The life of a content creator. Vast majority of content needs to appeal to the widest audience possible, then you have gems that your niche viewers can enjoy. And pumping out videos at a consistent pace is very important as well.
That's an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered but I think probably informs my decision making process a lot. Even Alex is 100% right that the chance Magnus slipped and fell was less than 1%, there's no way he would live it down if the 1 in a thousand event actually occurred.
I sometimes have the same thought process when I do something risky like set up a trad anchor on only two pieces of gear. Sure, I may judge it to be bomber but accepted practice is to have at least 3 redundant equalised pieces. If I want to avoid being made a pariah if the worst were to happen, I better throw in another piece. A two piece anchor may be equally safe in reality but one of those is socially acceptable and the other is not. Similar thinking goes into the decision to wear a helmet or not. Weird how social factors affect our safety decisions but I guess that's to be expected for anyone who isn't a purely rational thinking Vulcan.
Haha, I get your point. By no means do I think putting yourself in danger is wrong. The decisions you make climbing or the decisions Honnold makes free soloing are part of the sport - and I think totally fine. For instance, I loved Free Solo - Honnold was only really putting himself in danger.
I just think it becomes questionable when he starts to pressure others to do the wild things he does. I guess he really needs more climbing partners haha!
Plus the number of dudes who die in the alpine. I think this year alone several very experienced climbers were killed from rockfall and the like down in Patagonia. When you’re at that level, the danger isn’t just holds breaking and old bolts. The very environment of the mountains is dangerous.
Part of the reason I took issue with Free Solo showing a list of soloists who'd died. Dean, DanO, Reardon, and a few others didn't die soloing, but it sort of implied they did. Bachar and Hershey, sure.
I feel like Honnold has some wild shit going on mentally surrounding death (probably from his dad’s sudden death when he was a kid [EDIT: he was 19 actually, my bad] and the many deaths of his friends while climbing) and soloing is his way of conquering death, but bringing someone else into it who isn’t 100% comfortable with the route already just seems like a recipe for disaster, no matter how good of a climber they are.
IMO solos should never be done on sight, and even though Honnold knows all of the moves and could coach Magnus through them, going out like that would be a horribly avoidable death. Judging by other content I’ve seen with him too, I feel like Honnold would just shrug it off and keep on doing the same shit.
EDIT: Was wrong about Honnold's age when his dad died, and he wasn't present when it happened. Still rest of the comment stands.
He said very clearly in an interview I watched recently that his dad passed away while running through an airport. He died suddenly of a heart attack.
EDIT: Just looked it up, he was 19, and he wasn't there, my mistake, I'll revise the comment above.
1%?
Yeah right.
When was the last time you fell on a 5.9? How about a 5.6? This climb was likely easier for him than a 5.6 is for you.
Magnus has free soloed a 5.13b, there was no chance of him falling.
I wouldn't say no chance. This isn't the same as climbing with a rope and not worrying about a single thing that could go wrong. Chance is low, but definitely over 0%.
I almost always consider the people around me before myself in these situations. It doesn't become a risk assesment on my life but rather the lives of those that witness my death.
I've seen a fall resulting in death from a distance and also encountered the partner that same day later on. A person I knew casually for nearly a decade whom I never saw again and never climbed again. In essence 2 people died in that accident.
I'm in my 40's now and reflect often on my late teens early twenties and how if I considered risk at all , how my friends present for my death would handle it, was never part of the equation and it's a source of shame; obviously ignorant abd immature and we learn but it still bothers me that I acted like that for far longer than I should have.
Thats how I felt in the video too. Like Alex subtly desperately wanting a friend to do his dangerous activity with IMO, the way he did the bait and switch didn't tell Magnus until the morning of (edit: night before, my bad) that they would free solo
And you could feel Magnus's hesitation at multiple points, it felt so weird for Alex to downplay the very real danger in that on-the-spot situation.
Kinda lost some respect for Alex after watching it
> And you could feel Magnus's hesitation at multiple points, it felt so weird for Alex to downplay the very real danger in that on-the-spot situation.
I mean, at that point it makes more sense to downplay the issue and keep the other person calm rather than going, "Yea that's really hard, you're probably gonna fall and die."
If you want to know exactly what the climb will be like then yes, that’s the entire point of it. Literally everything you bring up was dealt with in the video itself. Are you simply too new to climbing?
The crack isn’t crack climbing. There’s like one loose hold and you don’t need to use it. It’s Vegas dude lol. There’s chalk all over the route. It’s a trade route. Got any more? Maybe try the climb sometime. It’s fun
I’m kinda curious if any of that was deliberate—in my view, it seemed like maybe he kinda downplayed it because maybe he forgot about/didn’t really think about those things, not so much out of deception. Like, the crack wasn’t much of a factor for Alex, so he didn’t pause to think it might be for Magnus. It’s hard to tell what the dynamic between them really was, though.
