The ascent of Alex Honnold has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579.

Free Soloing with Alex Honnold has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'CBS, Alex Honnold, Free Solo, Guts, Brave, mountain climbing, Incredible' to 'CBS, Alex Honnold, Free Solo, Guts, Brave, mountain climbing, Incredible, 60 minutes' - edited by eric3579

Kudos to them.

Is what they are doing risky? Sure, but so is what Alex Honnold, Dean Potter, and Dan Osman do/did.

If you want to downvote this downvote every video of guys racing cars, jumping with wingsuits, and just generally doing very dangerous things.

I've been climbing for 18 years and watching this video freaks me out. The thought of doing it in real life is daunting.

He's like the urban Alex Honnold.

>> ^kevingrr:

No one is insane enough to try to free solo that - yet - maybe never.
Even for the world's strongest climbers 5.14d is going to involve moves that they have a low percentage chance of making. The exception being Adam Ondra who this year on-sited (climbed first time, no beta) several 14c's.
Still I can't see even someone at his level attempting a free solo like this anytime soon.
To put it in perspective Alex Honnold who is getting ALOT of press for free soloing typically is climbing very far below his max. That is - he solo's 5.12 routes but is a 5.14+ climber.
-Kevin

Care to explain the rankings?

Higher is hard presumably, but what do the letters/numbers after the decimal mean?

No one is insane enough to try to free solo that - yet - maybe never.


Even for the world's strongest climbers 5.14d is going to involve moves that they have a low percentage chance of making. The exception being Adam Ondra who this year on-sited (climbed first time, no beta) several 14c's.

Still I can't see even someone at his level attempting a free solo like this anytime soon.

To put it in perspective Alex Honnold who is getting ALOT of press for free soloing typically is climbing very far below his max. That is - he solo's 5.12 routes but is a 5.14+ climber.

-Kevin

My theory:
Seems these guys put the overcoming of fear as their biggest obstacle and why they do it, which is totally normal. Alex Honnold seems to focus on being 100% in control as his biggest challenge, probably because he has no natural fear of heights, which isn't so normal and is probably why he's far and away the best free climber alive.

I wonder if these guys treat Honnold like the pro pool player that comes into the bar and runs the table so often people just want him to leave.