. The bolter could even put the bolts right next to bomber beak placements and it would have zero effect on the aid rating of the pitch!
No, El Cap should be reserved for the best and most daring. It shouldn’t be made a tourist route for climbers that need all the extra equipment like Adam does.
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 serious question, did you even read my comment?
And then it would be almost stupid for an aid climber to not back up the beaks with the bolts; and would you then not have to video the aid lead to prove you did the aid purely.
The Dawn Wall is not a sport route where it takes no courage to fall your way up the route.
You have to be as good and brave as Tommy.
@@DuBCraft21 They should all solo it like Alex did, Problem solved.
@@craigbritton1089 you take aid climbing way too seriously. No one actually cares if you sent a trade route or not. Hell, hardly anyone cares about proper hard aid routes that are leagues ahead of the routes the free dawn wall follows. If people actually cared, the name Eric Kohl would be known by everyone.
The fact of the matter is fixed mank makes the experience worse for everyone one and if adding a few bolts means we can get rid of loads of it, then we should do it.
These climbers are warriors
I think, he wanted to replay on why he doesn't free solo, "well, I am not an idiot", but was to polite for such a harsh answer. 😆
Or maybe he just have more respect for other people having their own choices.
Alex Hannold thinks you’re and idiot.
Imagine thinking bolting a 9c isn't an idiotic thing to do. It's all idiotic, just different levels.
@@guyfawkes4578 But he can not really die
Adam's ability at English just one or two years later is incredible. A testament to the mind he possesses
A weird comment, but bolting ethics in climbing remind me a bit of open source software development. The hard-core developers tend to conspire to create a barrier to entry (requiring ever-more complex knowledge) over the heads of casual developers/designers. This tends to make the tool less useful and efficient (and in some cases dooms the tool entirely by shrinking the user base, but in the short run is good for job security. It's not "unfair" - those hardcore developers built the tools, and anyone is free to learn to be a better developer. But it's a tension implicit at just allowing the whole world to use the thing you worked hard to build.
Similarly, hard trad climbers are under no obligation to bolt lines, even though it would make them safer, usually more enjoyable, and even (as Ondra says) more bad-ass and run-out. They remain unbolted because the only people capable of bolting them don't want a bunch of weekend warriors on their lines.
I'm in no position to offer a solution, but I suspect we'll see a lot more route-bolting in 10 or 20 years when a lot of the old school guys aren't climbing anymore and a bunch of strong young kids who grew up in gyms show up and want safe, fun, hard lines to climb.
Do you have an example of "hard-core developers tend to conspire to create a barrier to entry (requiring ever-more complex knowledge) over the heads of casual developers/designers"?
@@thenayancat8802 I don't feel like getting into a fight about it. My personal experience is in developing websites with an open-source CMS, and seeing things get much more byzantine over the years to shut out less-skilled developers (like me). Not complaining, just an observation.
@@IronJohn755 I'm not trying to get into a fight about it, I'm an open source dev whose background is chemistry/biology, not computer science, so I doubt I'm in the elite CS cadre who would be capable of designing other devs out of systems.
Have just never seen this. I see some horrendous UI/UX in software generally, but I don't think it's intentional.
@@thenayancat8802 More specifically, I'm a graphic designer who taught myself to develop websites in Drupal. It used to be well-suited to non enterprise website development and while the learning curve was a little steep, a person with no CS background could deploy sites and do front-end development. With the last couple releases, everything moved (not without reason) to working in the command line and using new concepts for templates. It hollowed out the low-end user base, including many developers of specialized modules that never ported their work to the new system. So now it's very efficient for enterprise sites, but the whole bottom fell out and many people have moved to WordPress or other less powerful systems. A less-skilled user like me used to be able to build very valuable tools (for example adding geolocation data into nodes and displaying them (with filterable taxonomy) in a searchable Google map). Now it's a huge undertaking so small businesses end up paying $20k a year for (much easier to deploy) 3rd party tools.
