From Gripped Magazine · gripped · · 1m 40s
Pete Whittaker ranks his scariest solos
The crack climbing master sorted his own solo ascents by how close each one came to catastrophe.
In brief
The crack climbing master sorted his own solo ascents by how close each one came to catastrophe. Whittaker's danger ranking tracks exposure and commitment, not grade: El Cap and Half Dome top the list, while a hard Norwegian rope solo sits at the bottom. Originally reported by Gripped Magazine.
The man behind the ranking
Pete Whittaker is known for 5.14 crack climbing, but he is also one of the most accomplished solo climbers alive, from big wall free solos in Norway to a rope solo of El Capitan.
Five tiers of risk
He sorted his own solos into S, A, B, C and D. S tier is where a single mistake could end him, D tier is the least risky of the bunch.
“he has repeatedly put himself in situations where a single mistake could have serious consequences”
S tier is Yosemite
Two climbs sit at the top: El Capitan via The Nose (VI 5.14a / 5.8 C2) and Half Dome via the Regular Northwest Face (VI 5.12 / 5.9 C2), done with free solo, rope solo and daisy solo.
A tier: Watkins and Kjerag
His Mount Watkins rope solo lands in A tier, alongside the first solo of Kjerag in Norway completed inside 24 hours.
B tier is the busiest
The first free solo of the 1,000-metre Kjerag wall, the Squamish Triple in 18 hours 21 minutes, the first rope solo of Wild Stories, and 611 Peak District routes in a single push.
The bottom of the list
C tier holds the first all-free rope solo of Freerider on El Cap plus soloing buildings in Berlin. D tier is Store Blamann in Norway via Atlantic, 5.12 over eight pitches.
The bottom line
Whittaker's danger ranking tracks exposure and commitment, not grade: El Cap and Half Dome top the list, while a hard Norwegian rope solo sits at the bottom.