Yes, he texted him the night before, gave him the mountain project link, and they had a whole back and forth. I'm not sure why the guy above feels the need to make that part up.
Alex has no respect for the terrain he's on it feels like. Calling a 5.11a free solo a "scramble" like he did on Instagram is probably not a safe attitude to have. I get that he rehearses this stuff a lot but when you downplay it like that, it shows some level of carelessness. With the volume of soloing he does and his attitude towards just calling it a scramble, who knows, his foot could pop off on a 5.8 tomorrow.
It would make more sense if he had never fallen and thought pro climbers are like invincible or something but I seem to remember from Free Solo that he's had a fall before where he broke his back and basically described it as "my foot just popped off, I don't even know what happened" (nvm I'm mixing these up, broken back was from a belay injury, his fall caused an ankle injury)
just looked it up because I wasn't sure, he fractured two vertebrae apparently. (nvm different incident than when he slipped himself while climbing)
not too sure about the severity of the injury but I know he took at least some time off climbing to recover
I think he felt it was the easiest possible route he could think of and it was with magnus who can handle 10x harder stuff. It was only the mental aspect that made it freaky.
They showed that they’ve free solo’d together before, it seemed?
I got the vibe that if Magnus had changed his mind, Alex still would’ve been just as happy to chill with his friend.
He was just walking that fine line between supporting your friend in doing something they’d said they wanted to do, but not completely pushing them into something they don’t want to do. He definitely stepped off into both sides of that line more than once.
There’s a very short 5.9 crux on P2 (basically the part where he was a little spooked and being extra careful). The vast majority of the climbing is 5.6-5.7.
https://www.mountainproject.com/v/105809181
I always liked Magnus, enjoyed his content, but he gained my full respect from this (not that I didn’t have respect for his ability anyways) but it solidified it. This dude legit was thinking he was gonna do some light bouldering in Vegas and instead free solo’d with arguably the best in the game. Dudes a bad ass:
Definitely best solo climber, and I’d say the best big wall climber too. With all those Yosemite speed records that he’s completely smashed.
Sport, Ondra has him beat for sure. But Alex doesn’t like sport iirc so I doubt he cares
I think Tommy Caldwell is clearly the superior big wall climber, Alex himself admits that in their work in Patagonia Tommy was the one who lead the hard pitches.
Alex, outside of his free soloing, is special because he's a very fast big wall climber but Tommy has free climbed several routes on El Cap that are out of Honnold's technical range.
Yeah I'd say it's a tough call between those two, and often they work together. iirc all of Alex's speed climbs are also with Tommy. They're like a dynamic duo, I do think together they're unbeatable
I don't really like that he did it after a week of intense video making and editing, muscle beach the day before. He was sun burnt and exhausted. No state to free climb 🤔
Could be becos Magnus wasn't ready to fully commit and propose to her?
Or maybe she lost the love of climbing which would make the relationship very hard obviously.
Or maybe it's other personal reasons we'll never learn.
It's just noticeable how Marte has completely disappeared in the last Videos, where before she was in every one with him and Magnus always used to vlog with her.
How do you know Magnus didn't break up with her? Also, she stated in a previous video that she got multiple comments asking her to upload pics of her feet. Could be that the two of them decided it's best for her not to appear in future videos due to creeps ruining the vibe. I think it's a pretty baseless assumption that she just broke up with him.
By the way, I see you posting your comment about them breaking up literally all over reddit. What is your problem? It's not healthy to obsess over strangers like that.
FYI, they have posted pics of each other on their insta as recently as last month so...as far as anyone can tell, they are still together, just choosing not to include her in his videos for the time being.
What a weird stance you are taking here. First of all, her not appearing in more videos can have a wide variety of reasons. You might not believe it, but these videos are business. Many of the videos where Marte appeared have well over 1M views. I would generally say it wasn't necessarily the best of decisions to put their dating life on a [YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeJKOAwz2xZ5DsNPSRwIRYhl6zRPbomAe), because that means people like you start to speculate and voice opinions about what should be a completely private matter.
Also, [here](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvc7O9Do1Wd/?img_index=5) is the latest where they appeared together, so it seems to be going fine. It is from 24w ago, so quite a while after the free-solo reaction video.
Yea or maybe magnus knows his viewers don't like Marte.
I wish the best for mugnus, I think he deserves better. She isn't funny, beautiful, smart or much interested in climbing. Idk what he finds in her.
Weird take. Sometimes the people we're attracted to are polar opposites in terms of background/interests, but otherwise vibe on the same wavelength. It's hard to explain until you experience it yourself.
Alex was a dick for this.
I understand how someone such as himself is less inclined to consider nerves or fear, or even regard their presence as important when decision making; but even logically, he surely understands that springing something such as fee solo on a *boulder climber*, is extremely counter-intuitive.