The analogy is that it would be really nice (for more recreational climbers like me) if more routes were bolted to avoid the learning curve, extra gear and danger of using trad gear, natural anchors, etc. But then crags would be swarming with people and become probably less safe than before. The reason it's not happening is likely not "aesthetics" or some nebulous ethic, but that really good, committed climbers having less incentive to do it (their own personal enjoyment) than not to do it (more gumbies).
@@thenayancat8802 No problem - just didn't want to start a flame war over an unrelated topic. I was specifically talking about Drupal, where this problem is pretty well documented. Everything was pretty perfect about 10-15 years ago, then a lot of concepts and tools got radically changed, and the community has declined rapidly. It sucks for a lot of people, but mostly the ones (like me) who used the tools but didn't contribute to them. Same thing here. Nobody is stopping anybody from learning to trad climb. It's in some ways an artificial barrier to entry to keep gumbies out, but people convince themselves it's about ethical/aesthetic purity.
Very interesting as he has a completely different view on climbing than Alex Honnold
Did Ondra just say the American bolting ethic is bunk? Couldn't agree more. No dirtbag owns Our rock.
You don't own it either.
@@craigbritton1089 ...kinda my point.
@@undaware your statement looks like you think people should be able to add as many bolts as they like rather than respect the FA.
There is no shortage of climbs to do. It is like with chiseling; if it is ok to chisel your project so you can send it; why can't I chisel it further so I can send it?
Or if someone doesn't like sixty foot falls; why cannot someone reduce it to ten foot falls?
Or just put an auto belay on every climb so the crux is never clipping; or being afraid of the fall potential?
It is like being short hauled on a guided trip to the summit of Everest ; you have been to the summit; but you have not climbed it. You are not a mountaineer. You had a life experience.
@@craigbritton1089 .. There are a handfull of FA's I'd love to disrespect. But that has nothing to do with you taking my comment to all sort of extremes.
@@undaware people who can't put their name to their comments usually have dirty underwear on run-outs.
Smart guy. I love Alex as he has done something sensational, but Alex is really a different guy. His brain doesn’t work like most people. I’d almost be willing to say he’s a psychopath and I mean that with absolutely zero insult to him. He just doesn’t have emotions like most people
He is a bit reasonable too : since he has a family he doesn't freesolo anymore.
ı would solo and ı do too easy routes if ı climbed 9c 7a solo would be easy to the some point and exposure level . ı love the some thrill but not too risky stuff
Briliant question in the beggining of the video "You ve basicaly dominated every style of climbing out there but you haven't tryied dying and why is that?" Amazing job
MANY climbers solo. I found his answer, as is often the case with Adam, to be thoughtful and interesting.
How about climbing the dawn wall in a day? Seems crazy but 3 climbing days seemed ok for him last time, so with a bit more effort who knows...
No chance lol
Could be miss-remembering but pretty sure it took Adam 8 days to climb the dawn wall, not 3.
@@Icetemplar yes but a couple of them where rest days! And I think they were close to finish in 6, but something happened, maybe it was the weather...
Do I expect to one day see a headline about Ondra dying climbing (soloing)? No. Do I think I'll eventually see that headline regarding AH? Definitely.
I think it’s a sport, soloing is something entirely different. It’s not just about climbing at that point
Didn't Alex stop free soloing long time ago?
People been praying on Alex downfall for awhile now but guess what haters
Alex Honnold retired, so haters like you can stop crying and acting like you know the fate of the Greatest Rock climber of all time, Alex Honnold. Marc Andre Is righ up there with Alex, two of the Greatest of all time. Adam Ondra doesn’t even come close
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 How did you infer that he hates Honnold? It is you who has anger issues.
"cause he doesnt want to die."
Soloing is a totally different sport. Some people just don’t want to do that sport and that’s fine
"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee..."
So, if Adam doesn't free solo, what is the shot of him free soloing on the cover of this vid from?
