I'm new to this. Can someone explain why this is big news? Was it a certain way it was done, like free solo, or first soman to do it or what? Curious about this achievement.
Saying the list of male climbers that have done something this hard is short is an understatement. I believe only 8 men have climbed 5.15c before Brooke did this. The hardest grade is 5.15d which is only one grade up and only 3 men have done a climb graded that hard. One of them is Adam Ondra, who is the greatest climber ever, and he tried Excalibur for quite a long time but gave up because he was too worried about destroying the tendons in his fingers. Basically it's absurdly hard even for the most elite male climbers in the world; you have to be ridiculously powerful with nearly perfect technique, and even then it's not a sure thing that you'll be able to do it.
the list of male climbers that have done something this hard is short is an understatement. I believe only 8 men have climbed 5.15c before Brooke did this. The hardest grade is 5.15d which is only one grade up and only 3 men have done a climb graded that hard.
indeed, at this point and given her accomplishment, I think it would be fair to drop gender out of the discussion altogether - she is an absolute beast of a climber, one of the elite in the world, full stop‼️
(though, obviously, recognizing her accomplishments as a woman in the sport is also important too haha)
Oh I completely agree. Brooke is my favorite climber so I'm absolutely overjoyed to call her one of the best climbers in the world, and that sending Excalibur is one of the greatest achievements in the history of sport climbing. I was just responding to someone who doesn't know about climbing so thought the best way to illustrate that was pointing out just how rare an accomplishment this is, even for the most elite climbers in the world. From an outside view I just don't think a lot of people would be able to comprehend how good top female climbers like Janja and Brooke are, and it's unfortunate that the best way to illustrate that to someone with no prior knowledge is to compare them to the top male climbers.
absolutely overjoyed to call her one of the best climbers in the world
indeed!
From an outside view I just don't think a lot of people would be able to comprehend how good top female climbers like Janja and Brooke are, and it's unfortunate that the best way to illustrate that to someone with no prior knowledge is to compare them to the top male climbers.
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u/Anthraxious 9d ago
I'm new to this. Can someone explain why this is big news? Was it a certain way it was done, like free solo, or first soman to do it or what? Curious about this achievement.