This video shows Patagonia climbing ambassador Dean Potter free-soloing Heaven (5.12d/13a), a 40-foot overhanging crack that starts over 2,500 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. It’s a really good quality video. Kind of erie because of the lack of any sort of sound..makes it very atmospheric though.

Heaven was first freed by Ron Kauk in the mid-90s. Another of Potter’s free-solos is Dog’s Roof (5.12b). When asked about this climb, Dean recalled his late friend Jose who he used to climb finger cracks with, “Somehow soloing Dog’s Roof brought me closer to Jose. We had the same size paws [Jose and I]. He always thought I’d enjoy Dog’s Roof. I could hear his sarcastic laugh and brutal honesty while I trained on it.” Besides rekindling the memory of his friend, Dean felt an attraction to the route. “I was drawn to solo it and could barely slow myself down, resisting the temptation to solo it before I was ready. This solo scared me because near the top it has a finger lock where sometimes my fingers would just pop out.”

Here’s a nice compilation video showing a number of different free-soloing routes from Dan Osman. That means no ropes by the way.

Dan Osman trying his hand at some rather late-season ice-climbing. I.e. he’s in a goggles with a snorkle climbing up a very flowing (very cold?) waterfall.

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