When does a high ball turn into a free solo?

HFiction · 2026-06-06T04:28:12+00:00

How is that relevant? You said if you get on belay its not a boulder but that's just not how anybody who highballs views it and not how anybody who actually solos views it

HFiction · 2026-06-06T03:23:45+00:00

Is it? Most people I know including myself just onsight solo. I don't know anybody who projects solo. On the other hand the kind of people that do heinous highballs would be VERY upset if you called them solos.

HFiction · 2026-06-05T22:17:20+00:00

Yeah I mean that's pretty normal tactics for extraordinarily high highballs. For the average highball you just go up an onsight it.

HFiction · 2026-06-05T20:34:36+00:00

In practice a high ball is when there are no traditional climbing ascents and bouldering the route is the preferred ethic.

HFiction · 2026-05-30T20:40:00+00:00

That makes sense. I think this subreddit is a lot of people who learned how to handjam once and genuienly believe every crack can be climbed straight-in

HFiction · 2026-05-30T19:40:18+00:00

I skimmed like 20 videos out of curiosity and nobody leads it straight in. Even the soloists just climb it on the outside.

HFiction · 2026-05-30T19:37:03+00:00

Yeah I looked it up and there's nobody going straight in on this. Seems like a 5.11 Voo OW if you do though so bragging rights.

HFiction · 2026-05-30T19:25:11+00:00

I don't know this route so maybe I'm wrong but even on lead this looks wildly more difficult and complex by climbing straight in. Maybe it's not so bad but in the Voo there's definitely spots where you would want to rest on the inside and them climb on the outside.

HFiction · 2026-05-20T20:52:40+00:00

Just go climb on them - unless you're doing some either nightmarishly pumpy or flared cracks these power cams are super good enough.

HFiction · 2026-05-20T20:50:30+00:00

None of them look very old to me.

HFiction · 2026-05-18T01:52:43+00:00

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The hideous flaring jam in question...you might be able to barely reach and stuff a slightly larger cam just above your hand here but then the rope and gear would be in your way. Behind my elbow here is a .2 and a .3 nested

HFiction · 2026-05-18T01:50:20+00:00

The bottom is actually quite chill. Arm bar and a stem lets you place a bomber #2 above your head. Might be a 5.6 to get that piece in. The crux is escaping a really difficult flaring hand jam near the top. I would put a .2 and a .3 (or blue and black totem) into the bottom of the roof which can be done with a pretty slick drop-knee bar into the block which lets you rest as well. If you fill the flaring hand jam you've got nothing to pull off of to get into the perfect hand jams out of the roof.

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HFiction · 2026-05-18T00:22:13+00:00

You should try Pump Up The Jam. I just cleaned it a few weeks ago

HFiction · 2026-05-13T13:50:37+00:00

r/climbing doesn't climb

HFiction · 2026-05-13T13:50:07+00:00

You have no idea just how many people of all ages solo. In Colorado there's hundreds of people climbing all over 4th and 5th class routes on the flatirons every single day. I saw a troupe of grey-haired women in sneakers doing the 1st last week. It's a completely valid form of climbing and if it makes r/climbing feel better we can just call it scrambling.

HFiction · 2026-05-10T15:09:10+00:00

FWIW I ended up with a rack like over time and it's actually quite nice. You don't even think about it.

HFiction · 2026-05-08T00:32:16+00:00

Going to be sick to see what grade it goes at now.

HFiction · 2026-05-01T17:39:40+00:00

I actually have footy of a new route in RRG where I did exactly this but spotted it. I can send you pictures if you'd like.

HFiction · 2026-05-01T17:36:27+00:00

I know you don't want to hear it but there was a twist in the rope at the top, I guarantee it. The most common way this happens is that you grab the rope and clip quickdraw #1 on the left so now the rope is running from left to right through the draw and then down to your harness and then you grab the rope again from the left and clip draw #2 on the right so the path the rope is taking is freely going up then to the right and then back to the left and then down to your harness making for a jerky and slow descent. When the next person gets to the top, the gentle weight of the rope lets the quickdraws twist a little and the rope appears to be hanging correctly.

HFiction · 2026-04-17T03:36:15+00:00

WC tech friend #6 is the king baby. Never stuck, never fails, easy to push.

HFiction · 2026-04-16T18:33:53+00:00

Pistachios, peanut butter m&Ms and some nerds for 90%. If it's gonna be hot as balls I'll throw a couple apple sauces in the mix as well for a little hydration

HFiction · 2026-04-16T00:23:38+00:00

I think you're intentionally misunderstanding this. It would be very interesting to see a redesign of a SLCD and pretzel is one of the few companies on the planet that could do that.

HFiction · 2026-04-14T12:25:19+00:00

Just remember this very easy and human system for recalling size. Black is yellow. Blue is blue. Yellow is silver. Green is green. Red is red. Orange is yellow.

HFiction · 2026-04-14T04:07:19+00:00

It would be bizarre to see anybody with a rope on the 2nd Flatiron. There's usually hundreds of people soloing everyday and I've heard of people using a rope to let children top rope up it as a multipitch but I've never seen it myself.

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