 | Nowadays, soloing (without any rope and harness) above the water has become fashionable and relatively widespread. As evidence, there is a plethora of terms for this practice : deep water soloing, marine crossings, soledad en aguas profundas, DWS, psicobloc... Additionally,... Photo: Paul Pride |
a multitude of film works promote what Patrick Berault in Metamorphosis or Patrick Edlinger in the documentary La vie au Bout des Doigts initiated more than 25 years ago, including King Lines, Josh Lowell 's Dosage 2&3 and Peter Mortimer's First Ascent. DWS has developed a religious following. Its temples : Kalymnos (Greece), Great Britain, Thailand, Croatia, Vietnam. Its Gods : Chris Sharma, Tim Emmet, Matt Maddaloni, Neil Gresham, Klem Loskot, Miquel Riera. Its sacred items : a sexy swimsuit, climbing shoes, a chalk bag, a nutshell, a diving mask and a stick to gauge the depth, and a tide table. Its mythical roads: Es Pontas, Two Smoking Barrels, Metrosexual. Its demons: sharks, rotten rocks, jellyfish, breaking waves, cold water, beer, and shallow reefs.
The Myth of DWS
Despite what the DWS lobbyists strive to make you believe, this sport is not relaxing at all. First of all, get ready to climb wet: your shoes, unless you’re being sponsored by Five Ten or La Sportiva and have 93,384,984 pairs, won't stay dry longer than your first try, and only if you’re lucky at that. So, too, your chalk bag : H2O + MgCO3 = paste. Thus, it is a wild climb: feet skid, hands slip, ankles shiver, shoulders beg for mercy. Height also quickly turns into your enemy: you are stuck with it and, at 10 meters high, and ear-level heel hook is suddenly less appealing, since you're definitely not keen on falling and hitting the water in this position (family jewels and, if you’re a girl, it hurts your butt). Last point: the higher you climb, the higher you fall. Falling doesn't matter, but landing does. In Halong bay, you'll almost never find a way out on the top; no platforms or any comfortable walk off to aim for. Most of the time, the road will end with a big hold, a thorny bush, and a big steep drop..
The DWS sensation
DWS is a genuine way of climbing, a return to the origins. Welcome to the matrix of pure rock climbing. No drilling-machines, no hammer, no protection, no chance to pinch one's finger around the bolt when clipping (not that you do anyway), no rope, no harness. Only you, your fingers, your accurate climbing shoes (now wet), the cliff, the line, and the sea. Choose your wall, your path, let your body speak, keep focused, forget about the height and the likely fall, breathe, visualize the next move, cock, trigger, grip, link to the next move. Pure sensations. Welcome to a better world.
"Through climbing, I learn, little by little, every day, who I am. I am still learning and I’ve been climbing 15 years. There are many different aspects of such learing – knowing your body, knowing your spirit. For me, climbing is one of the ways to learn living."
Patrick Edlinger, 1992 |
