[HN Gopher] The Free Soloist Who Fell to Earth
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The Free Soloist Who Fell to Earth
Author : gmays
Score : 51 points
Date : 2023-06-24 20:13 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.outsideonline.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.outsideonline.com)
| xigency wrote:
| This sport will never be for me. My fingers are sweating just
| from reading the article.
| sigabrter wrote:
| Clicked on this because a friend of mine from high school died
| while free soloing, and was shocked to see the article is about
| him! Good dude. Miss that guy. Still think about him often. It
| was really nice to get to learn about some parts of his life I
| didn't know about in this article.
| animal_spirits wrote:
| > That if you can't find enough of the peace and mindfulness you
| need with a rope on, you'll never find enough of it without it.
|
| An amazing piece of wisdom to take from the article.
| foobarbecue wrote:
| "Howell's belayer let go of the brake strand of the rope, a
| careless mistake."
|
| As a climber, I really dislike how this phrasing minimises the
| belayer's error. It's a sure sign of improper belaying technique.
| Bad belaying is life-threatening and quite common, and it makes
| me angry (having witnessed several such accidents). A belayer who
| actually knows how to belay never, ever, takes off their brake
| hand unless the rope is tied off.
|
| It's a bit like saying "the driver ran the red light going 20
| miles per hour over the speed limit and hit a pedestrian, a
| careless mistake"
| BaseballPhysics wrote:
| Yeah, unfortunately belaying is one of those things where it's
| incredibly easy to lose focus, and when you do the consequences
| can be catastrophic.
|
| Unfortunately, climbing in general can be like this. Maybe you
| get reckless and space out your pro too far. Or you forget to
| tie a knot in the end of your belay line. The more competent
| you get, the easier it is to get too comfortable and to make a
| truly catastrophic mistake.
| foobarbecue wrote:
| Indeed, complacency kills.
|
| But I think most of the "dropped by belayer" incidents are
| caused by belayers who were taught improper technique, or
| never taught at all. I've seen lots of youtube "how to belay"
| videos that involve switching hands and other dangerous
| practices which involve taking the brake hand off. Just slip
| slap slide, people.
| teolandon wrote:
| Another thing that bothers me is how people brush off improper
| belaying technique when the pro climbers do it. There are
| numerous videos of Adam Ondra, Dave Graham, etc just belaying
| with their hand off the brake strand, or their finger fully
| pushing on the cam of a GriGri while not paying out slack, and
| when people criticize them, other people just perform an appeal
| to authority and say "he climbs more than you, he knows what
| he's doing".
| foobarbecue wrote:
| That's a good point. So actually when I said "A belayer who
| actually knows how to belay never, ever, takes off their
| brake hand" above I was wrong. Pros often do it, and they're
| setting a bad example which I think is pretty inexcusable.
| It's not like there's ever a good reason; it's just lazy.
| carabiner wrote:
| Really engaging article. The "climbing as therapy" notion is a
| bit overhyped, in this article and elsewhere. IMO anything that
| promotes focus or mindfulness can chip away at a depressed state,
| and once in a while, pop you into happiness. It can be painting,
| mountain biking, playing piano, anything.
| Invictus0 wrote:
| I can respect Honnold and Leclerc. While their pursuits are
| dangerous, they took great care in their craft and respected the
| mountains and the art. This guy just seems like a reckless fool,
| pursuing likes on Instagram out of some stubborn unwilligness to
| deal with his depression head on.
|
| Btw I have had a TBI, thankfully I made a full recovery, but I am
| not at all sympathetic to the TBI-justifies-deathwish this
| article hints at. The fact that the author writes these
| biographies, and seeks to add in his own lived experience, but
| has basically no bio of his own on his website is also a bit off-
| putting.
| krisoft wrote:
| > I have had a TBI, thankfully I made a full recovery, but I am
| not at all sympathetic to the TBI-justifies-deathwish this
| article hints at.
|
| I have two problems with this sentence.
|
| You had TBI, that doesn't mean you know everything about it
| though. Brains are complicated, and they can get injured in
| many different ways. I'm glad that you have recovered fully,
| maybe he was not so lucky?
|
| The other is that the article doesn't say that his TBI
| "justifies" a deathwish. Rather than it explains his behaviour.
| It also clearly puts into context that this is disputed by the
| subject himself, but the explanation is supported by the
| mother.
|
| > This guy just seems like a reckless fool
|
| That is I think a valid observation. But one can always look
| one layer deeper. What made him a reckless fool? This is what I
| believe the article is about.
|
| > pursuing likes on Instagram out of some stubborn unwilligness
| to deal with his depression head on.
|
| What does "dealing with depression head on" mean to you? As far
| as I know there is no one-size-fit-all solution for depression.
| There are many who gets better following standard care, but
| also many who do not. It sounds he tried therapy and possibly
| many other things. Maybe free soloing was his way of dealing
| with his depression head on?
|
| Would you rather like him to be miserable but alive than
| feeling better but dead sooner than you think he should have
| died?
| fn-mote wrote:
| To me the article pretty clearly indicates that mental illness,
| and multiple traumatic injuries, play major role in Austin's
| addiction to free climbing. In the middle of the article is a
| point where his father tells him he's going to die if he keeps
| this up and he says he's "willing to take the consequences of
| his actions."
|
| He might be reckless but I don't think he can be called a fool.
|
| (Also: The author's credentials are in the article - depressed,
| took SSRIs, started getting high from free climbing. That's
| enough of a relation to the subject of the story for me. You're
| obviously closer to it.)
| BaseballPhysics wrote:
| > While their pursuits are dangerous, they took great care in
| their craft and respected the mountains and the art. This guy
| just seems like a reckless fool, pursuing likes on Instagram
| out of some stubborn unwilligness to deal with his depression
| head on
|
| Bluntly, if you are willing to justify Honnold's behaviour but
| not Howell's, I think you're just rationalizing. At least
| Howell didn't have a kid.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| Honnold has kid _now_ , in the height of his fame curve when
| he did most dangerous stuff he had barely a girlfriend (with
| typical fanatic attitude of 'me any my passions first', and
| if there is sometimes anything left then others).
|
| He is still doing some soloing, and may very well die from
| some stupid accident outside of his control like random loose
| rock just falling on his head, but chances compared to before
| are much smaller.
| BaseballPhysics wrote:
| Really fantastic piece that explores the life of a free solo
| climber without straying too far into hero worship. I've long
| been troubled by other pieces on this corner of climbing as they
| always felt a little too approving, a little too encouraging of
| such a dangerous practice, but this one manages to avoid that
| trap.
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(page generated 2023-06-24 23:00 UTC)