DPMCLIMBING is now DPMCLIMBINGVIDEOS.com - bookmark our new URL (updated 2022). Brent Perkins climbed the New River Gorge's testpiece Proper Soul (5.14a) on natural gear, placing the protection on lead.
people are getting all salty in the comments about how "its already bolted, so why would he trad?"... a major part of climbing is the challenge, and doing this route on trad is just taking the challenge to the next level. He obviously has done the bolted route enough times that he felt that he needed to take it to the next level, and he succeeded, so hats off to him.
KeyesAnthony in my opinion, you shouldn’t go climbing a bolted line on gear most of the time. You run the risk of a fall causing gear to change the character of the features. Think if he had fallen on a stopper and welded it in a crucial hold that someone else finds to be necessary for them to send it? Not to mention that second #1 he placed. It looked sort of like a semi attached flake. I could be wrong, but a fall can cause a cam to dislodge very large features. This is arrogance and boredom in my opinion.
Hamish Donohoe that kind of hindsight doesn’t apply to climbing. You bolt a route and make a first ascent, your legacy stands. It deserves to be kept the same as when the FA was done for the most part, barring any kind of extreme circumstances. Just like it would be fucked up to bolt a trad line.
@semmtexx And placing bolts that permanantly alter both the rock and the character of the climb isn't arrogance?! Please! Climbing trad (I.e.; working with what the rock offers) is always preferable to bolting and bringing the challenge down to a "manageable" level!
I know this was a while ago but it's my first time seeing it. Pretty impressive in meeting Mr Perkins who is one of the most laid back people and seeing this kind of intensity and commitment. Really don't understand what people are trying to pick this apart for except a handful of climbers being "hard ass" trolls. But that's unfortunately typical I suppose.
so, kind of a rookie question. super new to climbing. how does he remove the gear? does he rappel and do it on the way down? and how would he get the last piece of gear used to rappel down? or does his friend follow him and remove it as he goes? and what does he use for protection?
He rappels down, he clipped the chains at the top that most likely have permadraws, but if not it has rap rings which he will be able to rap off of and get his gear. Then he would pull his rope through on the ground. It would no doubt be a little tricky to clean all the gear easily because its slighty overhanging, but nothing a quickdraw on the rope can't fix!
love to see hard guys foregoing bolts and relying on only gear they place - big up to this dude///// and on a 5.14 to boot - I climb low 11s on my on gear and am quite proud of myself.......I can't even climb bolted routes above 12a-b with a lot of hang dogging at that - what this guy accomplished is world class climbing to be sure!!!!
There is no point. Throughout my years of climbing i have often repeated lines using gear instead of bolts. IDK... Just wanted to see if it goes clean on gear.
I know I'm not there climbing but I feel like I see so many placements. There's horizontal cracks all over the place and little pods and vertical cracks again I'm not there so maybe they aren't usable but looks like there's placements to me
True, but if he’s using a 48” runner for example, the protection point is actually at least that far below the gear placement. Add the slack and stretch in the rope and he would fall way further than twice the distance he is above the gear should he blow it... A 15’ runout between gear could easily be a 45’+ fall... So a little exaggeration is warranted imho ;-)
@@dmtabke Yeah definitely. The runout was about 15' at maximum extent from the previous 48" runner, but at that point in the route there's gotta be way more slack in the rope so a fall could easily be around 30-40 ft.
John Muir-Addleman I doubt BD paid him anything for this, most likely he just mentions it because the specific gear used is important on hard gear lines
Hi Brent. Hope you are aware that this video is frequently referred to as "The best climbing video ever made." I certainly believe it's up there and have watched at least a half-dozen times.
I watch this video at least once every season out of the year. You keep putting yourself through that pain on the same route is masochism. And you seem so chill in your intro and commentary.
V Impressive. A. it sounded like you were near your limit, which is always impressive on natural gear (I'm a woose and climb Waaaaay below my peak on gear). And b. It must of been V tempting to clip any number of those shiny beacons of bolty safety. :o) and c. in the rain at the top!!!
@Mullac Odw Yep...and it was climbed without clipping any of those bolts...exactly my point! Some climbs should be "saved" until someone shows up with the vision and boldness to do the first ascent on gear. Yea, this guy may have needed to bolts to get the moves wired before this "trad" ascent, but at some point in the future, someone will have the ability to do a first ascent on rock like this, placing their own gear on-sight. I just think it would be nice if there were some unbolted lines left for these future climbers to showcase their abilities. Many years ago the Gunks community decided that this was a good idea, and as a result, there are some VERY hard lines there that are done with dicey natural pro.
@@johns3106 what if I climb 5.14, look up see this awesome line and want to climb it because like nearly everybody I'm no superhuman hard trad freak. In my opinion better to keep hard routes like these bolted to please 100s of passionate climbers than to please those 5 superhuman climbers in 20 years that aren't even born yet
@Mullac Odw What if I'm NOT a 5.14 climber, but I wan't to climb that line anyway...so; I chip holds, put in retro-bolts so I can aid it etc., etc. Hey, it is all to please me and the other climbers that may not have world-class skills, but want to get up this line anyway...Nope; I'd rather have it left for the few that can do it "legitimately".
@@johns3106 because ethics, chipping is frowned upon, if its not very clearly a line that will take gear (basically if theres little cracks and breaks) and its as hard as 5.14 bolt it. if its clearly a hard 5.14 crack climb leave it clean of course, but this guys only placing micro cams and running out 30 feet between very small crack features
He's nothing shy of impressive, that really inspired me haha, but it's a little depressing to think about the fact that sharma onsighted that... there are people out there that good lol, what am i even doing? JK, I climb because it's what I love to do and it helps me to know that I'm always pushing myself to something greater than I already am, but some people are absurdly good, its not fair lol
I'm aware, Sharma sport climbed it, but onsighting 5.14 is also a completely different level of skill. Like I said Brent Perkins is nothing shy of impressive and I by no means was trying to downplay what he did. Ive never trad climbed and I dont know that I ever will, seems too sketchy to me. So the fact that he trad climbed something that difficult is incredible, my bad if I was misunderstood.
Is it just me or doesn't he exaggerate almost every single bit of runout on this climb? Don't get me wrong there is some runout there but it doesn't seem as big as he keeps saying it is.
good for you man - wish there were more climbers like ya - my local crag has been ruined with a bolting craze these past fifteen years or so.....lines I put up trad in the 80s with lots of bomber gear now have bolts every five feet....I have thought about chopping them but I don't want to start some war with a bunch of kids - I am now in my 50s and I guess if the majority want to be safe who am i to dictate the rules but I do believe they should not have the right to alter an established route. When I put up a route 35 years ago that went trad, no one should be allowed to alter it to a sport climb without my permission - that is how I see it anyway.....in the guide book it even has some young kids name on it as the first ascent.....these youngins have no respect for those of us who spent years of summers cleaning these routes of loose rock and vegitation so they can climb there today - definitely the ME generation - more power to ya brother - great ethics and some fantastic climbing!
@Simeon Deming He could have rehearsed it on top rope, just like the sport climbers and rap bolters did! Let's not say that bolts are absolutely necessary on this line!
No. Dumb idea. "See. I went up this route using bolts, figured out the moves using bolts, saw some shit gear placements next to the bolts I was using so let's chop it so everyone has to use the sketch gear that I had the benefits of finding while on bolts."
Real guts. Rather watch this than a 5.15 with fixed bolts every two metres any day. As an old timer I'd recommend a helmet, a big leader fall could break a lot of repairable bones but smashing your skull is the real danger. But - good you again.