Alex Honnold free climbing tower in Tapei

[lljkk]

Admirable Skilled Guy or Lunatic encouraging others to do stupid stuff?

I'm normally quite Libertarian about risk-taking but this stunt is bothering me. Just imagine he had fallen to his death microseconds after the crowds were cheering him on. Sudden gruesome public death is going to happen to him or some other brave person doing such stunts, eventually. Is that ok?

He's been doing insanely risky free climbs for years, though. When he free-climbed El Capitan in 2017 and was filmed by a camera crew, all by necessity experienced climbers, climbing with him, he would have fallen to his death within inches of people who'd spent months shadowing him for the documentary.

I think we just have to accept that some of our species are like this. I don't know why astronauts want to risk their lives being blasted into space but it's fortunate that someone does or we wouldn't have advanced as we have.

If we didn't have adventurers or people who were prepared to put themselves at risk then we wouldn't have left these shores or climbed Everest.

I might have something more to say if I was his wife - but I felt the same reading Ranulph Fiennes books about his adventures - wouldn't be something I tolerated.

He's being an idiot with a mid-life crisis. This stunt is ruining his legacy.

Free Solo was amazing. But he has a family now.

How do you feel about Cirque du Soleil?

How do you feel about movie stunts?

How do you feel about Eastbourne air show? F1 racing?

What's the difference?

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I don't like when the live risk is being sold as part of the experience.

I somehow accept professionalism allowing to do things others can't, seriously assessing, mitigating and accepting the risks.

It's weird, but the Cirque in Canada is treated as employer and assessed for health & safety...

In this case, I don't like the live streaming aspect, but I consider him able to assess and understand the risks.

Why is it 'ruining his legacy'? Was his risky rope-free climbing OK only while he lived in a van on small change? Does having children mean that someone who had made a career out of high-risk activity with a high risk of death has to stop and gt a desk job?

The difference is that those things are very risky, but safety precautions are taken. He decides not to use them. His climbs would be no less spectacular if he wore a harness.

I only heard about this from a news bulletin on radio 4 this morning.

And as someone who is so afraid of heights that I can't even go over the footbridge over the railway line near me I felt physically ill when I heard the item.

The fact that it was broadcast with a short delay so that if he actually fell it wouldn't be shown live just smacked as being total cynical.

His interview where he said having the large crowds of spectators made him a bit nervous in the initial stage of the climb made me think what on earth possessed him to think this was in any way a good idea.

The whole thing is inexplicable to me.

How do you feel about Cirque du Soleil?
How do you feel about movie stunts?
How do you feel about Eastbourne air show?
F1 racing?
(I'll add some)
Ski jumping
BMX racing or downhill MTB racing

What is the difference?
People doing the above professionally usually (?always) have lots of safety equipment. "No safety equipment" is not an achievement. I think that's what's niggling me. If he wants to take big risks, I'm mostly ok with that. But trumpeting the fact "no safety equipment" : feels like the aspect that's being celebrated. Did he achieve something that is helpful to other humans? I'm not sure. Is he encouraging less able/lucky people to copy him? Is that ok?

Taking risks is an awesome thing humans do. We have achieved so much because of risk-taking. Safety equipment is often annoying, gets in the way, uncomfortable or downright pointless. Profiting out of "no safety equipment" in a very high risk situation, and spectating when failure (bad luck) would be so horrific to witness, mmmm.... not finding that comfortable.

I think it's a free world and everyone involved is consenting, including the people who might see him become a pavement pancake. Not my bag but i'm glad we've got the choice 🤷‍♀️ everyone draws the line differently when it comes to risk and we're never ever ever going to agree on where it is!

Incredibly selfish if he has a family or people who love him. And live-streaming it? Yuck.

And I think the cirque su soleil etc comments are just whataboutery. He is going to die doing this eventually, and that’s not a given at all with circus performers or other risk occupations.

I think he's more concerned with his legacy than with the feelings of his wife and children. I also think he's a massive asshole.

Really? I've always thought he comes across really well.

I've seen a few of his documentaries on Disney plus. Free solo, arctic ascent, devil's climb. Most of the more recent stuff has ropes and he definitely seemed a lot more careful with his life in devil's climb post marriage and kids than free solo pre kids.

As free solo's go, the tower is man-made. He knows where the holds are, they're regular, they won't give way under his hands. Seems safer to me than a cliff face thats much more unpredictable. His wife was there and seemed on board.

Interesting. I loved Free Solo but it was very clear he sees himself as an absolute hero and everyone else comes in far second to his ambition. Which is fine until you've got a family.
He's obviously a complete one off when it comes to climbing talent but I'm convinced he's a shit partner and father.

He's not the first climber to climb this particular tower without ropes. He's an experienced professional who knows what he's doing, he's assessed the risks and decided it's manageable. Having said that I'm not sure it's admirable.

I prefer the French spider guy who seemed to do it just for the love of climbing without much fanfare.

I could understand his ambition if it was making him an absolute fortune or he was a household name/super famous. But he risks everything to be known as "oh, that guy who climbs things without a rope? Thingy..whatsisname?"

He's what I would call...a Silly Billy.

It is interesting how we can view the same person so differently 😁 I thought he seems really genuine and pragmatic.

But it's maybe because I have a friend who is very similar both in personality and weirdly looks, so I was clearly predisposed to like him.

I think he's actually quite a good role model in that he doesn't just go and do some reckless thing - he plans meticulously and trains intensively so that he eliminates every possible bit of risk from what he's attempting. He quit his first attempt on El Cap as decided he wasn't prepared enough. The human race needs its risk takers. Re family, his wife knew what she was getting into and was likely attracted to him for precisely those reasons. Don't marry someone and expect them to change.

I watched it last night (not live) and it gave me the shivers seeing how high up he was. Mind you, I even felt wobbly seeing that cameraman suspended near him.
Technically I don’t think the climb was that hard to him, compared to other climbs.

I got oddly more nervous when he finished a section and then stood waving to the crowd on a tiny ledge.

He's an unusual guy but I don't think he's made masses of money. I think this is a pure payday for him for his family.

He's not in the big-brand-sponsorship circle, he's not a mountaineer making bank guiding rich assholes, he's made one film that everyone knows about, but it's niche.

I think it's a lot safer than people are giving him credit for and actually that's some sort of marketing genius tbf. It's far less risky than what he did on free solo.

He's visibly not neurotypical with a single, overwhelming interest, quite apart from, as explored in Free Solo, the fact that he seems to have an amygdala that is unusually underpowered in terms of not responding usually to disturbing images.

Before anyone was sponsoring him, he lived in a van, and at one point, when his van broke down beyond repair, he lived in a tent and got around by bike. He's lost sponsors in the past because they didn't want their brands associated with practices they considered too risky.

He met his now wife after he was already well-known as a climber, and she's also a climber, she's always known he was risking his life on his climbs. I assume they had children in the full knowledge that she might be raising them alone.

My legs went to jelly just watching him stand on the top. It must be so windy up there, imagine going to all that effort to get blown off by a gust of wind.

In Free Solo he talks about how much he earns (as much as a moderately successful dentist) and how much his lifestyle costs (not much when he lived in a van). I think he has earned a lot more out of it, than people realise.

Im not sure how sorry I feel for Sanni after watching Free solo, she knew what she was letting herself in for. The kids are another matter.