I'm sorry for you but he kinda did not free solo the dawn wall. He has a rope, the cover is just bad quality so you don't see it. Just look at the photo on google by searching "Adam Ondra, Yosemite, and a Dawn of a New Era - Evening Sends"
There is a rope on that picture
It's hard to see in this picture, especially in the size it is, but he's got blue pants on with a blue harness over it, there's a yellow rope in the picture and a quickdraw by his foot.
@@Hispaclimbing Thanks
@@Aaron-xq6hv Thanks, I need a bigger screen.
2:33
😳
Adam. dude.
Sort out that light cable!
5 :8 "..they just did it but it felt wrong .." I wonder if this resonates in any way with Magnus when he found himself soloing with AA and asked Alex A to stop filmiing ? He obviously wasn`t comfortable but did it for .............whatever !
“And you haven’t taken on free soloing and why is that…?” Umm, just a guess, but maybe because he doesn’t want to die prematurely?
I would guess that 10/10 free soloists don’t want to die prematurely. Same with race car drivers, sky divers, and mountain bikers. Not wanting to die is what most people want. Yet many still do those things. That’s what I find to be an interesting exploration.
@@thestruggleclimbingshow yes it is an interesting exploration, and requires lots of bravery and risk, as well as skill on all levels, why some do it is a mystery. I do think it also has a very high death rate too. Cheers
I feel free soloing should be shunned. What Honnold has done is amazing but nobody should ever be asking climbers why they don't free solo. It's, as Ondra says, an unnecessary danger.
A lot of climbers (many I interview), free solo. It’s just usually really easy stuff that they don’t talk much about. Cutting edge soloing is definitely a more rare pursuit.
Adam, totally correct decision to not take any unnecessary risks.
If doing it and something bad happens, whine of how much you could have done/won if not freeclimbed.
It’s just stupid to climb without ropes!
//Blessings, Richard.
So we should bolt third and fourth class pitches? Maybe we should install a Via Ferreta/TR set up for every pitch on every climb because leading is stupid; more people die leading than free soloing.
He’ll never top Alex Honnold or Marc Andre if he doesn’t free solo. No matter how skillful he is when being hooked up to a safety line.
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 apples and oranges.
It's a tad tasteless to ask this dude why he doesn't free solo. Nobody free solo's. The few that do are not normal and we shouldn't hold everyone else to their mindset. What Adam has done is incredible and stands apart even still.
LOTS of climbers solo. Not many do at the very top end, but very many do it sub-maximal. In fact, I’d venture to say that most pro climbers have free soloed. On my show I’ve chatted with Honnold, Peter Croft, Sasha DiGiulian, Nina Williams, Dave MacLeod, Magnus Midtbø, and Jordan Cannon just to name a few, all of whom solo from time to time (some more than others). My question for Adam wasn’t meant to be provocative, I was just curious where he drew the line personally, and why. He’s the best in the world and his thoughts on the topic are interesting and informative I think.
@@thestruggleclimbingshow Most of those 'lots of climbers' free solo super rarely on routes they find ridiculously easy. Magnus was super uncomfortable with Alex doing something which would have felt routine with ropes. It just doesn't feel like a fair question to ask this dude. Of course he doesn't want to free solo, what does he have to prove to himself or anyone else? Nobody would be that impressed with him free soloing stuff that's literally nothing for him (he's one of the best ever after all) and on the other end surely you already understand why he doesn't want to free solo the harder stuff. I dunno bro it just felt a bit odd. If I was him I'd be a bit frustrated because there are so many people who compare him unfavorably with Alex because Alex is missing something in his brain that stops everybody else doing what he does.
@@I_am_nobody999I found his answer quite interesting actually. I wasn’t fishing. I was curious. Magnus actually soloed a route way harder than the one made famous with Alex. He shared that in my full podcast with him if you’re curious to hear about it. Anyway, soloing is a style of climbing that’s more mental than physical and I personally find it fascinating. Adam had a lot to say on it, and much more, in our two hour conversation. If you don’t like the soloing stuff I bet you’ll like some of the other topics we jammed on.
@@I_am_nobody999im sorry. Free solo climbers like Alex are on a whole nother level.
