The Alpinist

[climbingcue]

I watched it after 14 Peaks, I learned about it from the 14 Peaks thread on this forum.

Thank you...

[XterraRob]

Who free solos on ice and mixed climbs? Unbelievable.

People in the PNW.

[Jan van Tilburg]

timisimaginary:
" but i think it's more apt to say "he lived doing what he loved." whatever he was doing the day he died, that was just a single day.

Beautifully stated!

[FireOnTheMountain]

Who free solos on ice and mixed climbs? Unbelievable.

People in the PNW.

Ice and mixed can be super sketch even on a rope. Lot of no falling territory even tho you may get screws in. Free soloing these hard things is almost more "normal" than soloing rock only because doing it on a rope can be almost as gnar!

[susanjoypaul]

Who free solos on ice and mixed climbs? Unbelievable.

People in the PNW.

Ice and mixed can be super sketch even on a rope. Lot of no falling territory even tho you may get screws in. Free soloing these hard things is almost more "normal" than soloing rock only because doing it on a rope can be almost as gnar!

Whelp, I learned something today then. Thank you.

I was getting a little sick to my stomach watching some of that film though. I don't know how anyone works up the nerve to do that stuff, though Leclerc did say something about "just spending some casual time outside" (or something like that - not his exact words) so I guess for certain extraordinary people, doing it is less nerve-racking than sitting at home watching other people do it.

[I Man]

he ended up dying on a roped descent with a partner, killed by an avalanche

Makes me think of Brad Gobright, another prolific soloist killed not soloing but also on descent - rappelling.

RIP Brad. I was lucky enough to meet him through a mutual friend when he gave a talk in NYC.

I watched The Alpinist last night. I am very happy it made its way to Netflix as there were no theaters showing it near me. As someone who loves ice & mixed, and has somewhat of an understanding of what he was climbing...HOLY s**t!


Some of those mixed moves and some of the ice sections that weren't even connected to the wall are actually insane and as Honnold says, nothing like he is doing (rock is much safer).

Soloing ice and mixed is pretty common among alpine climbers as you need to move fast in the mountains and you generally don't want to fall anyway, but most people I know who solo ice are soloing things like Scottish Gully or Spiral Staircase - Martha/Dreamweaver etc... Of course there are the Noah's of the world out there running Free Solo laps on The Rigid Des, but they are few and far between.

I truly appreciated Marc-Andre's approach and mindset and it really resonated with me about how sending a big objective might not actually change your life in the way you expected, but the journey, the experience it gave you, certainly did.

The shots of Robson renewed my interest in getting out there, but I doubt it will happen.

I plan to watch 14 Peaks next, but usually watching things about 8000m peaks just makes me angry, so we will see.

[Boggy B]

Yeah. In ice climbing, you have a monster jug in your hand at all times, so as long as you're strong enough to hold on, barring objective hazards not much can go wrong. Good ice climbers run out hard sections because placing a screw at a bad stance dramatically increases your chances of falling off, and even short lead falls can maim you. Marc didn't even shake out in the Stanley clip so the climbing was obviously well within his limits (and since he never onsight soloed for cameras, presumably he had prior experience with the route, which is a big deal in mixed climbing), but he was insanely strong regardless.

One person in the film suggested that super out-there solo efforts are the next frontier of alpinism. Maybe so, but as we all know Honnold's amygdala is shorted out, and Marc's risk tolerance was rather greater. I don't think a lifestyle that so willfully embraces unmitigable risk is something to aspire to, though I can't deny I envy those experiences.

[WVMountaineer]

I learned about it from the 14 Peaks thread on this forum.

Same, watched it tonight and thought 14 Peaks was impressive. This is a totally different level of whoa!

[FireOnTheMountain]

Marc didn't even shake out in the Stanley clip so the climbing was obviously well within his limits (and since he never onsight soloed for cameras, presumably he had prior experience with the route, which is a big deal in mixed climbing), but he was insanely strong regardless.

Spurred on by this thread, I finally watched it last night. The Stanley headwall solo was complete bonkers. Up to that point in the movie and perhaps 10min further into it, the word "onsight" was finally used when talking about the Emperor Face I believe. Watching him climb the headwall I was thinking there's no effing way this dude is onsight as he leaves his tool going for that breadloaf sidepull. No thinking at all, who knows maybe he was onsight. One thing for sure as you point out, strong as a mother!

[Boggy B]

Spurred on by this thread, I finally watched it last night. The Stanley headwall solo was complete bonkers. Up to that point in the movie and perhaps 10min further into it, the word "onsight" was finally used when talking about the Emperor Face I believe. Watching him climb the headwall I was thinking there's no effing way this dude is onsight as he leaves his tool going for that breadloaf sidepull. No thinking at all, who knows maybe he was onsight. One thing for sure as you point out, strong as a mother!

I assume he did onsight prior to the filming. But in the clip, he knew where all the holds were, which would be pretty unusual for a mixed onsight. That might have been his third lap.
One thing I couldn't wrap my head around was how they filmed the first Torre Egger sequence as a party of two, unless his partner was also soloing.
Did they say the name of the peak in the intro footage (and also near the end)? Waddington? That was gnarly.

[GK83]

Spurred on by this thread, I finally watched it last night. The Stanley headwall solo was complete bonkers. Up to that point in the movie and perhaps 10min further into it, the word "onsight" was finally used when talking about the Emperor Face I believe. Watching him climb the headwall I was thinking there's no effing way this dude is onsight as he leaves his tool going for that breadloaf sidepull. No thinking at all, who knows maybe he was onsight. One thing for sure as you point out, strong as a mother!

Did they say the name of the peak in the intro footage (and also near the end)? Waddington? That was gnarly.

I think the intro footage is Northeast Buttress of Sleese? definitely some of the wildest footage of a climb that can be found...

[martinleroux]

I think the intro footage is Northeast Buttress of Sleese? definitely some of the wildest footage of a climb that can be found...

Correct, it's the NE Buttress of Slesse. See https://www.climbing.com/news/film-revi ... -alpinist/.