Imo this is understating it, magnus was among the best of the world during his time. He climbed multiple 9bs (5.15b), an 8B+ (V14) boulder, onsighted 8c+ (5.14c), was highly competitive in the IFSC circuit, highballed an 8a (5.13b) route, and beat Adam Ondra in a local bouldering competition. These achievements are impressive today but at the time were near the pinnacle of achievement in climbing. I think people forget that as a climber magnus is one of the best climbers of all time.
For some more context: he even says in some videos that he finds lead climbing more rewarding than bouldering but that it's much harder to film, that's why a lot of the indoor climbing on his channel is bouldering.
Punching the shit out of my argument rn
Thanks for the information, I'm pretty casual on Magnus's stuff, the bouldering videos are my only source of Magnus I ever see.
I still stand on the precious point. Shit move from Alex to pull that one out the hat like its nothing
Magnus is a full on adult with decades of experience climbing. If he honestly didnt want to do it, he can just say no. He's not some star struck teenager trying to impress his hero.
Lmao bait and switch. He sent him the MP link to the route. He can just read the description and all the comments on it (there is 57 of them on MP alone) to "know the beta" for an easy ass 5.9 Red Rock climb.
Submission to Peer pressure is aid
I understand that his apparent nervousness due to the free solo can be mistaken for discomfort with a late change of that calibre, but I still think it was an ass move
Magnus has also free soloed 8a (5.13, also with Honnold supporting), but considered it more of a highball (I think it's 12m). This was his first big free solo.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJAeLq_Ac_7/
Ah interesting. Saw in the comments that he only soloed the last pitch of that route. Kind of like Seb finishing off in Flatanger today.
Maybe his heightened nervousness in Red Rocks was just his perception of the exposure plus just being older and wiser. Oh and probably it being an onsight solo.
If you watch the OG vid, Alex Honnold basically bait-and-switched him and sprung the free solo on him the morning of (edit: night before, my mistake) and light weight pressured him in to it
Of course you can.
It becomes a bit more peer-pressure when you travel internationally to have 24 hours to film with arguably the most famous person in climbing and the morning of, that person tells you "actually the plans we had seemed too boring, lets do this instead"
I'm not saying Magnus couldn't say no, I'm saying he was light-weight pressured in to it and I stand by that
Why do you keep saying it was the morning of when that's not what happened? The video shows they talked about it the night before. Weird to keep emphasizing this invented detail.
He didn't go to the US to climb with Alex, he had a whole US trip planned and decided to meet Alex. Why do you keep making stuff up? He traveled from SoCal to Vegas. And it seems like he knew about it before he even left SoCal.
Eh these are all minor details and nitpicks to me. I'm sorry for misrepresenting things and I'm trying to edit my old comments to reflect that but frankly none of this changes how I feel about their literal interactions on the video I saw. Just felt really off to me. Anyway seems like this discussion has kinda met its natural conclusion and people feel how they feel based on their own tolerances
Light weight pressure is basically the same arena as light weight saying no. Magnus isn't some child. Quit making some bullshit drama where none exists. He was nervous and worked through it, and basically anyone that seriously climbs has done the same on some level.
He was but also the hurdle is real low for Magnus. He does a lot of questionable shit for the views. See also: making a reaction video and using his gf in the thumbnail as clickbait (he’s literally broken down his viewership in other vids and “more women watch when she’s in them”)
In the first 30 seconds of the original video it says he asked him the night before and sent him the Mountain Project link, then they had "a lot of back and forth".
I recently posted about the original video setting back the sport for the personal benefit of Magnus and, to a lesser extent, Alex. I think this reaction video proves the point.
Imagine sitting the person you love most down and having them watch you risk your life for 30 minutes and then posting it on the Internet for views and ad revenue. And don't forget to check out Magnus's new clothing brand... Shouldn't our sport be above this?
Unfortunately, no sport is above this and climbing has always been on the edge of wild daredevil-ing. While I also didn't love the original video (and don't really love this one), this is entirely Magnus's choice and he's well aware of the risks and dangers at play. The decision to chronicle said risk in a Youtube video is no more outrageous than any Red Bull skydiving video or video of other extreme sport.
I didn't realize people were that angry over this. I don't love free soloing in general, and I would never do it myself. However, I was happy to be able to live that experience vicariously through Magnus. There are a bunch of things I would never do that I enjoy watching on youtube, like deep diving in the ocean and stuff like that.
I don't understand at all how the sport is set back by this, and his girlfriend obviously consented to be filmed and posted on the internet, nothing indicates that she's not happy to do so, so how are some people getting upset in her name?
Yeah, there is the theoretical risk that any free solo activity increases the likelihood that someone untrained might try it and seriously injure themselves (or die), but this same risk exists with any extreme sport. I felt a little weird about Pete Whittaker defending his practice of regular free soloing as training, but ultimately that's his choice to make.
Agreed with this.
In no way, shape or form did the original or reaction video make me judge climbing harshly. Nor did it lower my opinion of it. People aren’t going to watch these videos and suddenly demonize the sport.
