Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: HSakols on June 03, 2017, 03:13:39 pm
-
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/features/athletes/alex-honnold/most-dangerous-free-solo-climb-yosemite-national-park-el-capitan/#/alex-honnold-peter-croft-belay-ledge-yosemite.jpg
-
So what did that prove, other than that he's very lucky?
-
So what did that prove, other than that he's very lucky?
What I think it proved, is that tourist pictures are ever with us, and that there's no limit to the madness tourists will go: bungee jumpers, anyone?
Why any sane person would risk life and limb like that escapes me. Of course, I am speaking about the sane, so maybe my question contains (begs?) its own reply...
;-)
Rob
-
I guess your right, but somehow I am drawn to these images. It was looking at work from the likes of Galen Rowell that got me interested in climbing and mountain photography. I know a lot of planning goes into getting these shots and Jimmy Chin is a pro at what he does.
Regarding whether Alex is crazy, No I think he is very good at what he does. He may be more sane than the rest of us. Meanwhile this morning I'm going to try and avoid the tourists and leave right now to hike the Four Mile Trail.
-
Some people prefer to make up stories about what they'd rather not look at. Other people prefer to look.
-Dave-
-
Some people prefer to make up stories about what they'd rather not look at. Other people prefer to look.
-Dave-
Cryptic, or what!
;-)
Rob
-
Here is another photographer's report:
http://elcapreport.com/content/elcap-report-6317-special-edition-honnold-free-solo-elcap
-
What I think it proved, is that tourist pictures are ever with us, and that there's no limit to the madness tourists will go: bungee jumpers, anyone?
Why any sane person would risk life and limb like that escapes me. Of course, I am speaking about the sane, so maybe my question contains (begs?) its own reply...
;-)
Rob
Of course, Alex Honnold and Jim Chin are both the opposite of a "tourist". Bungee jumping requires absolutely zero skill. The motivation here is pursuit of excellence, and a confidence in your ability so great that you don't allow yourself any second chances. In the photographic world, think about Jim Brandenburg's "chased by the light".
-
Cryptic, or what!
;-)
Drat, I keep mixing up Cryptic and Cyrillic! ;D
Обфускация - это правда
-Dave-
-
Drat, I keep mixing up Cryptic and Cyrillic! ;D
Обфускация - это правда
-Dave-
Goodness me, that's worse than Letraset bodytype! At least the latter read a bit Latino, with a hint of church.
Rob
-
Goodness me, that's worse than Letraset bodytype!
It even looks sinister, no? No wonder why eyes are averted.
Guys like Chin are a bit bonkers. But IMO it's a good kind of bonkers. There are other kinds…
-Dave-
-
Jimmy Chin is one of my favorite photographers. I really admire his skill and dedication.
Neither of these guys are crazy, IMO. They are very calculated, skilled, and they know what is at stake. This would be undeniably crazy for most people but Alex isn't like most people. The luck involved is that there wasn't a freak accident that couldn't be overcome with skill, experience, and conditioning. The other 99.9% is skill, experience, and conditioning.
What are they proving? Jimmy is documenting, proving it really happened (in a beautiful way) and Alex is proving this is within human ability. Just not an average human. I don't do this kind of climbing but I'm familiar with the attraction of the mountains and the challenges they present.
Anyway, I think this is really cool. Thanks for posting!
-
I always have trouble watching these climbers. I really fear for them. I can taste my heart. I seems like I'm going to fall just watching. Does anyone else get than feeling?
-
Here is an interesting article where they studies Alex's brain. Yes, it is amazing, but I worry for Alex as he ages, that he will feel that he has to proove something. After his climb he came and talked with the students at Yosemite Valley School about setting goals and working hard. In 2009, I met the great John Bachar up on a ledge in Tuolumne Meadows while he was climbing with his kid. He placed zero protection except for the belay. A week later he died free soloing. I remember him tellimg me that he just couldn't climb like he used to. There is a great film on netflix called Valley Uprising that tells the story of the first Stonemasters. It also includes many historical photographs by Glenn Denny
http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber?mbid=social_facebook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bachar
-
Yeah, when the drive to keep reaching that next level excedes your capabilities…you're bound to fail. But I suspect for people built like that, dying doing the thing you're compelled to do and love doing is a better alternative than stopping and spending the rest of your life frustrated. Quality over quantity.
