Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Soloing - A question of ethics? 24-Oct-2006 At 11:52:48 AM BigMike

Message

On 24/10/2006 Pommy wrote:
>But soloing above somebody else tied in on belay is a completly different
>matter.

The thing about soloing is that it's a confidence game. Soloists never work on the assumption that they're going to fall. This is why they don't see soloing above another climber as dangerous behaviour, because of course they're not going to fall...

I was in Thailand when BASE jumpers were leaping off the cliffs above the Tonsai overhang wall. There were heaps of people walking around on the beach etc, and then you'd hear a whoop and a big CRACK!, and look up to see some bloke had been plummeting towards you while you were unawares.

If he got it wrong - as BASE jumpers often do (eg yesterday's "Bridge Day" in the US) - he would have been a big meat bomb that could have killed anyone he hit.

But I didn't bother trying to mention to them in the pub later that they were putting others at risk, because, of course, nothing was ever going to go wrong...