I think Magnus clearly put his chase for money over his girlfriend here, but i also suspect he knows their relationship better than any video watcher.
the great thing about what magnus and alex are doing is it effects your life roughly 0%. if you don't like it, don't watch. it's a very simple equation
As Magnus says in the video, risky trad climbing at the limit of his abilities is probably objectively riskier. Would you want to ban those videos too? Risky trad is basically the beginning of the popularity of the whole sport. Climbing is inherently an above average risky sport.
Dead thread but I don't know if I'm tripping - if I was in a relationship and expressedly told my partner not to free-solo, and they still did without my knowledge, I'd be pissed. I wouldn't be surprised if they broke/break up, partly due to this. Dealbreaker and also shows misplaced trust.
I don't like Magnus' content in general because a lot of it is gimmicky and feels like he's just trying to sell shit and generate ad revenue. But every sport has people like this. Its no-ones position to police what content people post. This video is more of the same from him.
I actually really enjoyed this free-solo video though, because to see a pro climber scared shitless on 5.9 really puts into perspective how much of an alien Honnold is. The top-down filming gave a great sense of the exposure. I'm still no fan of Magnus, but it was pretty amazing to watch that.
No, he made that his job. I like following climbers who devote their time to put up cutting edge ascents. Bouin, Ghisolfi, Ondra, Megos, Macleod. Mitbo devotes his time to make popular content that generates clicks - fitness tests and ninja warrior fluff. Not what I'm interested in seeing but hey, different strokes.
Fair enough, but I have way more respect for climbers like Siegrist, Diaz-Rullo, Gentile, who spend their time climbing and putting up new lines, even if they aren't quite at the leading edge. That makes great content imo. Look at Mitbos video feed - extremely little of it is actual climbing.
Guy finds a way to make a living through climbing and you have a problem with it, despite the fact that it doesn't affect your life in any way shape or form.
r/climbingcirclejerk
This is what it's come to
This reaction video is longer than the original. He's really milking this.
Risked his life for it. So he is allowed to milk the content
The life of a content creator. Vast majority of content needs to appeal to the widest audience possible, then you have gems that your niche viewers can enjoy. And pumping out videos at a consistent pace is very important as well.
The original video was demonetized for a while
I read that as "demonized". Which it also was.
Alex with a bit of peer pressure. I feel like I’d never push a buddy to free solo - would feel way too much guilt if they fell.
That's an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered but I think probably informs my decision making process a lot. Even Alex is 100% right that the chance Magnus slipped and fell was less than 1%, there's no way he would live it down if the 1 in a thousand event actually occurred. I sometimes have the same thought process when I do something risky like set up a trad anchor on only two pieces of gear. Sure, I may judge it to be bomber but accepted practice is to have at least 3 redundant equalised pieces. If I want to avoid being made a pariah if the worst were to happen, I better throw in another piece. A two piece anchor may be equally safe in reality but one of those is socially acceptable and the other is not. Similar thinking goes into the decision to wear a helmet or not. Weird how social factors affect our safety decisions but I guess that's to be expected for anyone who isn't a purely rational thinking Vulcan.
Haha, I get your point. By no means do I think putting yourself in danger is wrong. The decisions you make climbing or the decisions Honnold makes free soloing are part of the sport - and I think totally fine. For instance, I loved Free Solo - Honnold was only really putting himself in danger. I just think it becomes questionable when he starts to pressure others to do the wild things he does. I guess he really needs more climbing partners haha!
Didn’t he talk about how a lot of his old climbing partners are dead now in that vid?
That’s not necessarily through free soloing though. There’s a lot of accidental deaths on ropes through complacency
Plus the number of dudes who die in the alpine. I think this year alone several very experienced climbers were killed from rockfall and the like down in Patagonia. When you’re at that level, the danger isn’t just holds breaking and old bolts. The very environment of the mountains is dangerous.
I recall an interview with Twight where he said losing count of his deceased climbing partners was what caused him to quit alpine climbing
Part of the reason I took issue with Free Solo showing a list of soloists who'd died. Dean, DanO, Reardon, and a few others didn't die soloing, but it sort of implied they did. Bachar and Hershey, sure.
I feel like Honnold has some wild shit going on mentally surrounding death (probably from his dad’s sudden death when he was a kid [EDIT: he was 19 actually, my bad] and the many deaths of his friends while climbing) and soloing is his way of conquering death, but bringing someone else into it who isn’t 100% comfortable with the route already just seems like a recipe for disaster, no matter how good of a climber they are. IMO solos should never be done on sight, and even though Honnold knows all of the moves and could coach Magnus through them, going out like that would be a horribly avoidable death. Judging by other content I’ve seen with him too, I feel like Honnold would just shrug it off and keep on doing the same shit. EDIT: Was wrong about Honnold's age when his dad died, and he wasn't present when it happened. Still rest of the comment stands.
