I'm not the only one to see this and be a little angry. The climber in this video (Alex Honnold) will eventually die an unnatural death if he carries on climbing the way he does. There will come a day when a gust of wind, the naturaly aging of his body or some other element will cause him to slip and fall to his death. This video should have been more responsible. It should have warnings, a simple "do not try this at home" would be a start. Instead it paints Alex Honnold as someone to be revered for his skill. People seeing this video might be inpsired to emulate him and not everyone has his skill. But more fundimentally, why is this considered an accomplishment? Climbing with ropes (free climbing, which I used to do) is the same exact thing only safer. We wouldn't exalt a race car driver who doesn't use seat belts and a helmet in the same way, would we? Climbing like this is just wrong. It helps that Alex Honnold doesn't seam to have too many people in his life or I would go as far as to call him and asshole (yea, I said it) for what he would eventually put them through. I feel really sorry for his mother. There is no doubt Alex Honnold has amazing climbing ability, that is without question, and it will be a great sporting loss when he dies in a fall the way many others already have. Solo climbing is not smart. It is not an schievement. It's a failure in every sense I can imagine.
from Andrew Brett Watson.com
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