Alex Honnold is back at it in Yosemite, running up routes big and small without a rope according to his 8a scorecard. He’s soloed single pitch routes like Heaven (5.12d, Flash) and Cosmic Debris (5.13b). Cosmic Debris, which was climbed by Beth Rodden in Dosage V, is described like this on MountainProject:
A classic overhanging finger crack. The climbing starts with bomber locks until you hit a hand jam rest. From there the crack gets thinner and the climbing gets harder. The whole thing is really damn hard though. Overhanging climbing with microscopic foot holds makes this a major test piece. Have fun!
He also soloed a few longer routes like Direct North Buttress and Ho Chi Minh Trail, both on Middle Cathedral Rock. For the latter he noted on his scorecard that he might have “FA’ed a 4 or 5 pitch variation by accident”.
Honnold also had a day of “scrambling” on Astroman and The Rostrum, soloing the 5.12b Alien finish on the latter route.
For more on Honnold’s thoughts on climbing, soloing and his place in the industry, check out this video interview as well as a piece on him in Alpinist #35.
Update: Via DPM comes a reminder about this footage of Dean Potter soloing Heaven
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAAqZHR0OGg]
Update #2: Rock & Ice catches up with Honnold to learn a bit more about his solos of Heaven and Cosmic Debris
Cosmic felt super mellow. It was surprisingly easy and locker. I think that sort of boosted my confidence forHeaven.
what the…
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While looking at mountainproject yesterday and seeing the feeds from both Climbing and R&I, it was interesting to see how both treated these solos so differently, while working from largely the same set of limited facts.
R&I showed up first with the headline “Honnold Solos Cosmic Debris and Heaven.” This headline gives weight to the history and reputation of these top end yosemite lines.
Climbing meanwhile reports “Honnold soloes [sic] .13b Yosemite Crack.’ What they are pointing at here is the number. As someone who always thought that there was so much more to climbing than just the next higher number, it’s disappointing. The uniqueness of the climb has been stripped away and now it’s just another blocky cave route at Rifle.
Anyway, at the end of the day, I thought his flash solo of Heaven was more impressive. Perched out on glacier point, that thing has huge exposure. To solo it first try…. amazing.
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He should totally start doing link ups…
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Damn. That’s steep.
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What a rock!!
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Mindcrushing
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