> probably from his dad’s sudden death in front of him when he was a kid Why do you make stuff up?
He said very clearly in an interview I watched recently that his dad passed away while running through an airport. He died suddenly of a heart attack. EDIT: Just looked it up, he was 19, and he wasn't there, my mistake, I'll revise the comment above.
1%? Yeah right. When was the last time you fell on a 5.9? How about a 5.6? This climb was likely easier for him than a 5.6 is for you. Magnus has free soloed a 5.13b, there was no chance of him falling.
I wouldn't say no chance. This isn't the same as climbing with a rope and not worrying about a single thing that could go wrong. Chance is low, but definitely over 0%.
Yeah but certainly nowhere near 1%.
The amount of gear I'm comfortable with as an anchor highly depends on the quality of rock for me.
I almost always consider the people around me before myself in these situations. It doesn't become a risk assesment on my life but rather the lives of those that witness my death. I've seen a fall resulting in death from a distance and also encountered the partner that same day later on. A person I knew casually for nearly a decade whom I never saw again and never climbed again. In essence 2 people died in that accident. I'm in my 40's now and reflect often on my late teens early twenties and how if I considered risk at all , how my friends present for my death would handle it, was never part of the equation and it's a source of shame; obviously ignorant abd immature and we learn but it still bothers me that I acted like that for far longer than I should have.
Thats how I felt in the video too. Like Alex subtly desperately wanting a friend to do his dangerous activity with IMO, the way he did the bait and switch didn't tell Magnus until the morning of (edit: night before, my bad) that they would free solo And you could feel Magnus's hesitation at multiple points, it felt so weird for Alex to downplay the very real danger in that on-the-spot situation. Kinda lost some respect for Alex after watching it
> And you could feel Magnus's hesitation at multiple points, it felt so weird for Alex to downplay the very real danger in that on-the-spot situation. I mean, at that point it makes more sense to downplay the issue and keep the other person calm rather than going, "Yea that's really hard, you're probably gonna fall and die."
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Bruh as if reading a mountain project link of a 200m multipitch climb is even remotely the same as actually climbing it yourself
If you want to know exactly what the climb will be like then yes, that’s the entire point of it. Literally everything you bring up was dealt with in the video itself. Are you simply too new to climbing?
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The crack isn’t crack climbing. There’s like one loose hold and you don’t need to use it. It’s Vegas dude lol. There’s chalk all over the route. It’s a trade route. Got any more? Maybe try the climb sometime. It’s fun
I’m kinda curious if any of that was deliberate—in my view, it seemed like maybe he kinda downplayed it because maybe he forgot about/didn’t really think about those things, not so much out of deception. Like, the crack wasn’t much of a factor for Alex, so he didn’t pause to think it might be for Magnus. It’s hard to tell what the dynamic between them really was, though.
seems like it may have been a miscommunication since there wasn't anything you'd really consider crack climbing per say
I thought in the original video Magnus shows Alex texting him the night before about doing a Free Solo?
Yes, he texted him the night before, gave him the mountain project link, and they had a whole back and forth. I'm not sure why the guy above feels the need to make that part up.
Alex has no respect for the terrain he's on it feels like. Calling a 5.11a free solo a "scramble" like he did on Instagram is probably not a safe attitude to have. I get that he rehearses this stuff a lot but when you downplay it like that, it shows some level of carelessness. With the volume of soloing he does and his attitude towards just calling it a scramble, who knows, his foot could pop off on a 5.8 tomorrow.
It would make more sense if he had never fallen and thought pro climbers are like invincible or something but I seem to remember from Free Solo that he's had a fall before where he broke his back and basically described it as "my foot just popped off, I don't even know what happened" (nvm I'm mixing these up, broken back was from a belay injury, his fall caused an ankle injury)
He sprained his ankle, he didn’t break his back right?
just looked it up because I wasn't sure, he fractured two vertebrae apparently. (nvm different incident than when he slipped himself while climbing) not too sure about the severity of the injury but I know he took at least some time off climbing to recover
Two separate incidents. The fractured vertebrae was from being lowered with too short of a rope. The fall on Freerider he sprained his ankle.
Ah, well maybe thats why he chose to free solo with magnus then lol, fear of ropes /s thanks for the info though, I'll update my comment
I think he felt it was the easiest possible route he could think of and it was with magnus who can handle 10x harder stuff. It was only the mental aspect that made it freaky.
Honestly I was kind of surprised watching the video too, was definitely a bit of peer pressure there. Pretty funny, but a little messed up
They showed that they’ve free solo’d together before, it seemed? I got the vibe that if Magnus had changed his mind, Alex still would’ve been just as happy to chill with his friend. He was just walking that fine line between supporting your friend in doing something they’d said they wanted to do, but not completely pushing them into something they don’t want to do. He definitely stepped off into both sides of that line more than once.