I agree. One shall not have to justify why one doesn't free solo.
If you fall 25m onto a bolt runner you will wish you had decked out
Alex Honnald is the best climber
Because free soloists die
Honnald will likely die soloing like nearly all great free solo enthusiasts pushing the limits do.
Something about his cool demeanor and disregard for safety is weirdly kinda sad and creepy to me to be honest. I never felt that way about osman idk.
it is really not worth the risk
I can respect that. You have to be built different to solo...
Much respect. Don’t free solo. It’s for idiots, suicidal people, or just flat out narcissistic drive to please ego. I guess there’s a sense of freedom or thrill, but seems too stupid to praise or condone
Chicken
Asking why someone would choose to climb with ropes is as stupid as asking why someone wouldn’t just wear a diaper all day rather than having to visit the restroom
Both save time 😂. But seriously, soloing is a legit part of the sport. MANY climbers solo (usually well below their limit). I’ve interviewed lots who do. I feel it’s a fair and interesting question to pose to the best climber in the world.
So what you’re saying is you and you’re boyfriend Adam will never be as good as Alex Honnold or Marc Andre. At least you’re big enough to say that you and your boyfriend will never be that good….
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 Very interesting take. Did your homosexual lover have a rope related climbing accident or something?
@@andrewlm5677 So what you’re saying is…..”
Idiotic question about free solo. Why to take unnecessary risk? I am totally with Adam.
Climbing is a sport, free solo is something entirely different. People who freesolo don’t do it for the sport
@kevinc.cucumber3697 outdoor climbing is more a lifestyle, than sport. Same for mountaineering. I think Adam climbs not just for sport.
I’m totally with Alex Honnold. Bunch of pansie Ondra fanboys
Your life is too precious to risk .
Than stay on your sofa.
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 I don't have a sofa you stay on yours .
@@NJRangerGeorge Go out and get a job so you can afford a sofa, then sit yourself down on it and cry about the fact that you or Adam Ondra will never be as awesome as Alex Honnold or Marc Andre Lecrerc, or any other free spirited climbers out there in the wild.
@cptjohnbhewler1529 go take a shit
@cptjohnbhewler1529 go take a 💩
Climbing doing free solo is like riding a motorbike without a helmet. It's not cool, we shouldn't promote it. I'm very glad Adam is not on that nonsense trend
One might say it is a ratio of risk to reward.. the risk is not same for better climbers. and the reward is probably greater than riding a motorbike without a helmet. Also I think people started climbing before ropes, so also don't think it's a "trend". Riding a motor bike with a helmet is not the safest way to travel either.. don't promote it.
No one will ever be as good as Alex Honnold with your weak mindset.
@@SoloInstrumentsyeah, saftey equipment is a detriment past a certain point.
Riding a motorbike without a helmet takes literally zero skill at all.
@@I_am_nobody999 People rode horses for thousands of years without your helmets, you helmet.
And no one knows who he is
Climbers do. And people in his country do.
He's basically the most well known figure within the climbing community, but ok. Honnold is more famous with people who don't climb, because of his risk taking. He's by far an inferior climber though.
@@Phoenixrebirth85 you can’t really compare these two, Honnold focused his entire life on free solo, Ondra on much more on competitions. You are completely ignoring the mental in this comparison, especially when Alex is hard to compare to, since he doesn’t compete
@@Phoenixrebirth85 apples and oranges
@@craigbritton1089 The point I'm making is regarding fame, not climbing skills.
He doesn't solo because he's a climber and climbers are lame.
We solo because we want to go fast and summit big mountains.
That's just not what "climbers" care about
Blah blah blah,,,
This is the biggest compensation comment I’ve seen in ages 😂
@@MonolithStudiosMelbournesays all the people who try to compensate because they won’t come within a fraction of doing what Alex Honnold has done and achieved free soloing. Stay in your lame a*** lane.
@@TheNewMediaoftheDawnsays the guy who looks like a bag of spoiled milk. Pludgy blah blah blah…. Pudgy boy.
@@cptjohnbhewler1529 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