Bill Ramsey – Reverse Polarity
As has become all too typical with me, this ‘news’ is a little dated. About a week and a half ago (May 17) Bill Ramsey redpointed ‘Reverse Polarity’, a 5.14b (8c) rated route up at Mt Potosi, Nevada. This was a week before his 52nd birthday but let’s give it to him. 5.14b at any age is still incredible but at 52 that is inspiring for sure. Great job Bill!!
Here’s a quick video I put together.
Bill is by far the most focused climber I have ever met. I can’t even guess at how many times he tried the route, how many times he fell right near the top, how many times he pulled back on to figure out better beta or how many thousands of hours he spent training on plastic to make this redpoint a reality.
Bill on the crux move of 'Reverse Polarity'
At some point I will try to get footage of one of his training days. 6am wakeup, stumble to the coffee maker, go into his garage for some deadhangs to warmup, do a little training there, then off to the climbing gym for 3-4 hours then to the treadwall for another 2-3 hours before hitting weights to finish it off. I can’t even fathom it but clearly it works for him.
As much as Bill’s redpoint of Reverse Polarity was amazing it is his dedication to the sport that is truly inspiring. He claims he is done for now but I have a feeling there are quite a few 5.14 routes left in him. Annihilator???
Posted on May 28th, 2012 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Uncategorized
[...] Via Mike Doyle is this excellent video of Bill Ramsey, who turned 52 shortly after it was made, climbing on Reverse Polarity (5.14b) at Mt. Potosi. [...]
this is a very inspiring ascent from an old dude! helps me stay motivated to try increasingly harder routes as the years march by.
any idea on how many 14s bill has done? is this his first ‘b’ ?
It is definitely not his first ‘b’ but I have no idea how many 5.14s he has done. More than 20 just based on the ones I know.
I just watched this video. My first time seeing someone rock climb. I am completely floored at how difficult it appears. I can’t think of a single thing on the planet that takes as much ability to do. I’ve been an athlete, I’ve done hard things. But this looks like it must be the most difficult physical task known to man. Brilliant. I could NEVER do this.