Why did the stone in Freehand Climbing become the center of the universe in climbing?

The "out-of-the-box" effect of the Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo" continues. An interesting phenomenon it brings is that the information such as rock field, rock wall and route, which used to be only concerned in the rock climbing circle, has now become a hot topic for ordinary viewers and even outdoor insulators.

On the other end of the phone, Wang Leyan, a rock climber who lives in the American Bay Area, said that seven or eight of the ten "code farmers" in Silicon Valley knew about the existence of Emirates Rock because of this documentary. There are many fans in the office where he works. He also revealed a message to me, "The United States has a population of 300 million and a rock climbing population of 6 million. After winning the prize of "Freehand Rock Climbing", at least 1 100 million people knew about Emirates Rock and thought it was a cool and fun place. "

Chief Locke has been famous for a long time. Half a century before Alex Han Nold showed his "rock wall ballet" skills to his death, it was regarded as the center of the rock climbing universe. Chief Rock has many awesome nicknames, which can explain its position in rock climbing, such as "the hardest boulder to climb".

When a person drives through the road next to Yosemite National Park and overlooks this boulder, he is likely to think of the legend that Pangu split heaven and earth with an axe. In its southeast and southwest direction is a huge vertical rock wall with a height difference of 1 100 meters. The surface of the rock is flat and smooth, as if it had been cut by a sharp axe. It looks both unattainable and exciting.

In addition to the natural and physical characteristics of "the largest granite boulder in the world", Emirates Rock has a series of other advantages that can be sent to the altar. American rock climber and best-selling author Yi Siting mentioned the following points:

First, the absolute altitude of the area where Xie Heyan is located is not high, so climbers do not need to receive high altitude adaptive training; Second, there are at least four months of climbing time in spring and autumn, with comfortable climate and sufficient sunshine; Third, convenient transportation; Fourth, Yosemite's rescue services are among the best; Fifth, the route information is rich.

"Whether a person wants to challenge the Emirates Rock or just take a look, it is easy to achieve. It takes four hours to fly to San Francisco by car. Park your car, bring your equipment, and walk for five minutes, and you can come to the rock wall. Compared with those places that need to carry a long distance in the mountains or need to stay and wait for the weather to improve, this is obviously a very friendly destination for climbers. "

"In remote mountainous areas, if you twist your ankle, you will be in big trouble. But here, if something goes wrong, you won't worry too much. National parks will send helicopters for search and rescue. " She added.

Yi Siting obtained the qualification of rock climbing instructor from the leading American school (NOLS) as early as ten years ago. Her travel books and basic teaching books based on her personal experience have brought a lot of inspiration to new climbers in China. In the spring of 20 14 and the autumn of the same year, Yi Siting challenged Cedeyan's famous The Nose and Salathe Wall routes by traditional rock climbing, and then she described the technical difficulties and psychological obstacles encountered in the two rock climbing experiences on her personal website.

The total number of large rock wall routes in the whole Emirates Rock is as many as hundreds. According to the style of rock climbing, it can be roughly divided into two types-pure instrument climbing, mixed instrument climbing and free climbing.

Yi Siting's two routes, Nose Wing and Salat Wall, are mixed routes, with difficulty levels of 5. 14 and 5. 13b respectively. Similar routes that climbers can challenge are Zodiac, Golden Gate, Magic Mushroom, Freedom Knight and so on. The Freerider climbed by Alex Han Nold in "Freehand Climbing" is actually a relatively simple one, with a difficulty of 5. 12d. Generally, free climbers who want to challenge Emirates Rock usually start from here.

According to Yi Siting's explanation, the chief rock has high requirements for the overall strength of climbers. Among them, the routes with difficulty coefficients of 5. 13 and 5. 14 can be said to be designed for experts. Although Freerider is relatively simple, it is only relative to other routes suitable for free climbing on Emirates Rock. It is not simple.

"The average athlete who wants to climb this route will be frustrated. It requires skill, endurance, and more importantly, it also requires climbers to have a high psychological level. Therefore, if we only look at the route that Alex walked in the documentary and only look at its difficulty coefficient, I am afraid we cannot understand the revolutionary significance behind what he did. "

"I climbed the Emirates Rock twice by myself in the traditional way and dragged the hanging equipment on the rock wall for the night. I can't be as good and fast as Alex. Faced with such a long route, most climbers will choose to spend the night on the route and climb up with water and food. " Yi Siting explained.

The road to a world-class rock site