-Dave-
-
I hope more photos surface but I thought this is an interesting progression of the sport I didn't see coming. 8)
https://www.climbing.com/news/the-first-naked-ascent-of-el-capitan/(https://www.climbing.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_80%2Cw_960/MTQ3ODA4NzI3MzQzMzA5OTI2/unknown.jpg)
-
What comes after naked? Gripping ropes and cables only with your teeth? ;D
-Dave-
-
What comes after naked? Gripping ropes and cables only with your teeth? ;D
-Dave-
With this kind climbing there isn't really any rope-gripping for the climber, just the belayer. The rope is just in case you lose your grip on the rock.
But I guess the next step is free soloing naked which is without a rope like the story that started this thread.
-
Pretty darn funny! Just a couple of days ago it was cold and snowing at the top of El Cap.
Here is a video of Search and Rescue Training on El Cap just this spring. https://www.facebook.com/verticalmag/videos/vb.51515866660/10155505179291661/?type=2&theater
-
Here's a short interview with Jimmy Chin (https://www.outsideonline.com/2193996/interview-jimmy-chin?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Stand-Up-for-Public-Lands-Dinner&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=jimmy-outside-interview) and they touch on some of the risks and how he manages them.
-
Me too. FWIW you may want to check out a book called the Big Open. It's about a trek by Galen Rowell, Rick Ridgeway, Conrad Anker, and Jimmy Chin when Jimmy was just getting started.
I guess your right, but somehow I am drawn to these images. It was looking at work from the likes of Galen Rowell that got me interested in climbing and mountain photography. I know a lot of planning goes into getting these shots and Jimmy Chin is a pro at what he does.
Regarding whether Alex is crazy, No I think he is very good at what he does. He may be more sane than the rest of us. Meanwhile this morning I'm going to try and avoid the tourists and leave right now to hike the Four Mile Trail.
-
An italian climber, Cesare Maestri, once said that the best climber is the one who dies in his bed.
Reading the biographical data of the greatest climbers is very impressive, very few died in their beds.
-
Knowing the risks and still going to great lengths to experience them seems like nothing other than madness.
What the hell do you gain, other than soiled underpants and another grey hair? If you achieve neither, then there is definitely something missing in your head. Avoid romantic entanglements and children in order to limit the consequential damage.
Rob
-
The great climber Walter Bonatti (who had been in 1954 the real hero of the K2 conquest), in 1961, after he had survived the terrible tragedy of the Central Pillar of Freney, Mont Blanc (four deads, three survivors, he and two others saved by him), said (wrote) that perhaps he had managed to survive only because he had a woman who loved him...
-
The great climber Walter Bonatti (who had been in 1954 the real hero of the K2 conquest), in 1961, after he had survived the terrible tragedy of the Central Pillar of Freney, Mont Blanc (four deads, three survivors, he and two others saved by him), said (wrote) that perhaps he had managed to survive only because he had a woman who loved him...
I wonder if, as with all infidelities, he promised never to do it again...
Today, in the age of the drone and the helicopter, the need for such madness is ever less necessary insofar as photography goes.
Funny how fantasy trumps reality: we quite often get choppers flying overhead, and the sound is not very much like the traditional one you hear in the movies, which has a distinct rhythm of its own, a low-pitched thud thud thud lacking in the far more mundane noise of the real thing. There are times I believe one to be flying close overhead, and when I step outside to wave (joke) the thing turns out to be just another fixed-wing machine. Rather than of Apocalypse Now, choppers remind me of the opening shots of La Dolce Vita.
Rob