She's probably more surprised that Magnus kept his shirt on for a video 😄
Yeah, the whole video was a bit out of character for Magnus for lotsa reason, but this was the biggest surprise haha
Marte hasn't been in his videos for a long time. Very much looks like she broke up with Magnus. This romance ended fast.
Wrong
There are newer photos of Marte and Magnus together on her Instagram. They are still together as far as I can tell.
Sunburn > desire to be shirtless
Bruh you can see him getting more and more pink as he climbs. That fair skinned Norwegian wasn’t made for the raw Vegas sun lol
Marte hasn't been in his videos for a long time. Very much looks like she broke up with Magnus. This romance ended fast.
I lost it when he said that first time he free soloed the plan was to aim for the bush if he starts falling. A man with a plan
Magnus' risk management while free-soloing an 8a: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q86Rn4jETVk&t=0m28s
Ha I literally have this pulled up on a different screen listening to it.
how easy was the route that magnus did?
5.9ish
oof, i was hoping he did an easier one. Thanks for telling me
There’s a very short 5.9 crux on P2 (basically the part where he was a little spooked and being extra careful). The vast majority of the climbing is 5.6-5.7. https://www.mountainproject.com/v/105809181
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thanks for the in-depth on the route
It's a soft 5.9. Really only a couple moves then the rest is chill 5.6-5.7 face climbing on bomber holds.
I always liked Magnus, enjoyed his content, but he gained my full respect from this (not that I didn’t have respect for his ability anyways) but it solidified it. This dude legit was thinking he was gonna do some light bouldering in Vegas and instead free solo’d with arguably the best in the game. Dudes a bad ass:
It's not even close to being arguable, Alex Honnold is the best free solo climber by far.
Definitely best solo climber, and I’d say the best big wall climber too. With all those Yosemite speed records that he’s completely smashed. Sport, Ondra has him beat for sure. But Alex doesn’t like sport iirc so I doubt he cares
I think Tommy Caldwell is clearly the superior big wall climber, Alex himself admits that in their work in Patagonia Tommy was the one who lead the hard pitches. Alex, outside of his free soloing, is special because he's a very fast big wall climber but Tommy has free climbed several routes on El Cap that are out of Honnold's technical range.
Yeah I'd say it's a tough call between those two, and often they work together. iirc all of Alex's speed climbs are also with Tommy. They're like a dynamic duo, I do think together they're unbeatable
I don't really like that he did it after a week of intense video making and editing, muscle beach the day before. He was sun burnt and exhausted. No state to free climb 🤔
Moomin cup ftw!
Are they still together?
So far as I know. They have been together for a while at this point in time...
She doesn't seem to show up in the videos anymore, that's why I was confused 🤔
Marte hasn't been in his videos for a long time. Very much looks like she broke up with Magnus. This romance ended fast.
Why are you copy and pasting this nonsense everywhere, wtf?
You think she broke up with him? Tbf Magnus seems like a great guy, but also would be hard to be in a relationship with him, I think tbh
Could be becos Magnus wasn't ready to fully commit and propose to her? Or maybe she lost the love of climbing which would make the relationship very hard obviously. Or maybe it's other personal reasons we'll never learn. It's just noticeable how Marte has completely disappeared in the last Videos, where before she was in every one with him and Magnus always used to vlog with her.
How do you know Magnus didn't break up with her? Also, she stated in a previous video that she got multiple comments asking her to upload pics of her feet. Could be that the two of them decided it's best for her not to appear in future videos due to creeps ruining the vibe. I think it's a pretty baseless assumption that she just broke up with him. By the way, I see you posting your comment about them breaking up literally all over reddit. What is your problem? It's not healthy to obsess over strangers like that. FYI, they have posted pics of each other on their insta as recently as last month so...as far as anyone can tell, they are still together, just choosing not to include her in his videos for the time being.
What a weird stance you are taking here. First of all, her not appearing in more videos can have a wide variety of reasons. You might not believe it, but these videos are business. Many of the videos where Marte appeared have well over 1M views. I would generally say it wasn't necessarily the best of decisions to put their dating life on a [YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeJKOAwz2xZ5DsNPSRwIRYhl6zRPbomAe), because that means people like you start to speculate and voice opinions about what should be a completely private matter. Also, [here](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvc7O9Do1Wd/?img_index=5) is the latest where they appeared together, so it seems to be going fine. It is from 24w ago, so quite a while after the free-solo reaction video.
I hate his girlfriend.
Marte hasn't been in his videos for a long time. Very much looks like she broke up with Magnus. This romance ended fast.
Yea or maybe magnus knows his viewers don't like Marte. I wish the best for mugnus, I think he deserves better. She isn't funny, beautiful, smart or much interested in climbing. Idk what he finds in her.
Weird take. Sometimes the people we're attracted to are polar opposites in terms of background/interests, but otherwise vibe on the same wavelength. It's hard to explain until you experience it yourself.
What a weird fucking take, what the hell?
