Alex Honnold Defies the Rules of Climbing || Climbing Gold Podcast w/Alex Honnold

there's a big difference between knowing the rules and intentionally breaking them versus having no idea what the rules are and just blundering your way into a circum circumstances that you just could not foresee yeah I think that's I think that's an important distinction because I think that I know the rules pretty well but sort of intentionally choose to break many of them but but I do think I do know them you know I mean I've read freedom of the hills I've read all the all the books over the years you know like how to rock climb all the all the classics but now I just intentionally choose to ignore most of it actually so it's funny that um I've at at events over the years I've probably had like a half dozen people ask me to sign their copy of freedom of the hills you know people ask you to sign whatever but um but whenever I sign Freedom the hills I pretty much always sign you know like like this is great to a point or like learn this so that you can ignore it you know or random like variations of the theme where it's like this is a great thing for you to learn but you should not apply it too wholeheartedly you know it's like like don't take this as Dogma because it's like a good foundation but you don't need all of this I think a great example of that is is uh the modern prevalence of simal climbing like sort of for highend climbing like simal climbing now is not really textbook but it's just accepted it's done it's relatively safe it's it's like it's a normal strategy but it's just not in the book certainly not by the book simoc climbing is such a good example of that because if you are to Google you know anchors best anchors like all like there's a kajillion things come up of of you know all the different things you could be doing with your Anchor management and all this stuff but then if you actually it's it's harder to actually find a solid system for simoc climbing like a modern system for it that's actually like you got to go kind of deeper down into the Google results to even find that information which is kind of wild I mean I don't think simoc climbing is like crazy prevalent but it's certainly prevalent enough that you think that that yeah it's pretty common um you know it's not it's a you know an advanced technique but it was so interesting how that's like been one of those things that everyone's like I don't know if we should encourage this or something and they don't write about it but you know it takes like a few Google hits down to even get to the point where you're finding information about that yeah I mean I would say that the indoor stuff is like a it's it's more of a common genre whereas yeah anytime you're going to be simal climbing it's some sort of an adventure climb and you know one Paradox that occurs to me when we're talking about simult climbing is you know if you're in the mountains it's safer to simal climb or Solo in many situations so if you pitched something out and you're below a serat that you have to cross underneath yeah you're basically saying here I am shoot me uh versus running across a the Gully you know going fast and and minimizing your time exposed to hazards and and I see this a lot too where people say well this is how it should be done and I'm like well it that's how it should be done if there certain uh parameters set but one example I'll bring up is I got critiqued because I gave a slideshow and I was showing off with climbing and I wasn't wearing a helmet and it's traditional climbing therefore you should always wear a helmet but you know I know at least one case where someone had placed a piece of pro they were wearing a helmet they turned sideways the helmet got stuck he's trying to clip the gear the gear Clips to the helmet and he's yelling his partner puts him thinks he needs to be on tension and starts pulling on the rope and it's literally strangling him and you know it it's one of those things I could see if you took a whipper down a squeeze jimney and your helmet got stuck it would break your neck and you did everything right you were wearing a helmet but the helmet killed you it's I mean you can't make this up it's it's like I'll see it and I go wow like I could never have thought this up like Hollywood could never think up a scenario like this that's the real value I think in in Reading accidents North American mountaineering is that you know you might want black and white answers like always make this kind of anchor always do whatever but when you read the book and especially when you read it over multiple Seasons you start to see that it's all gray area you know because I I always personally broke it into categories of this is a terrible thing that befel people versus these people made a terrible mistake and of course there's a bit of gray are between that as well but it's like when you read enough of them sometimes just terrible things happen you know where like people are doing everything right and they just get hit by a rock that was like spontaneous rockfall and then it's epic you know but then sometimes you're like what an idiot I can't believe that person did that thing like that is so bad you know and and then there's this huge Spectrum in between and I think that that it gives you a sense like basically it just helps you with Statistics you know because otherwise you think of climate acents is only what you've heard happen to one of your friends or you've like heard through the grapevine but when you read the book enough you realize that there's this huge array of things that can happen in climbing and and to some extent it is a numbers game you know it's like you just see that that we're all numbers I don't know I've always really like accidents North American Ming it's like yeah you know and the thing we try to do is you know we probably like look at maybe 300 accidents a year like every single accident that gets sent in or reported in some way or another and you know we'll take like a hundred of those and make it into these narratives and you know these narratives are these bite-sized little stories you know so yeah and you know to your point like I used to sometimes read these things and I'd be all oh my God that these people are such idiots and I even as I'm editing sometimes have that feeling but the lucky thing about being in this editorial position is I think back and I go wait a minute this person was a total idiot but didn't you do that too you just got away with it Pete so you know it's really humbling in a way because I get to think back and go wow like yeah I remember when I did that I put in a crappy ble and my partner had to take but quickly got back on the Rock and so didn't pull me off the cliff stuff like that so yeah that's why the best part of this whole book this year P I think is in this Cathedral Peak right up the um maybe you guys saw this the it says the climbers humbly said that they were quote inconfidentes ill equipped and cold and it's like normally you can't really like say that about people but it like came from the climbers themselves and I think it actually takes like a pretty like introspective person to admit you know like I was super out of my element and I never should have been up there because usually we try to be like well this happened and this happened and those are all reasons but like at the end of the day it takes a lot to be like I was totally like out of my depth you you know yeah I I think like for that person to make that quote unquote confession that's the type of person who is really going to learn from their mistake I mean I think there's so many definitions of what is safe uh out there in the climbing World there is a right way a very safe way to do things but based on our experience and the things that we have to do or do in the real world um sometimes we forget I was thinking about all the sort of official ways that you're supposed to climb and then all the ways that I climb now you know because like my aspiration nowadays is to reach the top of a cliff with no gear left on my harness and then just sit behind some rock and blay my partner up you know like because if you wind up with a whole bunch of gear left over the top you're sort of like oh why' you carry it all the way into the mountains and all the way up the mountain you're like who cares you should just like sit down on something and ble but like obviously that's not what's taught in any kind of book but you know it's kind of habit now and and it works and it's great and I don't know you're just like it seems like the real safety issues are when you're choosing not to do the thing that you know is textbook but but you just can't be bothered yeah I was talking to to Lauren the last time we were we were speaking in preparation for this interview and I go well you know there's the the front I have to put out there as the editor of this book and then there's the things I know I have to do and do do in order to climb the things I want to and it's it's you know there's there's so many so many different standards out there to your point that uh you know I I think yeah I just think being attentive and competent like those are the two things one has to possess and a lot of the accidents we see is one yeah people being inattentive or two they're getting in situations where they're not competent

Channel: Climbing Gold with Alex Honnold

Views: 28,371

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Id: rn099wr2HhU

Length: 8min 56sec (536 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2023