2d ago

The "Thank God Ledge" in Yosemite National Park, California

101 comments

That's a nope for me, dawg.
- He’s got a harness on but it doesn’t look like it’s connected to anything.
  
  This is a well known picture of Alex Honnold free-soloing the route. Free-soloing means he is climbing without a rope. He has a chalk bag on a belt, but no harness or rope. There is a documentary that features this called “Free Solo”, if you could imagine. It’s worth a watch if you don’t have anything pressing going on.
  
  if you don’t have anything pressing going on
  Gonna go out on a ledge here and say it’s worth a watch regardless. It won an Oscar for best doc as well as a bunch of other awards. IMO it’s easily one of the top 5 docs of the last decade.
  Very stressful to watch for some though. My wife loved it, but her hands were dripping with sweat from stress throughout most of the movie
  
  I don't think that's a harness I think it's a chalk bag. You can see the bag just behind his hand.
  
  Isn’t the chalk bag connected to the harness?
  
  To the contrary: You can sometimes recognise beginners by observing that they have their chalk bag attached to their harness with a carabiner. Usually, you attach the chalk bag with a strap around your waist. The harness is reserved for protection gear (nuts, cams, etc.)
  This guy is Alex Honnold, famous for free soloing (climbing without a rope). He has a movie called "Free Solo" where he solos El Capitan, it's a good movie if you're interested :)
  
  I always wear mine on my harness but I usually sport climb and rarely trad climb where I’d need nuts and cams.
  
  I was maybe a bit rough when saying "beginner", I'm probably should have said "people with little outdoor-climbing experience", sorry about that.
  But, if you care what others at the gym think (you shouldn't, just let your climbing speak for itself), it's definitely a thing that people with their chalk bag attached to their harness with a carabiner (even worse, a safety carabiner), are quickly assumed to be beginners. At least it looks like they've done little or no outdoor climbing. But again: Don't give a shit what people think, just have fun climbing :)
  
  I’m pretty sure there isn’t an indoor climbing gym in 100 miles of me.
  
  Where do you put your quickdraws if not on your harness?
  
  The better question is how small is your harness if you can’t fit them both on it?
  
  Well for a long sport route (say 30-40m/15 quickdraws) and also bringing some slings/carabiners for the top anchor, I could still squeeze in a chalk bag, but it would get more in the way of my gear than when I just have it on a strap around my waist. It's also nice when I'm not on the wall to just pull it around to my hip so I don't sit on it by accident.
  To be clear: I have no problem with how you carry your chalk bag, you do whatever you like. I just meant to say that I've never seen an experienced climber attach it to their harness before, and where I'm from it's often seen as an indicator that someone has little experience carrying gear in their harness. If that differs from where you're from I'm only happy to learn :)
  
  Same.
  
  Just a belt I think. That guy is a big-time freeclimber
  
  He's actually known for free soloing.

101 comments