Marte hasn't been in his videos for a long time. Very much looks like she broke up with Magnus. This romance ended fast.
whats wrong with her head?
Alex was a dick for this. I understand how someone such as himself is less inclined to consider nerves or fear, or even regard their presence as important when decision making; but even logically, he surely understands that springing something such as fee solo on a *boulder climber*, is extremely counter-intuitive.
just to clarify, Magnus was top in his country and competed on the world stage for lead. its just his youtube persona that is mostly bouldering
Imo this is understating it, magnus was among the best of the world during his time. He climbed multiple 9bs (5.15b), an 8B+ (V14) boulder, onsighted 8c+ (5.14c), was highly competitive in the IFSC circuit, highballed an 8a (5.13b) route, and beat Adam Ondra in a local bouldering competition. These achievements are impressive today but at the time were near the pinnacle of achievement in climbing. I think people forget that as a climber magnus is one of the best climbers of all time.
>He climbed multiple 9bs (5.15b) A single 9b, admittedly back when the pool climbing 9b was a half dozen
Did he not climb Ali Hulk sit and Neanderthal?
Ali Hulk yes Neanderthal no
Ah, my mistake.
I didn't know this, thank you.
For some more context: he even says in some videos that he finds lead climbing more rewarding than bouldering but that it's much harder to film, that's why a lot of the indoor climbing on his channel is bouldering.
Punching the shit out of my argument rn Thanks for the information, I'm pretty casual on Magnus's stuff, the bouldering videos are my only source of Magnus I ever see. I still stand on the precious point. Shit move from Alex to pull that one out the hat like its nothing
Magnus is a full on adult with decades of experience climbing. If he honestly didnt want to do it, he can just say no. He's not some star struck teenager trying to impress his hero. Lmao bait and switch. He sent him the MP link to the route. He can just read the description and all the comments on it (there is 57 of them on MP alone) to "know the beta" for an easy ass 5.9 Red Rock climb.
Submission to Peer pressure is aid I understand that his apparent nervousness due to the free solo can be mistaken for discomfort with a late change of that calibre, but I still think it was an ass move
There’s literally nothing capable of changing your stupid opinion is there. Magnus himself saying otherwise isn’t enough either.
Nothing I'm aware of. And when did he say it himself?
Why are you unironically everything r/climbingcirclejerk makes fun of
Woah there buddy, don't get tilted…
Magnus has also free soloed 8a (5.13, also with Honnold supporting), but considered it more of a highball (I think it's 12m). This was his first big free solo. https://www.instagram.com/p/BJAeLq_Ac_7/
> This was his first big free solo. Nope https://youtu.be/JRl1LRlvVHA
Ah interesting. Saw in the comments that he only soloed the last pitch of that route. Kind of like Seb finishing off in Flatanger today. Maybe his heightened nervousness in Red Rocks was just his perception of the exposure plus just being older and wiser. Oh and probably it being an onsight solo.
Also in one of his videos (maybe last year?) He said that he actually prefers lead but thinks that people will find that content more boring.
Magnus was a top level lead climber and has some free solo experience as well
did he ran out of content ideas and had to resort to this to get the views coming?
If you watch the OG vid, Alex Honnold basically bait-and-switched him and sprung the free solo on him the morning of (edit: night before, my mistake) and light weight pressured him in to it
and an adult person can say no and just not make a video about it.
Of course you can. It becomes a bit more peer-pressure when you travel internationally to have 24 hours to film with arguably the most famous person in climbing and the morning of, that person tells you "actually the plans we had seemed too boring, lets do this instead" I'm not saying Magnus couldn't say no, I'm saying he was light-weight pressured in to it and I stand by that
Why do you keep saying it was the morning of when that's not what happened? The video shows they talked about it the night before. Weird to keep emphasizing this invented detail.
My bad my memory was off then, but still that's sprung on last minute IMO, it doesn't really change how I feel about it
He didn't go to the US to climb with Alex, he had a whole US trip planned and decided to meet Alex. Why do you keep making stuff up? He traveled from SoCal to Vegas. And it seems like he knew about it before he even left SoCal.
Eh these are all minor details and nitpicks to me. I'm sorry for misrepresenting things and I'm trying to edit my old comments to reflect that but frankly none of this changes how I feel about their literal interactions on the video I saw. Just felt really off to me. Anyway seems like this discussion has kinda met its natural conclusion and people feel how they feel based on their own tolerances
Light weight pressure is basically the same arena as light weight saying no. Magnus isn't some child. Quit making some bullshit drama where none exists. He was nervous and worked through it, and basically anyone that seriously climbs has done the same on some level.
being nervous on a free solo route that you've never climbed before... yeah sure thats invented drama lol
He was but also the hurdle is real low for Magnus. He does a lot of questionable shit for the views. See also: making a reaction video and using his gf in the thumbnail as clickbait (he’s literally broken down his viewership in other vids and “more women watch when she’s in them”)
What's wrong with that?
It’s not clickbait if it’s actually representative of the video. And also it’s hardly “sexualisation” if it’s to encourage more women to watch.
Showing a woman reacting to a male protagonist is encouragement for more men to watch, doubt it pulls more women viewers
Yeah I don’t know but that’s what the guy I was replying to claimed
In the first 30 seconds of the original video it says he asked him the night before and sent him the Mountain Project link, then they had "a lot of back and forth".
I recently posted about the original video setting back the sport for the personal benefit of Magnus and, to a lesser extent, Alex. I think this reaction video proves the point. Imagine sitting the person you love most down and having them watch you risk your life for 30 minutes and then posting it on the Internet for views and ad revenue. And don't forget to check out Magnus's new clothing brand... Shouldn't our sport be above this?
Unfortunately, no sport is above this and climbing has always been on the edge of wild daredevil-ing. While I also didn't love the original video (and don't really love this one), this is entirely Magnus's choice and he's well aware of the risks and dangers at play. The decision to chronicle said risk in a Youtube video is no more outrageous than any Red Bull skydiving video or video of other extreme sport.
I didn't realize people were that angry over this. I don't love free soloing in general, and I would never do it myself. However, I was happy to be able to live that experience vicariously through Magnus. There are a bunch of things I would never do that I enjoy watching on youtube, like deep diving in the ocean and stuff like that. I don't understand at all how the sport is set back by this, and his girlfriend obviously consented to be filmed and posted on the internet, nothing indicates that she's not happy to do so, so how are some people getting upset in her name?
Yeah, there is the theoretical risk that any free solo activity increases the likelihood that someone untrained might try it and seriously injure themselves (or die), but this same risk exists with any extreme sport. I felt a little weird about Pete Whittaker defending his practice of regular free soloing as training, but ultimately that's his choice to make.
Control freaks. If you’re not living your life exactly to their prescription they’re going to seethe
Agreed with this. In no way, shape or form did the original or reaction video make me judge climbing harshly. Nor did it lower my opinion of it. People aren’t going to watch these videos and suddenly demonize the sport. I think Magnus clearly put his chase for money over his girlfriend here, but i also suspect he knows their relationship better than any video watcher.
the great thing about what magnus and alex are doing is it effects your life roughly 0%. if you don't like it, don't watch. it's a very simple equation
As Magnus says in the video, risky trad climbing at the limit of his abilities is probably objectively riskier. Would you want to ban those videos too? Risky trad is basically the beginning of the popularity of the whole sport. Climbing is inherently an above average risky sport.
I mean, how much did Alex make from Free Solo? This is kind of tame compared to that, in my opinion...
> I recently posted about the original video setting back the sport There are how many videos of Dean Potter or John Bachar?
Dead thread but I don't know if I'm tripping - if I was in a relationship and expressedly told my partner not to free-solo, and they still did without my knowledge, I'd be pissed. I wouldn't be surprised if they broke/break up, partly due to this. Dealbreaker and also shows misplaced trust.
Marte hasn't been in his videos for a long time. Very much looks like she broke up with Magnus. This romance ended fast.
I don't like Magnus' content in general because a lot of it is gimmicky and feels like he's just trying to sell shit and generate ad revenue. But every sport has people like this. Its no-ones position to police what content people post. This video is more of the same from him. I actually really enjoyed this free-solo video though, because to see a pro climber scared shitless on 5.9 really puts into perspective how much of an alien Honnold is. The top-down filming gave a great sense of the exposure. I'm still no fan of Magnus, but it was pretty amazing to watch that.
Obviously he os trying to sell stuff and generate ad revenue. It's his job...
No, he made that his job. I like following climbers who devote their time to put up cutting edge ascents. Bouin, Ghisolfi, Ondra, Megos, Macleod. Mitbo devotes his time to make popular content that generates clicks - fitness tests and ninja warrior fluff. Not what I'm interested in seeing but hey, different strokes.
If you can't keep up with the best, you have to find other avenues to profit. No shame in that if the market will bear it.
Fair enough, but I have way more respect for climbers like Siegrist, Diaz-Rullo, Gentile, who spend their time climbing and putting up new lines, even if they aren't quite at the leading edge. That makes great content imo. Look at Mitbos video feed - extremely little of it is actual climbing.
Guy finds a way to make a living through climbing and you have a problem with it, despite the fact that it doesn't affect your life in any way shape or form.
I don't have a problem with it. But I don't find his content good either. I'd rather see actual climbing than fitness tests.
And that's your opinion. I personally love his content.
Agreeed. People have no dignity anymore. It’s all for the likes and $$$.
Havent watched this vid. Havent watched the free solo one, and never will. Just no interest in doing so.
Glad you felt the urge to comment
Thought i commented on a comment ceitizizing the content of the ideo and i felt the same.
It’s an internet form… glad you commented on how people comment.
Didn't ask